by May Dawson
“Buy me a hoodie, if you get the chance, please,” Alisa told Tiron.
He ruffled her signature lavender hair. “We’ll see what we can do.”
I was still frowning at Azrael. “Why don’t you wait with Alisa, and I’ll negotiate for the horses?”
“Because you always piss someone off.” Azrael gestured at Alisa. “You already piss her off, so there’s nothing to be lost.”
“I could stay here on my own,” she offered.
Azrael and I both scoffed at that at the same time. Alisa ducked her head, hiding her smile. Tiron didn’t manage to.
I glared at them both, then shooed Azrael and Tiron away. “Go. The fewer of you I have to deal with, the better.”
The two of them trekked off, heading down the hill toward the village. I watched them go, feeling oddly nervous to be left alone with Alisa.
“We should use magic to change my hair,” she said, teasing her fingers through the strands. “Make it brown like it was in the mortal world. I know some people will see through the magic, but it’s worth a try, right?”
I grunted.
“You are an amazing conversationalist, has anyone ever told you that?” She plunked herself down on a fallen log, propping her chin on her hand as she stared at me. “Probably not, hmm?”
“I don’t manage to pretend to be interested in fashion even with people I like, Princess.”
“And who is in that august club, exactly?”
I shrugged.
“Mm. I see you have an expansive list.”
“I like people who are quiet,” I hinted.
Several Fae kids, up at dawn like the feral animals that all Fae children were, streaked past us as they headed deeper into the woods. Their laughter and voices rose in the air. Two of them stopped briefly to stare at us, then returned to darting into the woods before I had the chance to shoo them off.
“Do you think we were ever that innocent?” Alisa mused. “It’s strange to think about.”
“They’re probably going to tear one of the creepers out of the trees and eat it raw,” I said. “And yes. You were exactly that level of innocent: small and predatorial, annoying and terrifying, all in equal measure.”
“Why are you like this?” she asked me without any particular heat. “Were you dropped as a baby?”
One of the Fae children doubled back, staring at Alisa curiously.
“She’s no one,” I said. “Go away.”
The little girl frowned at Alisa, her brow puckering, her hair tangled around her face.
Then her eyes widened with recognition.
Alisa was already saying, “No, no, no—” right before the little girl dropped to one knee.
“Princess,” the little girl said, her voice full of awe.
“Please don’t do that,” Alisa said, taking the girl’s shoulders and gently pulling her to her feet.
The little girl stood, staring at her for a second, then suddenly lunged at Alisa. I automatically jumped forward as if she were a threat, but the little girl just wrapped her arms around Alisa’s neck.
Alisa smiled in surprise, but wrapped her arm around the little girl’s waist. “Oh. Okay.”
I raked my hand through my hair. Great. We’d been captured by a tot who still had her milk teeth.
“Are you here to help us?” the little girl asked. “With the monsters? And everything?”
“What monsters?” Alisa gently untangled the girl’s arms from her neck, but crouched eye-to-eye with her, her expression concerned. “What…everything?”
“We’re not here to help,” I said. “Just passing through.”
“Shush,” Alisa told me without looking at the girl.
Maybe we weren’t too far from the coast for a sea monster to scoop me up and drown me. It sounded like a happier fate by the moment.
“You’re going to help us, right?” the little girl asked her. “Prince Faer hanged my mother for the rebellion. But everyone says you’re going to make things better.”
“Oh,” Alisa said, her eyes widening.
“Get out of here,” I growled at the imp. “And don’t say things like that to everyone you meet. You don’t have any sense.”
“Shut up,” Alisa warned me, giving me a look that seemed like it should make my balls shrivel up. “I put up with you grouching at me, but leave the child alone.”
I turned my back, wondering when the hell Azrael and Tiron would get back with those horses. Maybe they could wander back before the whole village marched out to fuss over Alisa.
“I’m going to figure out how to make things better,” Alisa promised the little girl, and I snorted. “I’m so sorry about your mother.”
“She was a really good mama,” the little girl said wistfully. “Faer didn’t kill my da. He owns the local pub.” She gave Alisa an appraising look. “He’s pretty handsome, actually.”
What a little schemer. No wonder she and Alisa were drawn to each other.
“Ah, I have my hands full in the romance department at the moment,” Alisa said with a smile.
“That’s new to me,” I cut in.
“What’s your name?”
“Jori.”
“That’s a beautiful name,” Alisa said. She looked so full of sweetness just then, with her lavender hair loose around her shoulders, kneeling in the dirt.
Someone whistled from the woods. The little girl paused and whistled back, clear notes trilling out of her mouth, rising up and down the scale. I used to whistle to my brother like that when I was a kid, and it felt like a half-forgotten language of childhood.
“We’re picking mushrooms,” Jori said. “My brother wanted to be sure I was safe.”
“You should go find him,” Alisa said.
She nodded. “Will you be here when I get back?”
“No,” I said.
Alisa gave me that look again. Another whistle rose from the woods.
“I’ll look into this monster business, I promise,” Alisa said.
The little girl smiled warmly at her, then went running off to pick mushrooms with her friends.
“Will they be all right in the woods?” she asked as they disappeared into the forest’s shadows. She rose to her feet, dusting her hands off on her pants.
“Yes. They might not be able to count without using their fingers yet, but they’ve got much more sense than you.” I frowned at her. “You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“Who said I can’t keep them?” she demanded loftily.
“What are you going to do? Overthrow Faer?” I laughed at the idea. She wasn’t capable without her memories, and once she regained them, she’d be a different person.
Her chin rose. “If he’s really that awful. Yes.”
She was so stubborn and willful and fierce. If only I could trust she’d use that power that burned inside her for good, like I once believed she always would. As she faced me, the dappled light filtered between the branches and fell on her face, washing her skin in gold and shadows. She was so beautiful.
I couldn’t trust myself with that beauty. I said flatly, “He’s your own brother. Your twin. The two of you used to adore each other.”
She stared at me, her lips tightening. “Well, you’re the one who said I don’t understand about family.”
Oh, she remembered those words. They must have smarted. She certainly didn’t seem to remember a damn thing I told her otherwise, or at least, she never cared to listen.
“You’re not going to overthrow Faer,” I told her. “And once you get your memories back, you won’t even want to.”
“We’ll see.” The words were fierce. She closed the distance between us and poked a narrow finger into my chest. My brows rose. “I’m not going to argue with you anymore. It’s like arguing with a rock.”
“Good,” I said, but I was still heated, and I couldn’t quite calm myself down, especially when she looked so damn relaxed and pleased with herself.
I demanded, “Do you think you coul
d avoid making any more outrageous promises about how you’re going to fix the Fae world a week after you got here? When you’re basically a mortal on the inside now?”
Her brows rose. “A mortal on the inside? And what makes me mortal on the inside?”
Before I could answer, she smiled to herself. “You wouldn’t know what I’m like on the inside.”
Then her eyes widened. “Or do you? Did we ever have sex, Duncan?”
“Are you done?” I asked her. “Are you done monologuing? Can I be part of the conversation again now?”
“Well, the conversations are just so much more pleasant without you,” she explained. “Did we, though?”
I shook my head, refusing to answer, then huffed a laugh. Our past didn’t matter; the true disaster was the deadly labyrinth of our future that stretched ahead of us.
“The real kicker about Faer,” I said, “is that the old Alisa could totally have outsmarted him. You’ve always been too clever to be decent. The old Alisa just would’ve done it for her own reasons. Now here you are, far sweeter, far worthier of the throne, and you aren’t capable of taking it. That’s why you shouldn’t make promises.”
She stared at me, and I expected her to grill me about how I’d slipped, about how I’d admitted she was worthy of the throne.
Instead, she asked, “Did we, Duncan?”
“I hate you,” I said, which had to be answer enough for her, right before I pulled her close.
She came into my arms as if she’d been waiting, and her lips brushed mine, as sweet and tempting and wicked as the first time.
My lips parted against hers, my hands wrapping tight around her hips. She pulled away just enough to look up into my face, studying me.
“Hate you too,” she promised, but then she was kissing me again anyway. She pressed her lips against mine and her body too, her lithe figure searing to mine as if she couldn’t hold any part of herself back from me.
I teased my tongue across that pouty lower lip, then sucked it into my mouth, rolling it between my teeth. She let out a soft moan that vibrated through my mouth, through my body, throbbing straight to my cock.
She shoved me back suddenly against a tree. I slammed into the rough wood because I hadn’t been expecting her to push me, but then she was on me again, her hands sliding along my waistband, up under my shirt.
I kissed her back just as fiercely. My hands found her hips and I turned us both around, shoving her against the tree in turn. I nudged my tongue between her lips just as I shoved my knee between her thighs, wanting to be as close to her as I could be, as if the two of us could occupy the same space.
I knew I should stop, but the spark had ignited between us, and I was going up in flames. I could barely breathe, I just wanted to drink her in.
Someone whistled in the woods nearby. Not a child’s whistle—it was Tiron, whistling a bawdy tune the same way he did when he washed his clothes in the barracks.
I pushed away from her, but there was no denying what we’d been doing; her lips were beestung, her cheeks flushed, those lavender waves wild around her heart-shaped face. And I knew I must look just as undone.
If they hadn’t interrupted us, I might never have stopped kissing her.
She stared at me, biting her lower lip, and I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. I wasn’t sure I’d even want to know.
“This doesn’t change anything between us, Princess.”
“Of course it doesn’t.” She plastered her hair behind her ears, her posture straightening. “I’ve known you were in love with me since we met, Duncan. And I knew you’d go right back to pretending, even if your control slipped for a second. You’re nothing but predictable.”
I scoffed at that, but Tiron and Azrael emerged into the clearing, so I couldn’t tell her just how wrong she was.
I strode toward Tiron, my face blank, though I was sure I could do nothing to hide the way her lips had bruised mine or how painfully hard my cock was, straining at the front of my trousers. I barked, “Did you manage to get some decent horses?”
I dared not look back at her.
Alisa’s gaze had always brought me to my knees.
Chapter Two
Duncan
Seven Years Earlier
I knew my brother could be a fool, but I didn’t understand how he failed to notice his roommate was female.
To be fair, she’d fooled the whole school.
I only realized it when the two of us were locked up together in the ring at the academy. She was slight, but so are all the winged Fae.
I never felt clumsy despite my height and muscle, but when she slipped under my arm and came up smiling, I almost stumbled. She was impossibly fast.
She flipped her head, tossing her short lavender hair out of her eyes. I’d met Faer before when we were children and I knew he was fine-boned, that the two of them shared angular cheekbones and full lips and the unusual hair that belonged only to the high royals of the summer court. Faer and Alisa were twins, and although one was male and one was female, they looked eerily alike.
But there was something about her smile that made me feel a lurch of feelings I’d never felt before, and I knew.
I stopped and stared at her, frozen for a second. There were no females allowed at the academy. She was in grave danger if anyone else realized who she was. Or, perhaps we were all in danger, if she’d run away from Herrick and he decided to come after her. The summer king shared her easy smile, but he had bloody hands.
I might have stopped moving, but she never did. She dashed in close to me, and I moved too late. Her narrow body slammed into my side, her full weight barely rocking me, and I almost smiled. Futile effort. I was practically twice her size.
I didn’t register the way she twined her leg through mine until the room was revolving.
I landed hard on my shoulders, already rolling to one side. She tried to follow up, almost managing to fall on top of me, but she was too late. I was already back up on my feet as the two of us squared off again.
The crowd of students surrounding us shouted wildly, fists pumping the air. When I glimpsed Azrael’s face, he looked stunned. He hadn’t expected his slender roommate to put up such a fight, I’d bet.
In our first fights, I’d quickly established myself as the best fighter in the first year class. Azrael always clapped my shoulder as I came out of the ring. He never said anything—he was almost as stingy with praise as our father—but unlike our asshole patriarch, Azrael couldn’t hide his pride anyway. It reflected in his deep purple eyes and the way his lips tugged faintly upward at the corners. And I never would have admitted it, but it lit a glow of answering warmth in my chest. I needed someone to be proud of me for once.
This damned girl who didn’t even belong here was trying to take that from me. Trying to take it for herself. In a flash, I could see how Az would look at her instead, not even knowing that she didn’t belong here.
She dove at me again, and I twisted to one side. She was so quick that she managed to make me stumble, but I caught her by the back of the neck. For just a second, she was wide open. I could bring my fist down on her face or punch her in the back of the head, and she would slam to the ground on her belly. I’d hurt her so badly it would shock the breath from her lungs, wipe that perpetual smug expression from her face. Then it would be easy to pin her and win.
I pulled back my fist, but I couldn’t do it. That second’s hesitation was all she needed. She dropped her weight, rolling forward. As she somersaulted out of my grip, she lashed back with her legs, catching me around the throat. I grabbed her calves, ready to slam her into the ground, but she was already shimmying up my chest before my fingers sank into her skin. Her thighs locked around my throat as I tried to pull her legs apart.
The pressure on my throat turned the world black around the edges. I fought to get her off me, listening to the sounds of our fellow students celebrating a new best. They were chanting Faer, the suckers, the absolute suckers, the same way they’d
shouted Duncan in every match before. I fell to my knees.
The pressure on my throat was instantly gone. But the world still tilted around me through a pinprick of light, my vision dark at the corners. She was on her feet in front of me, a jubilant smile lighting her face. That smile was all I could see.
She was so beautiful, even with her hair short as a boy’s.
I hated her.
I wanted to hate her.
I could unmask her, and that would be the end of her time at the academy. She wouldn’t get in my way again.
She turned and offered me a hand up, and I leaned on my thigh instead, rising wobbily to my feet.
“Great match,” she said cheerfully.
I grunted and headed out of the ring.
“Oh, be a good sport, Duncan,” Azrael chided. His voice was still muffled, but his light tone did nothing to improve my mood. He clapped my shoulder, but he was already looking behind me for Alisa. He didn’t even bother to turn toward me as he muttered, “You can’t win every match. It wouldn’t be good for you.”
As Alisa stepped out of the ring, he said, “For once, I’m almost not embarrassed by you, Faer.”
“You love me,” she said, in that light tone.
“I barely tolerate you,” he said, ruffling her hair. He didn’t smile—Azrael hadn’t smiled much since our mother grew sick—but his eyes crinkled at the corners as if he might.
And she grinned enough for both of them, that big smile that lit her face.
I headed for our room, my feelings a riot that was so intense, they seemed to press against my chest. I was hard, despite being choked out, after being so close to her. But that wasn’t all I felt.
Shame. Desire. Humiliation. Curiosity.
People were watching me, curious about how I’d react after being defeated by the summer prince, the greatest enemy of the fall court.
I already had a feeling it would be easier if we were facing an enemy than…whatever that damned girl might be.
Chapter Three
Alisa
