Her lips pursed. “Are you feeling all right?”
“Answer the question. Please.” I didn’t give a toss if I was no longer attractive to any other woman except this one. She hadn’t seemed startled or confused when she saw me, but she’d been with me when the curse broke. Was she trying to spare my feelings? If she told me how she used to see me, I could live under a glamour.
“Tadhg. You look the same as you always have. Straight nose. The perfect amount of stubble. These pointed ears that hear everything, even words I don’t say. Sinful mouth that I cannot stop kissing.” Her lips grazed mine, still such a tantalizing sensation, to feel this sort of connection without the fear of having her keel over afterward.
That was true love. Seeing a person for who they truly were and loving them anyway.
This called for a celebration. And I had just the thing. With a flick of my wrist, a basket appeared on the end of the bed, filled with goodies I’d gathered after shifting the cottages.
Keelynn let out a delighted squeal and lifted the lid. “What’s in this?”
“Presents.”
“More than one?” She withdrew a pink and white pastry box. “Peach cobbler?”
I nodded. “From a bakery in Oakton.”
“You went to Oakton?” She laid the box onto the bed. “I thought you were shifting cottages?”
“I did that too.”
“You had enough magic for both?” She pulled out another box, this one blue as a robin’s egg.
“I did. And that’s pear and almond tart with berry compote from Longshadow.” My mouth started to water when I smelled what was inside.
Her eyes expanded. “That’s a long way away from Oakton.”
I caught her by the hips right when she reached for yet another delicious treat. “I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but I am quite powerful now that my curses have been broken.”
Her smile was more stunning than any sunset. “Oh, I’ve heard.” Her gaze returned to that basket. “Are these from—”
“Graystones,” I finished, plucking one of the sugarplums from the box. “I remember you saying you used to eat them when you were little.”
She withdrew four more boxes and arched a quizzical brow.
“Rhubarb pie from Burnsley, salted caramel fudge from Achad, shortbread biscuits from Swiftfell, and spice cake from Windwick.”
“You’ve been a very busy prince.”
And yet I’d never felt more energized. “I’ve been all over this country and all I could think about was returning home to you.”
“So you’re not too tired?”
My teeth grazed the slender column of her throat. “Too tired to strip you out of this dress and have you for dessert?” I grinned against the goosebumps erupting over her skin. “Never.”
14
AVEEN
How foolish I’dbeen to believe I could bend Rían to my will through bargaining. I supposed I should have been grateful that he didn’t send me directly back to Hollowshade.
Although, from the way his shoulders stiffened and jaw ticked each time I entered a room, perhaps that would have been better. He never smiled anymore. I felt no longing or desire rolling from his rigid frame, only anger and fear.
As much as I loved the tiny cottage he’d given me, I didn’t want to return to that empty house. Not when everyone I loved was in Tearmann, fighting for their land and the Danú people. I had magic, dammit. I should have been able to help them in some way.
Instead, I got to slink around and stew.
We were broken, and with him keeping this distance, I didn’t know how to fix us. I’d gone to his room almost every night, ready to throw myself at him, but each night I had talked myself off that ledge. He wouldn’t appreciate how pathetic I had become.