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Queen? The words hit me hard. I wasn’t a queen, but I would be soon. How long after the revel would the wedding follow?

Harry exited with the crowd, casting one last concerned glance at me.

I stomped back to the king's bedroom.

As instructed, he hadn't moved. He looked up at me, blinking those helpless green frog eyes of his.

I met his soft gaze with the intensity of the sun’s burning rays. "Now are you finally going to tell me what in the twelve kingdoms is going on here?"

Forrest, the bullfrog, stared up at me and sighed deeply. It was strange, watching a bullfrog do something so human.

CHAPTER 31

The Fae King

Icould hardly believe my own ears.

Out in the entryway, my human bride was defending me ferociously. She was lying for me. Even after everything that had transpired between us in the hot springs, she was still willing to protect me. Even after all my secrets, deceptions, and omissions. Somehow this tentative thing between us, hot and passionate, but so fragile wasn’t yet broken.

Unfortunately, our power dynamic had just taken a massive swing. Georgia could leverage this knowledge to get anything she wanted from me, and she was smart enough to know it.

Several minutes later, she returned and latched the door shut behind her. She placed one hand on her hip and stared down at me.

Oh, horror upon horrors. My moment of doom was upon me. Now that she knew my secret, what would she do?

With her hands on her hips and fire in her eyes, she demanded, "Now are you finally going to tell me what in the twelve kingdoms is going on here? Why did you make me turn those men away? Why are you"—she paused and gestured at my amphibian form with disgust—"like this?"

I let out an involuntary "ribbit." How mortifying. "Are they gone?" I asked.

"Yes," she confirmed. "I told them you would turn them into a smudge on the castle floors if they didn’t depart at once. I also told them Harry would resolve their land dispute. Hope you don’t mind."

Of course, I had heard everything. Not only my ears were sharp. My hearing was twice as good as a human’s. I tried to keep things light, chuckling at her words. Unfortunately, it came out as another anxious "ribbit." "You really said smudge?" I asked.

She jutted her chin upward. "I did. But I think we have bigger issues at hand."

Still, I didn’t speak. What should I say? What did she suspect?

She stared at me for a long moment, appraisingly. "You’re stuck in this form, aren’t you?"

Slowly, I nodded.

"For how long?" she asked.

I felt my small frog body sag. "Years," I admitted.

"But I’ve seen you as a man." Her cheeks flushed for a moment, and I knew she was thinking of our time in the hot springs. She had seen all of me.

"I am cursed by day. At sunfall, I return to my true form."

She cocked her head to the side as if concentrating on a very difficult math problem. "I’m not sure I understand. I thought shapeshifting was common among fae. Rosie takes on a rabbit form, does she not? The selkies become seals."

I shook my head. "It’s not the same. The changes are painful, and I can’t control them. This form is far too weak. I am a king who could be defeated by a rival’s boot. I have limited use of my magic in this form. Flying a letter to you on the breeze is about all I can do. So, I am forced to hide and make excuses. I risk offending diplomats by neglecting their visits. I scarcely ever travel outside of the island. I delegate all morning appointments, even important ones."

She sat down on the edge of my bed and ran a finger down my back. Was she petting me? She did it once more, and I was sure. My human bride was trying to comfort me.

I felt my heart swell with emotion. This outcome had never once occurred to me. I had imagined countless scenarios over the years. If someone found out, I thought they might toss me against a wall, squash me with their book, capture me in a terrarium, or even fry me up for lunch. I thought they might use my secret to force me to relinquish my crown or wage war on neighboring courts.

Never in a thousand years had I expected someone to just sit with me in my grief and be my friend.