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He looks down at my finger, like I personally offended him. And then I see the corner of his mouth curl.

He steps deeper into my space, his chest brushing mine. “Are you sure you want to know my secrets, cherub?” he says. “They will cost you much more than a wrist full of beads.”

“Des, I just want answers from you.”

I’m surprised to see his eyes deepen with excitement. He picks up a lock of my hair and rubs it between his fingers. “What can I say? Fairies can be incredibly jealous, selfish lovers.”

“You should’ve told me.”

“Perhaps I was proud to have my wings out,” he admits, setting my lock of hair back down. “Perhaps I enjoyed the way you looked at them and the way others looked at them. Perhaps I felt things that I haven’t felt before.”

As he speaks, his wings slowly unfurl. And with each word he says, my irritation dissipates. In its place is something more uncomfortable. Something that makes my heart ache.

“Perhaps I didn’t want to tell you only to find out that you didn’t feel the same. I know how to be lethal, Callie. I know how to be just. I don’t know how to deal with you. With us. With this.”

“With what?”

He’s still being cryptic, even now after he promised to tell me his secrets.

He runs a finger along my collarbone. “I haven’t been wholly honest with you.”

This isn’t exactly a shocking revelation.

“There was a question that you asked me,” he continues. “Why now? I’ve been gone seven years, Callie. So why do I come back now?”

I furrow my brows. “You needed my help,” I say. The mystery, the missing women. He’d been very clear about that.

He laughs, and the sound has an edge to it. “A lie that became the truth.”

Now I give him a strange look. If not for that reason, then why?

He touches my cheek gently.

“Callie.” It’s not so much that he says my name as it is the way he says it.

His wings spread fully out, the span of them stretching across his living room. The things are huge. “A fairy doesn’t show his wings to his betrothed.”

He slides his hand behind my neck, his thumb stroking my skin. “A fairy shows them to his soulmate.”

Chapter 23

May, seven years ago

After the dance,Des walks me back to my dorm, disappearing only long enough to slip past the girl manning the main desk in our lobby.

Now he hesitates at the threshold of my room, looking conflicted as hell.

Rather than question the look, I grab his hand and tug him in, closing the door behind him. I drop the hem of my dress, which I’ve been carrying since we left the dance, afraid to dirty it any more than I already had. It’s the prettiest piece of clothing I’ve ever worn.

I run my hands nervously down the bodice. “Thank you,” I say quietly, staring down at my feet.

Des doesn’t respond, but I feel his eyes on me. Those wicked, calculating eyes.

“Tonight was…” Something from a dream. I can still feel the way he held me when we danced, “wonderful.”

The Bargainer sits down heavily on my bed, running his hands through his hair.

I wait for some reaction, but it doesn’t come.