Page 38 of A Fate of Ice and Lies (Fated #1)

I winked. It was hot. So hot that I still throbbed in places when I remembered those words.

“Girl, you better make sure you’re up to date on your birth control,” Ryenne tossed out. “Unless you want a cute, little half-fae baby.”

“Nope, I’m good,” I said quickly. “Between Tori and the end of the world. . . yeah, no half-fae babies. My three-month prescription came in before this shitshow happened. Daniels is working on getting more.”

And if the prayers of many local women were answered, he’d be able to get some soon.

Everly’s light complexion grew paler. Her eyes stayed wide while she poured herself another glass.

“You okay?” I asked her.

She gave me a jerky nod and took another long drink. “I- I’ve never had female friends before.” She waved a hand in the air. “I wasn’t aware ladies spoke about such things.”

I snorted. “We’re far from being ladies, but we can stop talking about all this if you’re uncomfortable.”

“No, no.” She took another big, very unladylike swig. “I-I want to be part of this. I want to have your friendship, and maybe I could tell you more about me and George?”

Ryenne rubbed her hands together. “Yes, girl. Tell us everything.”

Everly spun her glass slowly on the table. “Do you want to finish what you were saying about Elias?” she asked me, her eyes wide as she tapped the side of her glass.

Although I’d barely drunk much from my first glass, Ryenne topped me off before refilling her glass.

“Not much to tell really,” I said. “We’ve kissed. He’s said these beautiful, incredible things. I know he likes me. I know he wants to go further, and I do too, but he said he can smell my fear and that he wanted to wait until I wasn’t afraid of him anymore.”

“Ted.” Ryenne lowered her glass and stared at me with a look of disbelief. “If he can smell your fear, does that mean he can smell when you’re turned on?”

My eyes widened along with my mouth while my heart kicked up in speed. “No,” I said slowly.

But could he?

“Shit.” I turned a pleading look toward my best friend and Everly. “No, right? He can’t smell that.”

It was Everly’s turn to laugh hard. The wheezing kind of hard, where tears spilled down her face. Ryenne was the first to join her, and although I wanted to hate her for betraying me and laughing at my dismay, I couldn’t help but laugh too .

“He can absolutely smell your arousal,” Everly said between fits of laughter.

“I hate you both,” I said into my glass before I took a small sip.

Ryenne lifted her drink toward Everly, and they clinked their glasses together.

This was why I never wanted to leave my home. There were so many memories in the kitchen. In the living room. In my old bedroom that Victoria now slept in. In the yard and woods.

My cabin had soul and love.

Listening to my two friends laugh, I grabbed them a glass of water each and one for myself and made them drink before they went back to their mimosas.

“One hangover and you swear off drinking,” Ryenne griped.

I rolled my eyes at her. “I’m drinking, just not getting drunk.”

“At least Everly’s fun,” she said.

“Fun now, until another hangover hits.” I balked at the memory of my last hangover.

“Apparently, we got really drunk the night all this snow happened,” Ryenne explained to Everly. “We don’t remember any of it, but we woke up with the worst headache. I couldn’t even move my head without wanting to cry in pain.”

Again, Everly paled. She drew her brows down and pressed her lips into a thin line. “You don’t remember anything?” she asked, her voice small.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let you get that drunk,” I told her.

With a nod, she spun her glass again.

Something was up with her. Maybe it was like she’d said and she’d never had female friends before. Or maybe whatever was going on with George bothered her. Or maybe it was something I would never hear about.

But I could be her friend. Try to ease whatever was on her mind.

“So”—I waggled my brows at her—“tell us about George,” I sang out again.

Her lips spread into a breathtaking smile as she pushed a strand of her silver hair back. “I like him,” she said shyly. “I’ve liked him forever or”—she shook her head—“not forever. It feels like forever, but we’ve only known each other for two and a half months, right?”

I understood that. Sometimes, it felt like I’d known Elias forever too.

“But I don’t want to like him.” She drew her brows together.

“How come?” I asked.

She shook her head again, a look of devastation crossing her features. “We both agreed nothing could come of us. He has his duty to the king and queen. He’s protecting our world and can’t be distracted. Even if . . . Do you believe in soul-bound mates?”

Her question caught me off guard. While Ryenne snorted, I considered it. I had to at least think about it when Everly looked so crestfallen yet hopeful.

I wasn’t sure, though.

The idea of two souls bound together by fate was beautiful, but it also made me feel like the choice to like someone wasn’t ours but up to destiny. I wanted a choice in who I liked and who liked me.

“I don’t know,” I told her honestly. “What would it mean to have someone as your soul mate?”

“His soul would recognize yours,” she answered, tapping her fingers on the table. “Like two pieces in a puzzle that fit so perfectly, there’s no space for anyone else.”

It was an incredible thought. An incredible dream. For two people to fit, to belong. But still . . .

“What if you don’t want the person who destiny says is your soul mate?” I wondered.

Her expression fell, and for a beat, pain flashed deep behind her eyes. “You reject him.”

I rubbed my palm over my chest, which ached for some inexplicable reason. “Do you think George is your soul mate?”

She lowered her eyes to the table but didn’t say anything.

Silence stretched between us. There was so much she didn’t want to tell us. So much left unsaid.

I wanted to comfort her and reassure her things would work out. Tell her what Mom used to tell me—how nothing was ever the end until we were six feet in the ground. And until that moment, there was still hope.

But I wasn’t sure she wanted hope. She seemed resolute in their decision.

And I could somewhat relate to that. The fear of falling more for someone—a fae, no less—who could depart our “realm” as suddenly as he’d appeared.

She might feel bonded to him but be unsure if he’d want her for the rest of her life too.

But it made me want to know more about Elias’s parents, the king and queen George served so valiantly.

A stupid but catchy party song filtered from Ryenne’s phone. She stood and reached for both Everly and me.

“We need to dance this shit out,” she said.

I pulled Everly up to stand and bumped my hip against hers. Holding my hand, Ryenne lifted her arm, and I twirled beneath it. With a laugh, Everly started dancing with us.

It didn’t take long for the hurt behind her eyes to fade away and shine with the happiness we’d found at that moment.

We took turns shuffling through Ryenne’s music library and kept dancing. Singing pretty horribly, too.

That was how Elias found us—laughing and shaking our asses while we sang out of tune, sometimes with the wrong words.

Elias’s grin grew wider than I’d ever seen it. He took my hand and spun me around a few times before he cupped my lower back with one hand and used his free hand to capture mine. He pulled me to him, close enough that I rested my head against his firm chest.

Then he danced with me. A waltz maybe. I did my best to keep up with him but mainly stepped on his toes—not that he seemed to mind.

He beamed down at me as if the only thing he wanted at that moment was me in his arms. I couldn’t find any fault in that. It felt . . . right.

“Is this what you ladies have been doing all day?” he asked, loud enough for my friends to hear.

“If you mean having a testosterone-free day, where we competed over who has the bigger ding-dong,” Ryenne said with a mischievous grin, “you or Nate, then yep. That’s exactly what we did.”

I laughed, and although I couldn’t see her, I was certain Everly was blushing again.

“We didn’t do that,” I said.

His hand slid beneath my shirt to run his fingers over my back. I pressed myself closer to him, where he swayed us side to side.

“Wouldn’t be a fair competition,” Elias retorted.

“You’re right.” Ryenne smirked. “I’m sorry fae are cursed with such tiny”—she pinched her forefinger to her thumb—“such tiny, tiny little men.”

Elias’s laugh shook his chest, and it made me happy that he could take Ryenne’s taunts without being offended.

“Such tiny, tiny. . .” Elias drew a single brow up.

“Tiny cocks,” I whispered.

His eyes flashed black, and I grinned when his fangs pulled down.

“Trouble.” He shook his head. “You are trouble.” He leaned down to kiss my nose.

I patted his chest. “Okay, old man.”

“This kitchen just got way too small,” Ryenne declared. “We’re taking this party downtown.”

She grabbed what was left of our mimosas, and with a quick peck on my cheek, she ushered Everly outside.

“Wow,” Elias huffed out. “I didn’t know I could clear out a party that quickly.”

“One of your many qualities.”

My front door opened enough that when an older song from the nineties came from the other side of the door, I laughed. It was one of Mom’s favorite songs to torment Ryenne and me with when we’d talk about boys in my room.

Elias stared at the door in disbelief when the lyrics said something about making love until dawn.

When the chorus came on, I belted right along with it. From the other side of the door, Ryenne did the same.

Elias watched me with such tender amusement.

When the song finished and Ryenne closed the door, Elias picked me up as if I was weightless.

He commanded Hee-haw off the couch, who simply snorted at him and resumed sleeping.

He finally listened when I threatened to feed him to Nalari, and after another derisive snort, he stalked toward Victoria’s room.

“Have you eaten anything?” he asked me.