Page 26 of Beyond the Winter Kingdom (Faeted Seasons #2)

“Only because I was there,” Damon muttered, flicking water from his sleeves.

Sadie narrowed her eyes. “Oh yeah, because our savior, the fuckboy prince, jumped in after us and magically saved the day.”

Damon’s nostrils flared. “Redcaps.” He took a long, deliberate inhale and turned, stalking ahead without another word.

Sadie blinked. “What the hell does that mean?”

I shrugged. “I think it means he needs a minute before he calls you stupid? Guess it runs in the family.”

She snorted and looped her arm through mine.

“They’re so dramatic,” she muttered.

“Yeah ... are they?” A hint of guilt taunted my thoughts. If I was so sure they were in the wrong, why was it there?

“They are. Pretty sure the ladies in Faerie aren’t the do-it-yourself types and they don’t know how to handle that kind of female independence,” Sadie said, firm in her assessment.

After a moment of silence, she changed the subject without even pretending to segue into the topic. “So, you and the king?”

I lifted both eyebrows in her direction. “You and the prince?” I shot back.

“Oh, come on. I would never.”

“Need I remind you that you were dating the witch who threw us both in here?”

“Incorrect,” she said firmly. “Not dating. Just friends with benefits. You were friends with her too.”

I sighed. “Yeah, well, look how well that’s turned out for us.”

“Hey.” Sadie bumped my shoulder with hers in a caring manner. “Amelia fooled us both. We’re not talking about her right now, though, we’re talking about you and Vareck.”

I inhaled a deep breath and let it out, blowing a raspberry. There was no escape from the conversation. “What about us?”

Sadie squinted at me, disbelieving. “Seriously? You’re fated mates. That’s huge .”

“Yeah ...” I trailed off. “Huge.”

“You don’t sound excited about it.”

“I ...” How could I explain it to her when I couldn’t even explain it to myself? “It’s not that, exactly.”

“Then what is it? Because the guy is totally crazy about you and he’s hot as hell.

I love you, but like, you’re living a fantasy right now and don’t seem to see it.

The man you’ve been dreaming of for years turns out to be real, and he’s single, and he wants to commit?

” Sadie let out a low whistle. “I’m not looking for anything serious right now, but if I was, I would jump at the chance you have. ”

I sighed. “I know I’m lucky, okay?” Frustration bled into my tone despite my attempt to keep it at bay.

“It’s just ... look, Amelia was our friend, right?

And our friend shoved us into a hell realm where the inhabitants want to eat us, and honestly, we have no idea why she did it.

How good a judge of character am I? I trusted Amelia, and I have no idea how long she’s been playing us.

Hell, I even trusted Lou to an extent. Look where those choices got me. ”

Sadie’s brown eyes softened. “Meera, you made a mistake. That doesn’t mean everyone you meet is going to double-cross you.”

I snorted. “This from the woman that only casually dates because the idea of settling down hurts too much after Klaid the Fuckwit broke your heart, what, six years ago? Seven?”

Sadie inhaled sharply. “That’s not fair.”

“All I’m saying is pot, meet kettle,” I motioned from her to me.

“Mating isn’t like marriage. It’s forever.

Being fated on top of that?” I shook my head.

“At least when chosen mates get together, they’ve usually spent enough time together that they feel confident that they know the other person. I’ve known Vareck for like two weeks.”

“You dreamed of him for years.”

I rolled my eyes. “We weren’t exactly talking in those dreams.”

“But you were getting to know each other,” Sadie teased, a smirk curling her mouth.

I nudged her with my elbow. “Stop. You know what I mean.”

“What? I’m just saying, the body does talking of its own.”

“Sadie.”

“What?”

“Shut up.”

She threw her head back and laughed like she didn’t have a care in the world. Like we were back home on one of our hiking trips and I’d just busted my ass walking on flat ground. Like we weren’t in a hell realm we might never escape.

I swallowed hard, pushing that thought away.

“You’re scared,” she said after a short pause.

“I’m no expert, but I am ninety-nine-point-nine percent sure that’s normal.

Mom was always talking about our emotions and being allowed to feel our feelings, right?

Fear is normal.” Although she paused, I could sense she wasn’t done talking, so I didn’t say anything.

“So feel it, but if you let it control you, then you could lose out on something really special.”

I pressed my lips together. “How do I know it’s not a mistake? That what I feel for him now, I’ll feel in a year? A decade? A century? We live over five-hundred years, Sadie. That’s a long time to just make the decision on a whim.”

“But it’s not a whim,” Sadie insisted. “Meera, you’ve been a romantic all your life. You read those smutty books where the girl gets kidnapped and forced into marriage all the time. How does it work out for them? Must be good or you wouldn’t keep reading.”

I scoffed. “Those are stories. That’s different.”

Sadie shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. Fated mates were just stories too and now you’ve got yourself one. All I’m saying is, if the universe picked one person out of the nine realms and slapped you upside the head with a bond saying, ‘this person is the one,’ maybe you should listen to it.”

“You’re awfully pro-mating for someone who has been against it her entire life.”

Sadie snorted. “To be fair, it’s easier to give advice than take it.

For another, I don’t have a similar experience to go off of.

The boy I thought I’d mate and spend forever with turned out to be a serial cheater who couldn’t pick up his dirty underwear off the ground.

I’ve gone from one bad decision to another since then.

Mating isn’t in my cards. At least not anytime soon, if ever. ”

I bumped my shoulder against hers, chastising her negativity. “Don’t say that. You never know what’s waiting for you out there.”

Sadie shrugged. “I’m not mad about it. Before Klaid, all I dreamed of was becoming a great fighter.

He threw all my plans off. Once he was in the rearview mirror, I refocused on that goal.

But you’re not like me, Meera. Even as a kid you used to daydream about Mr. Perfect.

While I was out there picking fights and throwing punches, you mated your dolls, choosing which other doll you thought was their best match.

You had a list, remember? What you wanted in a mate.

You were so excited to fall in love, even before you understood what it meant. ”

I shuddered. “Ugh, don’t remind me. It’s embarrassing to think about. Even so, I grew up, and it turned out that men are”—I glanced toward Vareck, who was probably a hundred feet ahead of us—”complicated.”

Sadie laughed. “It’s not just men. Women can be a handful too, but they know how to find a clit.”

I choked on a snort. Vareck paused, his shoulders going rigid. He looked back, scanning me from head to toe. I waved him off and after a suspended moment, he turned back to walking. “I can say with absolute certainty that Vareck doesn’t have that problem.”

Sadie grinned. “You’ve been dreaming of him for years. I’d damn well hope he knows where it’s at after all this time.” We both stifled our laughter, holding it in as much as possible, which just made it all the worse. My side cramped up and I grasped it.

“Fuck, you’ve given me a cramp.”

“I’ve given you a cramp?” Sadie demanded, clutching her own stomach. “Way to place the blame.”

“Least I’m blaming you for being funny.”

“This is true. I am hilarious.”

We both gave it a second to catch our breath, and I intentionally put a few more paces between our party. “So, have you and Damon hate-fucked yet, or?—”

Smack .

“Okay, okay,” I said, rubbing at the spot on my bicep she’d just backhanded playfully. “Still working toward the deed, then.”

“I wouldn’t touch that playboy with a ten-foot pole.”

“Okay, Grinch.” I rolled my eyes, glancing at the mark she left on my sunburned arm. It wouldn’t sting as much if I hadn’t been halfway cooked from our trek through Eversus the other day.

“I’m serious. After Klaid’s fuckery, I learned my lesson. No more players for me.”

“What did you say about making a mistake?”

“Oh, I made a mistake,” she agreed wholeheartedly. “Dating. That’s the mistake. Friends with benefits is the way to go.”

“Oh yeah,” I said sarcastically, waving my hand at the scenery. “That’s worked out so much better for you.”

Sadie frowned at me. “Amelia played us, but at least I wasn’t trying to have a relationship with her. Could you imagine how much more this would suck if that was the case?”

“True ...” Once again, my thoughts turned to Vareck. I wanted to say yes. To give in to this mate bond and whatever craziness came with it. But Sadie was right. I was scared. Mistakes like my friendship with Amelia made it hard to trust that anything but family would last forever.

“Do you remember what Mom and Dad said when we were growing up, about mating?”

I scrunched my face, immediately recalling the awkwardness of the sex talk when I was young. “I’m assuming you aren’t talking about when they sat us down and fumbled through ‘the talk’, so you’re going to have to be more specific.”

Sadie laughed, shaking her head. “Oh gods, definitely not. Not that. Just the process of choosing a mate. They met at a gathering. Mom was there to compete against the other redcap females in the Fae Games. They weren’t from the same town, but they decided to make a go of it anyway after the games.

Dad followed her when she left Odenhal to move on to the next leg of the competition and six months later they mated. ”

“Right,” I nodded. “Mom and Dad were lucky, though. They’ve said that time and again.”

“You know what they also said?” she prompted, glancing between me and Vareck. “When you know, you know.”

I swallowed hard on my now dry throat. “What if you’re not sure?”

“Then take your time and make sure that’s not the fear talking,” Sadie said quietly. She hesitated before adding, “Otherwise a good thing might slip through your fingers.”