Page 9 of Beyond the Winter Kingdom (Faeted Seasons #2)

Meera winced, shaking her head. “Do we have to do this?”

“This?” I cocked a brow.

She motioned between us, seemingly irritated. “ This. Just ... not now. I’m focused on finding Sadie.”

“We are. Follow the yellow brick road.” I motioned in front of us. “I’m just suggesting we talk while we walk.”

She shot me a confused look. “How do you even know that reference?”

“Corvo is a bit of a cinephile. Guilty pleasure for him, I think. He made me visit your realm so we could watch it. Said it was a classic. Personally, I think the flying monkeys were more realistic than the humans.”

She shook her head. “Stop changing the subject.”

“Me? You’re the one changing it. Addressing that we’re mates clearly isn’t what?—”

She spun on me, heat flaring in her gaze. “I’m worried about my sister and not in the right headspace to deal with”—her hands gestured wildly between us—”this.”

I didn’t respond. I wasn’t sure how. We just kept walking, letting the tension stretch.

Mentally sifting through topics of conversation that she might consider benign, I thought about some of the books she read.

There had been one with a zodiac, and I knew enough about it to speak. “Okay, what’s your sign?”

She blinked. “My what?”

“Your star sign,” I repeated in feigned nonchalance. “I’m a Scorpio. You?”

Meera stopped short, cocking her head at an angle. “Are you fucking with me?”

With a slow, coquettish smile, I loudly whispered, “I would think after last night, you’d know if I was fucking you.”

My attempts at flirting with her failed miserably. Her expression turned from incredulous to murderous in an instant. “You know what I meant.”

“Do I?” I stepped up, leaving only inches between us.

Sweat gathered at Meera’s hairline. Her fair skin was flushed pink, almost like she was blushing—if she were able to blush from chest to forehead.

I worried about her skin in these conditions.

We were fae and could heal better and faster than humans, but we weren’t immune to sun damage.

“I’m a Pisces.” She stepped around me and resumed walking.

Even though I felt like I was drowning, I nodded with faux smugness. “I can see that.”

Her neck cracked from how hard she whipped her head to the side to stare at me. “What is that supposed to mean?”

I shrugged, letting the silence thicken. I counted to forty-three before Meera finally broke.

“So now I’m getting the silent treatment?”

“Did I say that?”

“You didn’t say anything!” She snapped.

“They’re highly compatible,” I finally answered. “Scorpio and Pisces. Also Pisces are prone to avoiding confrontation. So ...”

I wouldn’t have seen it, were I not watching out of the corner of my eye. Meera stiffened.

Instead of taking the bait, she asked, “How do you know? I mean, I know the fae zodiac is like a big deal to some people, but the human one?”

“My human anthropology tutor was just this side of obsessed,” I said, holding my thumb and forefinger apart with little space between them.

“She and my etiquette tutor liked playing matchmaker in my teen years. The number of times I heard that I should look for a Cancer or Pisces are too many to count.” I shook my head. Meera snorted.

“Did you?”

“Did I what?”

“Look for a Cancer or Pisces?” Her lips twitched with barely concealed amusement.

“No, I can’t say I did, though it seems I ended up with one anyway.”

And just like that, the humor faded from her expression.

“You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

“This?” I asked, biting back a laugh when her left eye practically started twitching. “The answer is no. The fact that you are is both unsurprising and disappointing.”

Her lips parted. A hint of guilt crossed her expression, but it was fleeting, and in its place came another rush of anger.

“I told you I’m not in a good headspace.

I woke up to find my sister is missing, and then I fell into a hell portal made by someone I thought was my friend. Why are you pushing this?”

My eyebrows inched towards my hairline. “You’re serious?

” I stopped and crossed my arms over my chest. “Let’s start with the obvious.

The fact is we are mates. Your sister is missing, yes, and we’re walking to gods know where for who knows how long because we were double-crossed by a witch, the one you thought was a friend.

All of that means something. If you’d rather fuck around with small talk like signs or how fucking hot it is here, I can do that, but I thought we had moved past that phase.

” Meera spluttered, opening and closing her mouth, but I held up a hand to stop her from speaking.

She didn’t want to talk earlier. Now it was my turn.

“We found out we’re mates with possibly the worst timing imaginable, Meera.

I know that. Is it so hard to believe that I want to check on you and how you’re processing this?

Hear what you have to say about it? Given your avoidance on the topic with your family, I’m not exactly feeling confident about where you stand with things right now.

” Some of the anger started to seep out of her.

She bit her bottom lip, tugging it between two teeth as uncertainty played through her expression.

“I assumed you were going to push on the subject of where we go from here,” she said quietly. She wasn’t wrong that I wanted to talk about that, but I knew she wasn’t ready. While I was all in, it was painstakingly obvious Meera needed more time to adjust.

However, avoiding the subject entirely wasn’t doing us any favors.

“You know what they say about assumptions.”

She grimaced. “I suppose I deserve that.” She started to pick at her nails while we spoke; a nervous habit I’d noticed during our time at the castle.

“You’re going to hurt yourself,” I said softly. She paused, and I motioned to her hands. “Picking. You’ll go too deep. Last thing you need is for it to get infected here.” Her cheeks darkened as her hands fell to her sides.

She sighed, dropping her gaze and taking a moment to gather herself. “I get really grouchy when I’m hot.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m guessing that’s the precursor to an apology?”

“Something like that.” Pressing her lips together in a small smile, she looked away in thought and I measured the time by counting seconds in my head.

“I don’t know how to feel about the whole mate thing,” she finally admitted, returning her attention to me.

Meera kicked a small black rock with her boot and started walking again.

“I thought fated mates weren’t even possible anymore.

Everyone said the curse took that bond away. ”

I nodded slowly, keeping pace beside her. “It was generally believed to be that way, yes. The fated bond wasn’t common to begin with, but after the curse took effect ...”

“Does this mean the curse is breaking down?”

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “No one would love that more than me, but after nearly forty years, it’s hard to believe that it would suddenly start to unravel.”

She inclined her head toward me. “You’re scared to hope.”

“Can you blame me?”

Her hazel eyes were soft when she glanced at me. “No, but stranger things have happened. I mean, we dreamed of each other for years ...” Her voice trailed off, and I suspected where her train of thought went. “I guess it makes sense now.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” I said. “I haven’t known or heard of fated mates who dreamed of each other before they met.”

Meera kicked another rock, strolling at a slow speed.

Between the taxing suns and the topic of conversation, every bit of energy we had was being drained, but it was still better than walking with all of this hanging between us.

“You said they weren’t common though, yeah? How many fated pairings did you know?”

“A few,” I said softly, picturing my sister’s face in my mind and feeling a pang of sadness. “I swear, no one was as strongly bound as Drayden and Maeve. The elements rejoiced at their pairing. You could feel it in the air when they were together.”

Meera frowned. “I’m surprised he even survived ...” She swallowed hard, then winced like it was painful.

“Physically, he did. I imagine that had something to do with the fact that they hadn’t completed the bond yet. Emotionally, he didn’t. Whatever light once existed in him died along with her.”

“Why ... why did they wait?” she asked.

“They wanted her to go through the transition first.” I remembered the fights they had over that.

The halls of the palace shook when Maeve fought with him.

“In truth, it was really Drayden who wanted her to. He had it in his head that if they completed the bond before she came into her full powers that it might hurt her.”

“Would it have?”

I shrugged. “Honestly? I have no idea. Our father believed it would.”

She squinted. “Your father was insane, though.”

“He was,” I agreed. “But he was also a genius and incredibly charismatic. He had a way of selling his ideas so they didn’t seem as bad.

He favored Maeve, too. She was the heir to the throne, and his firstborn.

Before he killed her, you never would have guessed at his plans.

It wasn’t so crazy at the time for Drayden to think that he was right about Maeve and how it would affect her.

” I shook my head. Out of everyone, Drayden was the person who had been blindsided the most that day, and he paid the price.

It was no wonder he didn’t trust anymore.

I fully believed the only reason I had his loyalty was because of my relationship with my sister.

“You said Drayden wanted to wait. Did that mean she didn’t?”

I nodded. “Patience wasn’t my sister’s strong suit. I also think she was more affected by the strain it put on the bond.”

“Strain?” she asked, and the odd note in her tone didn’t escape me. Her toe caught the edge of another rock and Meera stumbled. I grabbed her arm to steady her.