Elf_Shot by Amy Sumida

Author:Amy Sumida [Sumida, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-03-30T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Two

I spent a tense evening with Raza at the high table. Normally, he'd invite a few other people to dine with us. Seeing me holding Tiernan's hand must have unsettled him, though because we were eating alone. Oh, he conversed with the rest of the hall, calling out good-natured comments to his people and his new allies, but there was a distinct boundary around us. Obvious enough to prevent any but our servers from approaching.

“I was just comforting him,” I finally said.

I had spent fifteen minutes playing with a few kuperis who had come to light our table, and Raza had sat and stared at me through all of it. A clawed hand on my thigh and one wing curled around my shoulders. It should have felt safe, pleasant. Instead, it felt awkward. Possessive, and not in a good way. I had the strangest feeling that he was going to snatch me up and fly out a window with me.

“I realize that,” Raza whispered.

I found it very telling that he knew exactly what I was referring to.

“So why does it feel like you're upset with me?” I looked up into molten, gold eyes.

“I'm not upset with you,” Raza sighed, his wings finally folding away. “I sense something stirring around us, something which feels a lot like fate, and it... concerns me.”

“I don't believe in fate,” I shrugged.

“Yes, you do,” Raza's hand clenched briefly on my leg. “You don't want to believe in fate, but you do.”

“Raza... sometimes I feel like you drug me kicking and screaming into this relationship.”

His hand fell away.

“I loved Tiernan, and yet, slowly, you wedged your way into my heart,” I stroked the glowing kuperi before me, then nudged it gently back towards its friends. “Then I loved you both. That has haunted me. The fact that I could love him, and still fall for you. I felt fickle and disloyal. Dishonest. And sometimes I wonder if you can see it,” I looked to him. “How could you not? I loved Tiernan, but I still went to you in the end. You must think me incapable of being true to one man. So, why do you love me?”

Raza swallowed hard, his gaze flickering to Tiernan before settling back on me.

“I don't believe that love is finite,” he said. “Nor do I think you fickle or incapable of being true to me. I think the heart, with all of its layered emotions, is complicated. Loving one person doesn't negate the feelings you have for another. The fey have long recognized this, and that's why we don't put restrictions on our relationships. No limits and no judgments.”

“But I didn't want that; an open relationship,” I whispered. “Tiernan didn't, and now you don't either.”

“We decided to go another way, to focus solely on each other,” Raza sighed deeply. “But that doesn't change what you feel.”

“I'm sorry,” I whispered. “I want to be with you. I've made my decision. I'll get over Tiernan. I just needed to be a friend to him tonight.

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