Shadows Beneath the Falling Snow by Cristina Rayne

Author:Cristina Rayne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fantastical Press

Chapter 6

To have her deepest secret presented to her so bluntly was so shocking that all Miriel could do was freeze, her mind stuttering to a stop in a mixture of panic and fear, but not only that, she was stricken.

He will no longer want me.

Walking together among the light displays, feeling such joy at being able to share one of her few treasured activities with King Kirion made her realize just how much she had allowed him into her heart tonight. A human was no kind of partner for the supreme elven king, no matter how much she now looked like an elf.

“Please do not be angry, Your Majesty,” Miriel begged. “My father only wished to protect me from censure. I know we should have told you especially, but—”

Kirion abruptly leaned down and silenced her with his lips. Miriel was so shocked that she remained still and unresponsive, her mind unable to comprehend what was happening. He drew away after only a few soft caresses of his lips, but he continued to cradle her face between his hands.

“I am not angry, Miriel,” he said quietly. “I knew from the moment that you and Elion stood before me yesterday in the throne room that you had a human soul.”

“You…knew…”

He nodded. “It is not widely known, but I can easily read the souls of others as though they were the souls of my own children.”

“Then why…” Miriel trailed off and lowered her eyes, unable to go on.

The king lifted her chin and commanded firmly, “Look at me.”

She reluctantly complied. The weight of those ancient eyes as they gazed upon her was almost too much to bear, but she forced herself not to look away.

“You think yourself unworthy of me?” he guessed. When she remained silent, he released her chin and gathered her into his arms. “Did I not already confess how much the essence of your spirit has drawn me to you? I thought of little else but you from the moment we parted in your garden. Knowing that you were once human only strengthened my desire to know you, to experience the world through the eyes of someone who was more than Sidhe.”

He sighed and hugged her more tightly against his body. Surprise and uncertainty kept her arms hanging loosely at her sides. “For one who has lived as long as me, your uniqueness is something I desire almost as desperately as my desire for a child, else I fear I may soon stagnate. No one else could be a worthier partner.”

“You should not think so highly of my potential,” Miriel whispered against his chest. “I shall only disappoint you.”

“That you truly believe so is the very reason why you will not.”

The king’s tone held a strange note, and Miriel lifted her head to look up at him questionably. The intense look in his eyes as Kirion stared down at her made her shiver in both apprehension and something like excitement. No one had ever looked at her with such intensity.

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