Whoa. “So you rage ate candy to piss your dad off? That doesn’t count as your favorite food. Okay, that’s it. I’m making it my mission to find something from the mortal world that you love.”
“Never going to happen. Now, my turn.” He opens his eyes, those silver irises like trapped mercury as he holds my stare, and takes the leaf from my hand. “What did you want to do with your life, before I dragged you to the Everwilde?”
Okay, he went serious right off the bat. I chew my lip, trying to remember my dreams before all this started. “I don’t know, I was so focused on keeping everyone fed and safe that I didn’t have time to think about much else. College, maybe? So I could do something that helps people.”
“That’s very noble of you.”
“What?” I bristle at the hefty dose of sarcasm in his voice. “You think helping people is naive?”
“No, I think it’s very human, and also useless in the Everwilde.”
This guy. I’m so tired of the Fae using the Everwilde as an excuse for their bad behavior. But I don’t want to argue, not when he’s being truthful, so I blow out a breath, snatch the leaf away, and continue. “What was the first thing that drew you to me, before?”
“Your smile,” he says immediately. “You were always grinning like you knew a secret, and I wanted desperately to know what that secret was.”
“And did you?”
“Yes, you’re deeply obsessed with me. Now, my turn.” He takes the leaf before I can argue, twirling it above his head. “Have you ever had a boyfriend, Summer?”
I nearly choke on air. “In the human world? No, I mean—no. A few guys asked me out, but I was too busy for that.” I reclaim the leaf. “When we were together before, did we, you know . . .”
As understanding dawns, a devilish smile overtakes his face. Slowly, he arches an eyebrow. “Did we make love?”
Holy crap, his voice just lowered two octaves, and he’s doing that magnetic thing where he looks me in the eye like I’m the most important person in the world.
Heat stings my cheeks, but I refuse to avert my eyes from his simmering stare. “Yeah.”
“No, we never had the chance. You wanted to get married first.”
“I did? That doesn’t sound like me at all.”
He reaches up, toying with an errant strand of my blonde hair. “What can I say? You wanted to lock me down as quickly as possible.”
Snorting, I almost smack his head and then think better of it, trailing a finger over the tip of his ear.
He freezes, a tremor wracking his body as a low groan slips from his lips. “You fight dirty.”
“And you’re a bastard.”
A wolfish grin curls his lips, showing off those perfect white teeth. “But you wanted to marry this bastard.”
Shimmer save me, I’m torn between strangling him and kissing him right now.
He chuckles, and we continue like that, interrogating and teasing one another until the sun sets. By the time Mack returns with Asher, we’ve gone well beyond the four questions.
Mack’s eyes widen when she spots Valerian’s head in my lap. “What the heck are you guys up to?”
Valerian glances up at me. “She doesn’t have the question leaf. Should we let it slide?”
We burst into laughter as Mack and Asher exchange puzzled looks, and I have the sudden, alarming realization that I could fall helplessly in love with this Valerian.
Not the Winter Court Prince. Not the heir to the Winter Throne. Not the Evermore I’m bound to by magic.
The beautiful, sarcastic, funny Valerian who bites his lip when he’s about to say something vulnerable and beams when I laugh at his jokes.
I don’t care what Eclipsa said, this Valerian could dare to love me.
And I him.