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Did she…did she just want to spend time with him?
Finishing the terrible test with a perfect score, Pollux opened Kassandra’s email again, pulled up the directions to the ice skating rink she had sent, and found the website.
Several minutes later, he was stepping into Faerie, dodging the other inhabitants—who were kind enough to wave and smile at him while they cowered—and marching his way to Cael’s office.
It was late.
But of course the workaholic couple was inside beyond the secret bookshelf door that only opened when the right book was tilted out of place. The “right book” changed frequently, but Cael never forgot to send Pollux a letter with each update.
Plucking the right tome, Pollux eased the door open to find Alana sprawled on the floor, stomach down—like a starfish—and dark wings flittering gently from her back. She was asleep, dreaming. The sensation of the dream plane called to him, teasing pictures of scandal in anime art styles, but he skirted adamantly away from tainting her fantasies as he locked eyes with Cael.
Seated at his large desk, the moth prince angled his chin toward Pollux’s plushie. “First kittens and now…bumblebees? I understand finding one’s mate is liable to change someone, but this is unexpected.”
Pollux paid the comment zero heed. “I need a thousand dollars and a phone call.”
Cael’s eyes sparkled. He thread his fingers together above the pages covering the dark wood before him. “Do share the details of your mischief if you’ve come all this way to petition it outside court hearing hours.”
“I want to rent an ice skating rink for Meda’s class next Sunday. It’s a field trip. I’ve been asked to chaperone. I’d make the call myself, but you’re more well-spoken than I am, and I don’t want to.”
The moth prince hid a laugh in a cough.
Pollux scowled. “What?”
“Why is renting the entire rink necessary for a field trip?”
“I’ve seen the deprivation of humanity at horrific levels, but I’ve just been made aware that the tiniest things—the things I might miss—may be indications of ill intent as well. Also, I can’t get the image of a child falling on the ice and many of the other humans with blades strapped to them being unable to stop themselves before—”
“Okay.” Cael lifted a hand. “I understand. You’re overprotective. A thousand dollars and a phone call to book the rink is no problem if that’s all it takes to calm your frazzled nerves.”
“You believe I’m overreacting?”
“I believe your mate and those children will be thrilled to have an entire rink to themselves. How you got them to that end matters little.” Cael smiled, brilliantly. “But, yes, you are overreacting so extensively it’s adorable. It’s rare I get to see you ruffled.”
“Kassandra has sparked access to many emotions I’m unfamiliar with at such a depth I can hardly identify them. She cares about those kids. A lot. I’m afraid of making a mistake when she’s put me in charge of them.”
Cael’s brows rose. “My. Afraid? She cripples you to such an extent you now know the taste of your own fear? What is she, Pollux? You refuse to tell me, just as you refused to explain why you needed a kitten when last you asked for my help in retrieving one from that breeder you found online.”
Something in Pollux’s chest tightened. “I still do not wish to share that information with you.”
“Surely you don’t believe I’d worry about another unseelie taking root here. I am coming to terms with my own emotions concerning what we are. I trust your mate will be as fit for our eclipse as the rest of us.”
Pollux stayed silent and traced the wing of his bee.
Cael hummed. “Well then. Understand that I am willing to support you, in whatever ways you will let me.” Pushing his dark hair back over one long ear, he dragged a fresh page to him, dipped his quill in glittering crimson ink, and said, “Who am I contacting first thing tomorrow morning and exactly which time am I booking for you?”
After Pollux relayed the necessary information and left Cael’s office, he meandered a moment at a palace window that overlooked Winterfeld, the nearest community in Cael’s domain. Beyond the glass, at the end of the long path that connected the community to the palace, buildings rose from the landscape in bright hues. The crystal dwellings, serving as shops and homes, rested neatly among a collection of thick trunks that served similar purposes.
Pollux had seen Winterfeld from afar before.
He’d seen it recently when he’d attended Cael and Alana’s wedding at a distance that kept him from troubling the happy throngs.
Once, long before it looked the way it did now, he’d entered the cobble streets, perused the storefronts, and secured lunch from shaking hands. Once, he’d decided he would never return if it meant he’d be a blight on the community’s peaceful lives.
Fear was a weapon.
So he was a weapon.
In Kassandra’s presence, everything he’d come to know changed.
