Page 69 of A Lady’s Guide to Fae Kings

“I have something to show you,” he said gruffly. “If it’s not too late.”

“I cannot sleep,” she admitted. She would have murdered for a cup of tea.

“What was that?” he asked immediately.

She blinked. “What was what?”

“Your expression changed.”

“Oh.” Was that all? Surely it did not warrant such notice. “Nothing.”

“Pippa.”

She huffed a breath at the scolding edge to his tone, the tone that made her toes curl despite herself. “You really are very vexing.”

“Yes. You already knew that.”

She wrinkled her nose. “I was only thinking I would like a cup of tea.”

“Is that all? You only have to ring for Hedgewort.”

“Hedgewort is over three hundred years old,” she said.

“Aye.”

“I am not going to wake a three-hundred-year-old hob with a bad knee in the middle of the night to make me tea. Honestly. And I would make it myself, but…”

“The fire in the kitchens,” he finished for her.

“Yes,” she admitted, somewhat embarrassed. “Magical fire listens to me even less than regular fire.” She rubbed her arms. It wouldn’t do to be a coward about this. There were only so many days between her and the Labyrinth. “I do promise to try in the morning, when I’ve had some rest.”

“I will fetch you tea.”

She stared at him. “A Fae king is going to fetch me tea?”

“I can manage tea, love.”

She was suddenly perfectly warm from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. No tea required. “You don’t have to.”

“I want to,” he replied, just as softly. “After.”

She paused. “After what?”

“After this.”

He led her down a long corridor glittering with ice to a tall, arched door and waited for her to step through. His cheeks looked a bit ruddy and his throat moved as he swallowed.

The Fae king was bashful.

She nearly smiled.

But then the lamps lit one by one, banishing the shadows.

Pippa squeaked with absolute bone-deep outrage. She was vaguely surprised that flames did not leap from her mouth. Or her eyes.

“You…monster.”