“RYDER.” MY WORD CAME out choked but recognizable. No wonder his lips quirked upward, the vision far more heady five inches from my nose.
“Darlin’. I wasn’t aware we’d been introduced.” He c****d his head and I remembered that, no matter how right his arms felt around me, we hadn’t officially met. He’d seen someone he wouldn’t recognize as me back in the library, then I’d learned his name while peering into the Queen’s mirror.
Before I could verbally backpedal, however, Ryder continued: “But I’m exceedingly pleased to make your acquaintance.”
As he spoke, he carried me out of the water. There were stars above us. Stars and a moon that I’d only previously seen on earth.
The moon’s glow made our surroundings visible. Not Faery. A river. A parking lot with one lone motorcycle in it. A por
