“I knew you were there.” He glanced at her. “I knew you were there every time before that too. I thought maybe if I waited you’d come out of your prison and join me. I wanted you to love the desert like I do. I wanted you to be happy here.”

“I am. Now.”

“Because of the mortal?”

Rika nodded.

“If I say no, will you challenge me?” Sionnach asked. His voice was more cautious than she’d ever heard.

“You’re my friend.”

“Is that a no?”

Rika still didn’t have an answer to that question. She’d thought about it, but she had no desire to be in power. That wasn’t her goal. All she wanted was happiness. She settled on saying, “I don’t want to fight you.”

“You’d win.” Sionnach flashed her one of his mischievous smiles. “We both know that.”

“You’d leave the desert if you weren’t Alpha,” she half said, half asked.

Sionnach shrugged, neither agreeing with her nor denying her claim. He picked up a rock and tossed it into the distance. They both watched it hit the ground before he stood and brushed the sand from his legs. He glanced down at her. “You should tell him what you are. I’ll do the same.” He touched his misshapen ears. “I suspect the look of me without a glamour will convince him faster than anything you say.”

Rika came to her feet and impulsively hugged Sionnach. “You’re a good friend.”

“Not always,” he murmured.

She laughed. “For a faery, you’re amazing.”

He said nothing as he walked toward the gap in the rocks that would lead to the more open desert. He stayed silent as they walked toward Silver Ridge. It was only when they were almost at the town that he stopped her with a hand on her arm and said, “Don’t forget that you are fey too.”

At that, Rika stared at him, mouth open but no words coming to her lips. She knew what she was: she’d been mortal for less than two decades and faery for much longer. She wanted to argue with him, but all of her words were close enough to lies that they dried up before she could utter them.

“You have held yourself apart from us for years, Rika. Tell your mortal what you are, but stop hiding yourself away from the fey who live here.” Then Sionnach gestured back at the land they’d just crossed. “Bring him to your den, princess. I’ll be there to help him believe you.”