The Fae Queen

Chapter 2

"Onyx! What are you doing? The estate dinner is starting any minute!" The castle's cook, Robert, yelled at his head waiter.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Onyx grumbled, dropping the ladle and moving away from the stew that was bubbling on the stove.

"I swear, I wonder where your head's at half the time." Robert shook his head.

"What can I say? The smell of my father's cooking distracts me." Onyx shot his dad his signature smile and Robert huffed,

"Get your apron on." He said,

Onyx strapped on his white apron and followed the rest of the staff out the door to the kitchen. His hands were empty, but his mind was controlling at least half a dozen of the trays flying around the dining room. He carefully settled the trays down on the huge wooden table and turned to leave when a scent caught his attention.

He froze and whipped around. The entire room seemed to slow down until there was no one left but her.

Onyx had served dozens of these stuffy estate dinners, seen the king and his niece, the fae princess, a million times over the years serving on the kitchen staff. His father's been the castle's chief since before he was born. His mother died in childbirth, and so he was raised by the nannies and an overworked father. Although he was in no way on the same level as the princess, he was raised alongside her.

And yet, here she was, looking like he had never seen her before. Her raven black hair framed her warm, cocoa colored face and her plump lips were painted a bright red. Her eyes were dark like the endless abyss of the ocean and framed by thick, black eyelashes. It was clear that she was in another world entirely, focusing intently on her salad and stabbing at it viciously.

Onyx smirked at her intense expression and he suddenly had this overwhelming urge to make her smile. He thought back to all the memories he had of the princess and realized that none of them included a real, genuine smile. She had the weight of the world on her shoulders and her eyes were so full of some sort of intense emotion that he couldn't name.

He glanced behind him and saw a vase full of roses. An idea struck him and he focused on a single flower, willing it to rise from the vase and float quietly through the air. It landed on her lap and she jumped, startled, but no one seemed to notice her reaction. It was funny, Onyx thought, that no one was paying attention to her when she was the only one he ever wanted to look at for the rest of his life.

Her head snapped up and her eyes instantly locked with his. He bit back a laugh at her accusing expression. For one single second, her eyes softened and a tiny smile played on those delicious lips. Her scent hit him again, the sweet, floral smell of roses.

"Princess Lili?" Someone broke the spell and she whipped back around towards the table.

Onyx grit his teeth together, resisting the urge to beat the life out of whoever took his mate's attention away from him. He wasn't a violent guy by nature, but he certainly was a protective one and this woman had just become his number one priority.

The only issue? He was pretty sure she had no idea he even existed and she wouldn't, not until she turned 18; something he had done two weeks ago which explained the sudden realization of who, or rather what, the princess was to him.

"What are you doing?" One of the other waiters grabbed his elbow and shoved him back through the kitchen door, "You're staring."

"These dinners are getting old." Lennie, one of the younger waitresses, complained.

"Get used to them, they aren't going anywhere." Ford, the waiter who had pulled Onyx away from the dining table, laughed humorlessly.

"It's just a day for the stuffy diplomats to talk up their egos." Echo, one of the bakers, scoffed.