I want it to feel right.
It would just be so easy to be with Kenton—to go along with this entire plan they’ve laid out for me from the beginning—to let go of all my resistance and stubbornness and…
And what? Virtue? Morality? Compassion?
Who am I kidding? I am who I am, and no matter how much the elf I’m kissing might look like Orlando Bloom in his Legolas getup—no matter how many butterflies I feel or don’t feel when he smiles at me the way he does—no matter how I much pity him after learning about his late wife and his witnessing of my parents’ murder—I’m not going to change.
It’s not going to feel right.
For a second, I kiss him back. Maybe it’s the hair; maybe it’s the stories he’s told me. Maybe it’s my innate, human desire to feel loved.
But it only lasts a second, and then I h
