Page 49 of The Mortal Queen

“They’re equally at risk of the Unseelie’s wrath,” Filverel said, “if not more so.”

So, it was just as she’d feared. If only she could speak with Nemed. If only he’d reply to her letters.

“But fret not,mo Lúra,” Filverel said, reading her expression once more, “you’re going to help.”

Aisling’s heart leapt. “What do you mean?”

“We need the Unseelie to acknowledge our attempts at reconciliation and there’s nothing the Unseelie respond to better than their own appetites,” Filverel continued, his words laced with sadistic delight.

Galad crossed his arms. “You’re going to help us negotiate with the Unseelie.”

“You’ve showcased your talents well, a vibrantperfume to the trow and then the Cú Scáth. So, this will be your first opportunity to serve the Sidhe as their new sovereign, luring the Unseelie from their hiding.” Filverel beamed. “The perfect bait.”

Aisling met Lir’s gaze, her chest rising and falling rapidly.

“We leave tonight,” Lir said, downing the rest of his wine without another glance in her direction.

CHAPTER XVI

Aisling paced back and forth in her chambers. Gilrel, on the other hand, busied herself assembling both her own and Aisling’s belongings for the journey. She worked alongside a red fox: Liam, he’d said his name was. Lir’s first squire who’d be accompanying them on the trip. None of the knights had specified how long they’d be gone but it was evident enough that it wouldn’t be for a handful of days. No, they’d implied weeks, perhaps even months depending on howresponsivethe Unseelie were.

Aisling stripped off her gown in the bathing chambers and donned the leathers she’d worn earlier that day. Already she found herself accustomed to their movement and fit. But none of that could assuage the fear bubbling in her stomach, the fury that the Sidhe would use their own queen as bait, theexcitementof embarking on such a perilous quest. The latter threatening to implode the mortal queen should she halt her pacing, the beat of her fingers on her thigh or the gnawing of her bottom lip.

The door creaked open, the scent of fresh pine sweeping into the room. Aisling startled at the sound, clutching her chest as she reached for Iarbonel’s dagger.

Lir stood at the door, his hands in his pockets, his hairmore ruffled than it’d been before.

Although the mortal queen didn’t think it possible, her heart thrashed more heavily against her chest. Blood rushed to her ears.

Lir entered leisurely, as though afraid Aisling might startle should he move too quickly.

“Liam, Gilrel.” He addressed his squire and her lady’s maid, his voice like mulled wine. “Will you give us a moment?”

Liam bowed and Gilrel curtsied, flashing one last glance at Aisling before she brushed past Lir and into the corridors beyond.

It didn’t take long for the fae king to meet Aisling’s gaze, dragging his feline eyes across the floors swept with leaves, the bed sheathed in gossamer, and the terrace doors strangled by vines, till they landed on the mortal queen. Against her own volition, Aisling shivered.

“You’re already dressed,” he spoke first, pacing nearer. “Several of my knights will be disappointed to know they’ve already lost their bets; they believed you’d be scaling the side of the mountain in escape by now.”

“How often they forget my duty to my own kingdom.” Aisling opened her terrace doors. “Despiteyour savagery, this is my fate, my role to play for my kind.”

And with each of Lir’s steps forward, Aisling resisted the urge to step away.

“If I’m to die in this plot of yours, then I imagine you’ll be swiftly repaid by my father. A variable you aren’t unaware of.”

Cruelly, Lir grinned, sliding his fangs along his bottom lip.

“Or,” Lir purred, the moonlight washing his fine features as he cornered Aisling onto the terrace, “do you secretly enjoy this?”

The small of Aisling’s back bumped against the cool edge of the railing. A railing wrapped in garlands of honeysuckle and baby’s breath. A single barrier preventing Aisling from plunging into the surrounding canopies, the oceans of clouds,and the twinkling fae city that lay beneath.

“Enjoy what exactly? Your barbarism? Your foods that would drive my mortal self mad upon consumption? Your people’s palpable disdain for me? Or perhaps the fact you so willingly risk my life as though mortal breath means nothing to you? Even your queen’s?” But as soon as Aisling said it, she wished she hadn’t.Yourqueen. She was no such thing and the flash of mischief that graced his eyes the moment she spoke the word aloud was enough to make Aisling rue it all the more.

“You believe a queen’s breath more valuable than a commoner’s?” He taunted, caging Aisling on either side of his arms, gripping the railing. He tilted his head down to meet her gaze, forcing her to lift her own lest she appear afraid, withering before the fae lord her body could no longer deny she feared. A terror Lir likely smelled for it attracted him closer, enjoying how her body tensed when in the presence of his own. And the longer Aisling resisted, the greater the game to him.

“In regards to you, it’s not the queenship that would make such a breath more valuable. Only that it so happens that the queen, bound to you by political union, breathed it.”

“Thatwouldmake you more important to me,” he said. “So much so, that I wouldn’t risk your mortal life.”

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