Page 109 of Bride of the Fae Prince

This is why I didn’t tell her every ploy I was considering for this meeting.

I needed her fear. Her true fear. I need her doubts of me written plain across her face.

Plain for the High King to see.

He sets his jaw, turns on his heel, and marches back up the dais. “I’ll consider it.”

He’ll . . .considerit? But there’s hardly any time for consideration; the warriors are to deploy tomorrow. I mask my confusion and the surge of desperation behind another sneering grin.

“I am honored, dear Father. See you at the banquet.” Then I sheathe my knife, let go of Stella’s wrists, and take one of her elbows as I turn on my heel and march toward the doors. She scrambles to keep up beside me, her breathing ragged.

The air shifts.

With a rough yank, I pull Stella to my other side just as a bolt of pure magic slices through where she’d just been. It smashes into the floor, sending blackened chunks of marble flying in every direction. Her eyes widen in my periphery, but I don’t look at her. Neither do I look back at the High King, at his raised palm.

The guards open the door, and I drag Stella through and around the corner. The doors clang shut. Maybe I should be relieved. I’m not.

“Ash?” she demands.

I’m getting her out of here. Before Lulythinar. Clearly, if she has magic, it’s nothing remarkable. If it was, she wouldn’t have been able to hold it in after an episode like that. Earlier, for one glorious moment, I’d thought she could smell lies, which would have been an invaluable asset to her. But then it was only a perfectly timed coughing fit.

If she can’t even smell lies, what is her magic?

I need to give up. All this time, I was so wrapped up in vengeance, in making my father pay for what he’s done. But all this time, I didn’t have anything to lose. Not like I do now.

Now I have everything to lose.

Stella is wrong about me. Iwillbreak. Iambreaking. It’s enough—the death, the bloodshed, the rebellion, the games. I’ve had enough. I’d rather use my favor from the Neverseen King to set Crenfyre on Faerie—and just watch as that parasite sucks the life out of every breathing creature. Every green plant.

You’d let the parasite take the Small Cities?

I gnash my teeth, hating my own weakness. No, I couldn’t bring myself to allow harm to the Small Cities.

Maybe I should send Stella away . . . and take my own life. I’ll rip my father’s throne from him that way. I’ll let him watch as his empire crumbles to pieces without an heir. And then war will ensue.

Is there any place I can send Stella where she’d be safe from such a war?

My knife is lifted out of its sheath. I whirl, snatching the wrist of—

Stella.

My mind comes to a screeching halt, and I stare blankly at her, at the fire of defiance in her eyes, the set of her jaw, the enormous hilt of my knife in her tiny hand. My grip on her, stopping her.

“Snap out of it,” she growls at me, her gaze narrow.

I merely stare at her, my mind still not caught up. “What?”

“Stop it, Ash. Stop thinking whatever dark and depressing thoughts you’re thinking. We’re both still here. All is not lost. And you have some explaining to do if you still want a shred of my trust.”

Her words strike me like a blade with their sharp simplicity. The fog clears, and she stands there before me like a beacon. A bright light that refuses to go out, that refuses to be cowed.

I can’t let her stay here. Faerieland is too dark for her. She deserves so much more than me, than this. So much more thandaily attempts on her life. She deserves more than I can give her. More than I can dream of giving her.

I’m getting her out of here. Perhaps I’ll pay the price with my life. It’ll be fine, so long as she can go on living.

We’re in the middle of an empty hallway beside the statue of the winged archer. No one seems to be nearby, and I sense no presence. Even so, I throw a quick spell around us so that no one will hear what I say.

I release her, and she lets me take my knife and replace it in its scabbard. Then I pause, draw a deep breath, and gently reach three fingers for her face, for the hair I want to brush behind her ear.

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