Page 57 of Cursed Lifeline

Of course, a tempting fae like herself would smell like the most heavenly garden.

Reluctantly, I pull my stare from hers and look back in Felix’s direction just as he says, “The question is, are you willing to make the same kind of sacrifice?”

Silas lunges forward, intent on killing Felix. I hold him back only because the fear that just flashed through the fae’s eyes has me instantly wanting to protect her. Comfort her.

Felix’s low, menacing chuckle fills the room. My eyes flash angrily to his, daring him to speak. To give me one good reason not to unleash hell on him at the hands of me and my brothers.

He walks around the lady’s side towards the desk at the back of the room. Silas, Caelum, and myself watch him like a hawk as he sits at the desk, and proceeds to prop his feet up on the rich mahogany top. The thumb of his boots against the wood echoes through the room like the sound of a gavel sentencing us to a fate we never expected.

“Evangeline here is special,” Felix sharply suggests. My breath catches at the first mention of the elegant fae’s name. “She’s devised a loophole that none of us expected. Isn’t that right, princess?”

My eyes flash back to hers, and I swallow hard.

She’s royalty?

As if reading my mind, she steps forward and calmly states, “My name is Evangeline Ambrosia. Princess of the WhisperWind Covenant. A tribe of fae who have lived in the caves and grottos of Mount Erymanthos for over five thousand years and ...”

“She has a gift,” Felix cuts her off. “Necromancy.”

At the mention of the word, Silas and Caelum stand down but keep their hands on their weapons.

“That’s impossible,” I whisper in awe as my eyes behold the most stunning creature I have ever seen. Not just because of her gift but because her mere presence makes me feel a way I can’t put into words.

No woman has ever made me feel this way.

Normally, I drown myself in them.

Use them to numb the pain of my youth and secrets from my past I’ve never told anyone.

And they oblige.

They let me willingly.

But Evangeline...

Something about her calls to me in a way none of these other women ever have.

In a way that makes me feel ashamed. Dirty. Corrupt.

In a way that makes me want to change my past if it meant I had a chance at her future.

“She cast a spell that’s quite interesting,” Felix prods from behind the desk. One, I know you’ll want to learn about since it concerns Esme’s future,” my curiosity immediately peeks. “And mine,” he adds, leaning back in his seat like a king.

I suppose one day he will be. A king that is. The problem is that he’s intent on making a certain woman his queen. A woman who just died at the hands of his brother. He talks of the future, but there is no future for Esme if it has him in it.

I shake my head at the poor fool and approach where he sits. He’s gone mad. Just like the moron Hamlet in the silly book Esme was reading these past few weeks.

They both went mad.

I sigh heavily as I approach his highness who’s perched a little too confidently behind the watcher council’s desk. “In case you’ve forgotten, Esme perished at the hands of your brother late last night. There is no future where she is concerned. A fate I wish was yours instead, monsieur.”

He raises a cocky eyebrow at me before glancing Evangeline’s way and giving her a curt nod.

“Because of the curse...” she begins.

“What curse?” Silas demands, cutting her off.

But the princess pays him no mind and continues, “And the loophole my spell was able to create. Esme’s soul is in purgatory. Awaiting her next life.”

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