Page 55 of The Longing

“You owe me,” I say emphatically. “Your queen owes me. All Faerie folk owe me and yet what do I get?”

“You have your mate.”

Anger rises within me as surely as my fire should but does not.

“She belongs to me. Fate provided her, not Faerie.” I snarl the words out.

Lord Guyzance moves back on his throne, resting one elbow on the carved arm as he contemplates me and Alice. “Not what I have heard.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see movement. It is the assassin, but he isn’t here for me or for the Faerie lord. He slips from the gallery.

“What you have heard is incorrect.”

Guyzance stares at me as if he’s trying to see into my soul. In one hand is a scroll, a scroll he shouldn’t have. Then, because he can, the scroll disappears.

My heart pounds in my chest.

I feel Alice’s grip tighten on my arm.

Perhaps I should have told her about the curse. She is part of it after all. But with finding her, with mating, with instinct, it has not been uppermost in my mind.

I can tell her later.

“Did you want anything else?” I glare at the Faerie lord.

“Only your company and that of your little mate,” Guyzance says with a smile that could kill.

“You’ve had it.”

I take Alice’s hand, like she did mine earlier, and walk down the steps, my tail swishing across the rough stones.

“Be sure to give my best to Meg of Maldon,” Guyzance calls out.

I growl low in my throat. He wants me to second guess the assistance from the witch because she is one of his progeny, but I already know Meg of old.

She does nothing to benefit the Faerie.

Without looking back, I walk with Alice to the doorway into the courtyard and breathe in the sweet air as we exit.

“He knows Meg?” Alice says quietly. “Does that mean he sent her?”

“Meg is one of his daughters, but she is no friend to the Faerie. Meg has…helped…in the past.” A frisson of pain runs over my scarred shoulder.

“So, youdohave friends then?” Alice asks, linking her arm with mine in a way I rather like.

“Friends.” I snort.

“Like Warden? Is he a warden of something, somewhere? Like a prison?”

“You ask a lot of questions.”

“You’ve just presented me with a whole new world to ask questions about,” Alice says.

I never should have left my castle.

ALICE

Iliked the way Fenrother stood up to the Faerie lord. I always felt the Faerie were up themselves, and so far all I’ve seen is solid proof that, not only do they think they’re wonderful, but their arrogance is endless.

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