Page 18 of What did you do?

I didn’t want to just kill this guard though.

I wanted to make a scene.

I had barely killed anything since I watched that golden bastard put his hands on my pet in the human realm. I knew that instant, he would experience a death unlike any other. That would be the price he paid for tangling himself with my love.Aurelius certainly knew better than to fuck with me, but I would be pleased to remind him.

That was the difference between a so-called villain and hero. It wasn’t about who had the greater powers or tricks. It was about who felt the strongest and to what capacity. Even some of the best thieves and murderers have a surprisingly strong moral compass. The gauge that tells them it’s okay to steal bread or rob someone in the village for their starving family but not to hurt innocent people.

I didn’t care who I hurt. I’ve never needed something in return for hurting anyone, and I didn’t need motivation to inflict pain. I was built full of rage.

I used my strengths to get what and where I wanted. No matter what accomplishments, praise, accolades, titles, or companions I ever had, I had never felt the way I’ve seen others feel. I had had friends, family, lovers—if you wanted to call them that—but I had neverfeltanything from it. Not the way I felt when I unleashed myself and killed. Sure, I had people who I would have helped: Alistair, Walter—before I dropped him off the roof and into the Seelie portal anyway.

The thought of what would have happened to my love if she had managed to get through the portal with Walter and land in Seelie without being bonded to me made a guttural growl rip out of my throat.

The guard in front of me froze, stopping his pacing to look straight through me. Tiny goose bumps rose on his sweaty flesh. What horrible armor they had.

I was within arm’s reach of him. His golden-tan cheeks sagged just slightly. There was the barest tremble to them as his eyes darted around in an attempt to find the cause of his terror. His heart rate doubled, nearly deafening to me.

Walter would be easy to find. I would start with him so he could help me with Caly. The portal I had dropped him intowent straight to the golden seas that butted up against the small village beyond the Seelie castle. If he was smart, he would have shifted into a rat in the confines of the village, but knowing how much we both hated the Seelie, I was betting he had already exposed himself with a fight and landed in a dungeon somewhere.

“Aye, who goes there?” shouted the Seelie guard in front of me.

My smoky wings unfurled with a soft thrum, enthusiastic to kill. Smoke tendrils crawled up his body leisurely but gained speed with every inch they touched. The smoke wasn’t as easy to hide, its darkness too great to be covered completely in this light. His nostrils widened, taking note of the woody, amber scent of my smoke just as his eyes found mine.

It didn’t matter. All of the Seelie realm was about to know I had arrived.

7

PRESENT DAY

Caly

“You’re here!” The woman shoved me aside to launch at Eli with enough force to send us all onto the perfectly manicured lawn.

Thankfully Eli had anticipated his sister’s move and steadied me as he greeted Princess Tarani.

The fae squeezed her arms around Eli so tightly, I listened for the soft cracking of a rib up until the moment she released him. Her golden-blond hair, draped across her shoulders like a cape, caught the sparkling sun. I couldn’t remember how old she was, not that it mattered. Fae didn’t age in the same way humans did, and it had never made any sense to me anyway. Once they hit around twenty, their looks remained the same for decades.

She looked young, like a fresh-faced and sheltered eighteen-year-old human. Like all fae, she was unbelievably beautiful. Her large amber eyes were the focal point of her slightly rounded face. What her sweet eyes didn’t take up, her contagious smile did. She had the same bright smile as Saracen and Eli—the kindthat, even if you didn’t want to, you couldn’t help but smile when you saw it.

“I’m so glad you’re back! I’ve been bored stiff since you left.” She smiled. Her twinkling eyes landed on me as though she’d just noticed someone else was with them. “You are the human I hear so much about,” she said, losing the smile. Her face hardened, and I was completely caught off guard by the venom that dripped from her words.

“Uh—I—” I stuttered.

“Suns, Tarani, let us in the door first before you start. Cal, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, this is my younger sister, Tarani,” Eli said with a large grin. He reached out to tousle his sister’s hair.

They fondly looked at each other, and I couldn’t help but feel a pinch in my chest.

They smiled and teased each other, and it dawned on me that I’d probably never been as happy as the two of them appeared to be in all my life. While these two had been pampered and waited on, surrounded by a family that loved them, I had been stuck in my own realm, without a family, tracking insects and killing fae that rubbed their mother the wrong way.

The smiles fell from the sunlit pair as they noticed the few tears falling down my cheeks, breaking through the dam I’d built.

“What’s wrong, Calypso? Tarani didn’t mean anything, she’s just protective,” Eli said, stepping closer to comfort me.

I wiped the tears away with the back of my hand and silently threatened the other tears before they thought about falling as well. “I just can’t believe I’m finally here,” I lied, emphasizing it with a smile and a limp wave of my hand.

Eli’s eyes held mine for a beat before he ushered us inside. The guards all moved around us, one of them grabbing for my bag.

“I’ll carry my bag, please,” I said, turning my attention to the sentry and attempting to take the leather duffel from the gold-armored guard.

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