Page 44 of What did you do?

“But what aboutyourkind?” she asked with a small smirk and a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

I took a few steps back from her. Ah. She came to rub it in my face that she knew I was Artemi with no real powers.

“You probably don’t even know what shorts are, do you? Do you always wear such fancy dresses?” I questioned, watching the blonde woman continue to wander aimlessly around the room with her hands clasped behind her back. I stole a glance at the hallway, hoping Eli would save me from this awkwardness, but it was empty.

“Not always. Unlike you, I’m able to wear the fur of a fox on occasion,” she sang matter-of-factly.

She poked her fingers in one of the corners next to the window, where I had hung the bedspread, slightly scratching the molding in the process. She had found the one goddamn blemish in the room in less than thirty seconds. She was smart and perceptive. I had a feeling she was underestimated quite a bit.

It was clear she was still angry about my arrival and was trying to show how different I was, to make certain I knew I didn’t belong here.

But I would try to play nice. It might be important that she like me if I was going to become a Seelie royal. I didn’t know how much sway she had with her mother.

“Your brother was beautiful in his fox form. From what I can remember though, a much thicker, shinier coat than yours,” Imuttered as I leaned on the wall near the window she was still inspecting.

I said I’d try.

Tarani’s smug expression fell and surprise filled her large honey-colored eyes. “You remember,” she whispered so softly I almost didn’t hear, even as close as we stood.

Okay. Not the reaction I’d expected.

“When your brother saved my life in Unseelie? I remember you there as well, though of course I didn’t know it was the two of you at the time. But I put it together when I learned Eli shifted into a fox form. Thank you, by the way. After they stabbed me, I was sure I was going to die,” I said, suddenly feeling my eyes get hot and prickly.

They had risked their lives to save mine.

Tarani looked absolutely horrified. “Believe me, it was Eli’s choice to save you, not mine. Had it been up to me, your kind would have all died,” she snarled.

“What is your problem with me?” I asked, taking a confrontational step forward.

“You think you are really special, don’t you? Aurelius and Mother only spent time with you in the human realm because they thought you were a freak. Why do you think they chose you to go whore yourself out to the Unseelie prince? They knew he couldn’t resist an easy target or an evil freak like you,” she spit out, taking a step closer to me.

Fuck. Freak or not, I could’ve already had her large intestine tied around her throat if I’d wanted to. She needed to watch her tone or I would snap before it was time.

“Listen, you’re a lot gutsier than they led me to believe, and I respect that, but you don’t even know me,” I said, tightening my jaw. “If you’ve got some sort of jealousy issue, take it up with your mommy.”

The princess’s sunset eyes locked on mine. Her autonomic nervous system’s sympathetic branch was stimulated, causing her pupils to dilate—I had triggered her fight-or-flight response.

I took a step toward the door. I didn’t know what her full magical abilities were, and besides that, I definitely didn’t think it would help my standing here if I knocked out the princess on my second day.

“Don’t youdarebring up my mother,” she spat out, clenching her hand into a fist so tight, her knuckles were white.

“Tarani, leave her alone,” a strong voice sounded from the door.

Tarani and I snapped our heads in unison to see Eli filling the doorway, an uncomfortable look straining his face.

“She remembers everything you did!” Tarani shouted at Eli, raising her arms in frustration before they dropped back to her sides.

“Tarani, this shouldn’t be done this way,” Eli said warily, glancing at me uneasily. “She doesn’t know, and I don’t want her to.”

I should have known it wouldn’t have been as easy as I had hoped.

“She needs to know, at least for your own safety, Eli. She is unpredictable and weak,” Tarani said, looking me up and down.

Unpredictable and weak?

While they continued arguing, I grabbed my duffel bag from under the large bed, pulling out an oversized sweatshirt and moving closer to Tarani. As I pulled it over my head, I gripped the karambit I’d also collected from my bag and secured the circle of the curved blade’s handle over my thumb, pushing it out of the sweatshirt sleeve and locking the princess’s elbows behind her back. The double-edged blade pressed into her neck just below her jaw. She moved into place without resistance,realizing too late what had happened. Both Eli and Tarani gasped in unison.

“Unpredictable maybe, but this blade at your throat negates your claim of weak,” I whispered. Adrenaline had sparked to life under my skin, sending tingles across my skin, and smoke flowed over my arms and into her face, dissipating as her slightly opened mouth pushed it away.

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