Page 80 of What did you do?

Not a word was said before we each took off, running head-on toward the other. This—the fighting of our worlds and the weight that rested on us as the sons of enemy families—had long ago reared its ugly head, but this—this was different. Both of uswould destroy the realms for her if she let us, but it would be impossible until the other man was gone. Forever.

Aurelius was too strong a fae to impel, or I could have made easy work of him. As it was, I was filled with so much hostility, all I wanted in this life was to destroy him with my own hands.

We slammed into one other, each throwing a punch. Both of us had been highly trained, but none of it showed through as we hurled ourselves at one another. Dents and cracks sequined the walls and doors as the brawl moved into the smoking room.

“Let Calypso be. You are no good for her,” the golden prince shouted. He moved around me too quickly, tackling me around the waist and slamming me into the wall. Gypsum and wood sprinkled and fell around us. I landed a punch to his side, feeling the bones of my knuckles connect with his ribs.

“And you are what she needs, huh? That goddess is a serrated wraith of darkness just waiting to be fed. She’s not some dumb embellishment, made to pump out heirs and go dancing with. You don’t even see the darkness inside her. She was made for me and me alone.” I grunted, taking a rather strong hit to my stomach.

“I will not let you near her, Mendax. She doesn’t know this world. She doesn’t understand what a cretin you are. But I do. You are just like your father, and I will take a sword to my neck before I let you hurt and manipulate Calypso like Thanes did to my mother!” he snarled before he elbowed me in the face.

I didn’t know or care what it was his mother told him about how the Fallen were created. He would never understand what his mother had done like I did. He was a pampered, spoiled child. He had no involvement with any of it.

I, on the other hand, had been forced to take the life of a man I loved and looked up to more than anyone. I had been a part of it.

I would never say that I was nothing like my father because that was a lie. I was very muchlike him. I just wasn’t as obvious.

In the many, many times the Seelie prince and I had fought, notoneof those times had he fought me as hard as he was now.

I laughed softly, feeling the blood trickle from my split lip. “How is daddy Felix? Still rotting in the grave where your mother put him?” I ducked, barely missing the ball of sunfire that ignited the wall a few feet behind us. “Perhaps you should be more concerned with how close she is to your mother. Calypso probably holds more poison and hate in her veins than I do,” I bit out through clenched teeth. I punched him in the eye so hard, he fell back into the wall, knocking a tall shelf of books to the ground.

He rose with a scowl. “I don’t know what rumors muck around in Unseelie, but my father was poisoned by the maid, you dense, gullible candle,” he said, panting.

Aurelius’s warm-shit-colored eyes told me he was telling the truth. He had no idea what had really happened. I knew Saracen had lied to her realm, telling them my mother and father had forced her, which had started the big rift between Seelie and Unseelie, but I figured her own kids would know the truth. I almostfelt bad for how witless Aurelius and his sister were.

Almost.

My wings made a soft creak at my back as they extended as wide as they were able.

Aurelius’s own wings widened in return. His hand glowed orange with light as he pushed it to block my smoke.

I shadowed to his side, catching him off guard. He burned my chest with a quick blast of light as my smoke wrapped around him like a snake, binding his arms and legs in a suffocating cocoon. He burst with light as he fought and struggled against the smoke, falling to the floor behind the leather sofa.

“Leave her alone, Mendax! You touch a freckle on her, and I swear to suns I’ll?—”

“You’ll what?” I taunted as I gripped his throat. His pulse quickened under my hand. Once he was gone, Calypso would learn who she belonged to. “You’ll do nothing because you’ll be dead, annoying someone else in the Elysian Fields.”

Aurelius’s eyes widened as if he just remembered something of importance.

My knuckles bent and my fingers folded, excited to feel his heroic gleam finally extinguishing under my grip. She wasmine.

“Stop! Wait, you can’t kill me! Wait! Please?—”

I pursed my lips and blew out a puff of black smoke that trailed across his mouth, cutting off his petulant whines. Of course he would be a whiney, weak fae at the end. That shouldn’t surprise me.

“Tell me,” I croaked, “how do you make her laugh? I don’t want her to lose that.” The smoke dissipated from his mouth at my command.

He gasped, “You can’t do it! I’m tied to her, Mendax. I’m tied to Caly. I did it to heal her in Unseelie. If you kill me now, you will kill my girl!”

I recoiled, glaring at him in disbelief. I could feel myself going off the edge of sanity.

“No!” I roared, smashing his face into my knee. “You can’t?—”

“I can and I did. Caly is Artemi, but she has no powers…well, only a tiny amount. I tied my life to hers in Unseelie,” he spat, getting the words out as fast as he could. “After you fucking tried to kill her, you piece of shit. You nearly killed my wife!” he shouted with renewed anger as he continued to fight the constraints of smoke around him.

My knuckles cracked across his cheekbone, leaving a smear of golden blood to trail over his tan face. “She is not your wife!” I shouted as the blood pounded through me.

I had to step away from him. I was going to do something I couldn’t undo, and Icould notlose her.

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