Page 134 of Lifebound

“That’s when the Lifebound are fae. She’s mortal,” said Rune, but I couldn’t look away from Raja at all.

Suddenly, there was this voice in my head that insisted thatshe knew. This woman knew what I could do, and it was wrong, andIwas wrong, and this whole entire thing was so damn wrong!

“Let the girl speak for herself,” Raja said. She refused to even blink, holding me hostage with those dark eyes.

“No,” I choked out because right now I wouldn’t admit to anything to this woman. Not for any reason—she looked like she was about to eat me, for fuck’s sake! “It hasn’t affected me in any way. I didn’t know I was bound to the prince until Helid came to my home.”

“Ah, Helid.” Raja didn’t look convinced, but she needed to eat so she moved her eyes to the plate, and I was free to breathe again. “The prince’s uncle. I never liked that man. He’s a coward. Cowards have no character.”

“That’s not true, Raja,” Rune said. “Helid is a good man.”

“You’re not agood manwhen you don’t possess the courage to be bad, boy. You’re a good man when you can be bad but choose to be good despite it.”

“So you’ve said before,” Rune said.

“I’ve said a lot of things before, and all of them are true.” Raja put down her silverware and looked at him. “Which is why I’m always surprised that you will not believe me.”

“But I do,” Rune said.

“If you did, you’d have let me try,” Raja said, then grabbed her glass.

Rune looked at her pointedly. “Raja…” His voice trailed off, and her name sounded like a warning on his lips.

“Try what?” I wondered.

“To remove his seal,” said Raja, and my heart skipped a beat. “He won’t let me try it. He prefers to be stuck like this, with not even half of his power accessible to him. It’s a shame. Faearemagic. It belongs to us as much as we belong to it.”

“But why not? Why won’t you let her?” I asked Rune.

“Because it won’t work,” he said, almost rolling his eyes at Raja.

“Of course, it will.”

“It couldkillyou, Raja,” he insisted.

“Please.You think me weak.” That, she most definitely wasn’t.

“I think younot a fae king.”

Her hand fell on the table hard, and my heart jumped. “Don’t call that pig akingat my table.”

I was starting to sweat a little bit, not going to lie.

“Regardless. He put the seal on me. You’re not more powerful than him. The sealwillkill you.”

A moment passed and then Raja just waved him off. I believed him—he seemed to know exactly what he was talking about. But, fuck, if I didn’t wish he’d justtry.

I mean, the amount of power Raja had and thenmorethan that?

It was unimaginable.

Raja turned to me and changed the subject again. “We will be leaving at dawn. It takes roughly three hours to get to the tunnel. From there you’ll need a day to get to the Seelie Court. Are you prepared?”

If she’d asked me if I was ready to die right now, I’d have been less surprised.

My lips opened, but I couldn’t speak for the life of me.

“She is,” Rune said, moving his vegetables around the plate. “She will be.”

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