Page 17 of Within the Hollow Heart

Nickolas would not stand for it. “This has nothing to do with her, Mother. I will not allow you to hurt her. Understand that she is without fault. Lady Carvell, however—”

His mother’s hand flicked again. The three figures at the railing turned.

Before another movement could be made, the beastly man tossed the bird over the balcony rail.

Nickolas lunged just as Jules whispered a single word.

The scene stopped dead, the world gone unnaturally still and Nickolas catching himself mid-dive as a man-shaped shadow shimmered into view. Suddenly, before them, angled away from the turned backs of Lady Brigham and her men and looking on where Nickolas watched with Jules was an unmistakable figure swathed in nebulous black.

The prince of Rivenwilde.

CHAPTER9

Jules had called upon a fae prince. In the Filmores’ manor. Right upon their balcony floor.

Nickolas pressed the base of his palms over his eyes.

He could see the fae, just as the tales had always warned.Lay eyes upon him, and the shadows will clear. He wouldn’t see only the single man. He would see all fae, every creature. He would be tied to their world. A sad, desperate noise crawled from his chest. He drew his hands away to look accusingly at Jules.

“The prince of the Riven court,” he said dreadfully.

She did not answer, despite that it had sounded more a question than anything else. Her eyes were on the prince.

Nickolas turned to look at him as well, never mind that he had in no way wanted to see. That he still wished he could not. Tall and slender, with dark hair and darker eyes, the man seemed elegant, regal, and entirely unnatural. Nickolas took a step in front of Jules. She stepped out from behind him.

Taking in the scene—Nickolas’s mother and her lackeys and,by the wall, that awful bird, frozen in position in a way that made Nickolas’s stomach pitch and senses whirl—the fae prince seemed unsurprised by it all. He turned and looked at Jules, the light catching on the spiky crown of tangled bone upon his head.

It was clear the prince understood what had transpired. To Jules, he asked, “Shall I just—” He made a flicking gesture as if to knock Lady Brigham and her henchmen over the ledge.

Jules shook her head. “No, just save Frederick.”

“The bird,” the prince said. “That is all?”

“No!” Nickolas shouted, more to the room in general than specifically at Jules. “Have you lost all sense? Don’t bargain with him. He’s theprince of Rivenwilde. You must not be tied to him.”

“It’s too late for that.” There was something hard in Jules’s reply, something Nickolas had never heard from her, and it was aimed at the prince.

The prince stared back at her. “I did not set the curse, my lady. Had I wanted, I have people for that. But you can blame neither them nor me.” He seemed to consider his words. “It was a rather clever one, as curses go, though. Was it not?”

“Especially cruel. Unnecessarily so, if you ask me,” Jules said.

He hummed. “And what price were you given to break it?”

Her look was level. “To marry one who was equal to my station.”

They stared at each other for a very long moment. Nickolas, meanwhile, continued in his confusion and gaping.

“And will you pay it?” the prince asked. “That price?”

Jules’s voice was ice. “Not if the kingdom depended on it.”

The prince gave a swift, decisive nod.

“Hold a moment.” Nickolas barely recognized his own voice, let alone Jules’s, as he held up a single finger to intercede. When the pair looked at him, he asked, “What the deuce is going on here?”

“A curse,” Jules and the prince answered at once, and the prince twitched in irritation. He tapped a long finger to a button on his coat. The button looked, perhaps, to be crafted from solid gemstone. “A curse,” the prince said again, his tone making clear he meant to own the pronouncement.

Nickolas glanced from one to the other. “Her or you?”

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