Page 12 of A Blaze of Fire
“That’s Lady Violet to you,” I whispered back.
He chuckled. “I see someone’s getting used to our customs.”
I shrugged. “I’m trying to adapt. Although I’m still not sure exactly what it is the King wants with me,” I muttered.
“You know full well what the King is going to want,Lady Violet,” he hinted. “He wants your magic. And if he can’t take it from you, he might as well use you. You’ve now become his greatest weapon.”
I gulped but said nothing.
“Right now, it’s all fun and laughter,” Alec warned. “But soon, very soon, the training will begin. And it won’t be easy. The King may be smiling now, but he won’t be when you’re not producing what he wants. So if I was you, I’d figure out how to access your elemental magicfast.”
Frustrated, I bit my lip and groaned. “You know it’s not that easy! I have no idea what I’m doing.”
Alec pulled away slightly and peered down at me. His hand cupped my face and caressed my cheek tenderly in a move that was completely out of character. “Well, you better figure it out, Lady Violet. Your life depends on it.”
6
ANSEL
I’d officially run out of options. I was desperate. And I had nowhere else to turn.
It had been over a week since Violet’s phone call, and I’d just received confirmation that she was a guest in the Unseelie Court … trapped in the Fae realm.What was she thinking?
“Are you okay, man?” Luka asked as he polished a glass behind the bar. He was the one who broke the news to me. According to him, Sage came in there a couple days ago, furious because Alec beat her to the punch and took the halfling to see the King.
The day I’d encountered Sage and her cadre of Unseelie warriors here at the bar was nothing but a stall tactic. While Violet was in the safe house waiting for me, Alec pounced. He used both me and Sage, pitting us against each other so he could collect the prize—Violet. I just never thought Vi would actually go along with it.
I sighed. “I’m fine … I think.” I swirled the last bit of beer I had left in my glass. “But are you sure she’s in the Unseelie Court?” I asked again for clarification, even though he’d answered the same question a dozen times before.
“I’m telling you, Ansel, that’s what I heard.” Luka shrugged, then his eyes flicked to something or someone behind me and he shrank back. “Uh oh, we got trouble.”
I didn’t bother turning around when someone clapped me on the back with a meaty hand. “Trouble in paradise?” Cael sat on the stool beside me, his idiotic goons following suit.
“Nothing that concerns you,” I grumbled as I drained the last gulp of my beer.
“I mean,” he started, “if it’s about Lady Violet, I think it does,” he taunted.
I whirled on him with a frown. “Lady Violet?”
A salacious grin spread across his face. “She’s aspecialguest of the King’s,” he offered sarcastically. “Man,” he sighed and licked his lips. “You should’ve seen her last night. She looked downright … delicious.”
I released a feral growl.
“Hey, man, easy,” Luka warned.
Cael laughed. “If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought she was a full-blooded fae the way she was dressed.” He blew out a breath. “She had many male Unseelie eyes on her last night.”
I gritted my teeth. If I didn’t get a grip, I was going to chip a tooth.
I could only imagine how they were dressing her. It set my blood aflame knowing it was everything she didn’t want. I had to get her out of there. One way or another.
“Stop taunting him,” Luka chastised Cael, who only rolled his eyes.
Cael clapped me on the back again. “Have no fear, Ansel. Your big brother is takingreallygood care of her,” he added with a sly smirk. “I’d go as far as to say he’s going theextra milefor our dear Lady Violet, if you know what I mean.”
I’d had enough. I kicked off the stool, knocking it to the ground with a clatter and storming out of the bar to the cackles of Cael in the background. He’d gotten to me, and I stupidly let him. That only angered me further.
* * *
