Page 74 of Promise of Darkness
He knows.
It stills my tongue. Forces me to straighten. “Listening in, were we?”
“The demi-fey told me. You’re not the only one who feeds them milk and honey. Besides, I did warn you that you were predictable. It’s a trait you’ve inherited from your mother.”
I want to ball my fist and drive it into his abdomen, though his half-vicious smile warns me against such a thought.
Instead, I pace, ignoring the rustle behind me as he drapes his cloak over one of the chairs.
“If you want to continue to take your frustration out on me,” he growls, “then I should warn you. I’m not feeling entirely playful today.”
“Neither am I,” I snap. “They don’t believe us.”
“They are warned.” Thiago merely pours me a goblet of wine, his face expressionless. “That is all that matters.”
“Doesn’t it bother you?” They practically called him a liar to his face and accused him of manipulating me. And I’m the gullible fool dancing to his tune, according to them.
“I expected it,” he replies, handing me the wine. “The Alliance couldn’t find its own ass with both hands and a faelight as bright as the sun. If one queen says something, then the others will immediately find her words suspect. Kyrian and myself, more than the rest.”
“Because you’re male.”
“Because we both claimed our thrones by rule of might,” he replies, tipping the goblet to his lips. “Not by bloodline.”
His throat muscles work as he swallows.
I understand what my mother sees when she looks at him now. All the old tales say only a queen may rule, but Kyrian and Thiago took those lands through sheer might. Fae queens are always born, their talents and powers nurtured, their magic linked to the lands they will one day rule. And when an heir is chosen, the lines of power are locked.
But the two princes broke the rules.
They have no ties to their lands, and yet their kingdoms are flourishing.
I think of my stepbrother, Edain, and the way mother quashed his powers by binding him to her and sweeping him into her bed the second her consort was dead. I used to hate it, but I think I understand now.
The Lords of the Marsh are bound to serve her will, their powers muted by the blood contracts they signed.
And of the other nobles, she accepted their sons and daughters into her court to serve as pages and ladies-in-waiting. Some might say hostages would be a better term.
She culled every female in the land who might prove a threat.
And she’s hobbled every male who might have ambitions.
But, thanks to Kyrian and Thiago, she must now wonder, every time she looks around her court, whether others watch her and whisper. She must always be on her guard now, both within and without. She is a queen who rules through fear and threats, because they’re all she knows.
And it won’t matter what Angharad does, she’ll never see beyond the threat of the two princes.
I want to throw the fucking wine in the fireplace. “The alliance are fools.”
A wry smile touches his mouth. “Careful. I’m one of them.”
“Not you. You’re….” I wave a hand at him.
“I’m…?”
“A little less foolish,” I amend.
“Come now,” he teases. “Don’t hold back.”
I stare at him.You’re dangerous and powerful and ruthless, and yet you’re also the man who saved me from a bane trap. You’re the man who always has a piece of apple for his horse. The one who rides out singlehandedly to see the truth for his own eyes.
