Page 130 of Amidst the Insidious Courts
He sighs, closing his hand over the metal, those narrow amber eyes flashing with something that looks almost like regret.
This means something,I realise. Whatever this is, it’s more than just a gift.
“No.” I stop him, closing my hand over his before he can take the trinket away. “I appreciate the thought. I’ll wear it every day. I just… It’s nice to hear the words sometimes, too.”
Something unreadable passes over his face, and his palm slowly opens again. I stare at the tangled mass of silver chains and branching metal, trying to discern the shape.
His throat bobs as he swallows. “In my court, displays of frivolous emotion are considered… shameful,” he confesses, coming to stand behind me so I can’t see his face. “To withstand the cold fury of the mountains, you need to be practical. Logical. Weakness will get you killed. Emotional rulers are quickly overthrown.”
His fingers brush my carefully arranged curls back from my shoulder and the metal settles around my neck with a chill that startles me, hugging the curve of my throat as he arranges the necklace.
“What you are asking is not easy for me.” The clasp snaps shut with a tiny click, but he doesn’t return to face me. “My own mother has never told me she cares for me, nor has anyone else involved in my raising. They let me live and spent resources to keep me alive as a child. To them—to me—that is enough.”
My stomach plummets. How can anyone never tell their child they love them? How can I expect a male raised that way to confess his undying love to me?
“It’s okay,” I whisper, my earlier anger banished. “I understand.”
“No. You are fretting over Jaromir’s absence, concerned about everything else. I will not have you waste your energy on such a ridiculous notion as my lack of consideration for your well-being.” There’s a hint of the arrogance I’ve come to know so well in that curt statement, and he huffs out a breath like he’s preparing to walk to the gallows.
“Every part of you, right down to the dust on your wings, has always had, and always will have, my unwavering devotion and attention.” He brushes my hair back into place. “That never changes, whether I am awake or asleep, happy or furious. It will remain so for however many centuries you decide to reign as Nicnevin, and I am almost certain it will continue when I follow you to the Otherworld.”
My hand rises to my throat but tangles in the metal. I look down and realise quickly that the spikes I mistook for branches are actually a pair of silver antlers wrapped in tiny thorny roses that brush my throat like a collar. Suspended between them is a single glistening diamond snowflake that sparkles with something brighter than any normal lustre. Magic.
His antlers, I realise, wrapped up in my namesake and tethered with a symbol of his court.
“It’s beautiful.” I pause. “I won’t take it off.”
He comes around to my side and offers me his arm. “Good.”
Good? I suppose that’s as close to approval as I’ll ever come from him. Sighing, I let him lead me away from the privacy of my room and into the hallways of the Summer Palace. The sweet scent of Siabethan Nightshade is everywhere, and Drystan wrinkles his nose a second before he sneezes.
“Goddess-damned southern courts and their obsession with flowers,” he mutters under his breath.
Tonight’s ball isn’t in any of the many ballrooms but out in the expansive courtyard. I don’t know how the palace staff have time to arrange and decorate a new venue every night, but they’ve outdone themselves again. The columns have been hung with golden streamers, and the fae below are dressed in glittering metallic shades that make my iridescent purple gown stand out.
“Nicnevin, there you are!”Oh Goddess, not Máel again. The princess is wearing a gold dress that offsets her skin perfectly, and her braids are woven with tiny sunshine beads of the same colour.
Not for the first time, I fight a stab of jealousy for her tall and slender frame and how at ease she looks. For all her faults, she looks, acts, and breathes royalty.
Tonight, however, she’s accompanied by a woman on a leash.
A human. A naked human.
How did I never notice how…dullthey appeared before? Did Tom look like this? My human parents?
It’s rude, but I can’t stop staring at the rounded tips of her ears or the scars across the left side of her curvaceous body.
“I forgot. You’ve not been here long enough to attend our pet parties!” Máel exclaims, grinning. “This is my current favourite. Isn’t she exotic?”
“Exotic?” I echo, stunned.
The human is beautiful for a mortal, but it’s nothing compared to the otherworldly beauty of the fae. Her long hair is pencil straight and wrapped with copper wire into a high ponytail, and her body has been painted a dull bronze that barely covers her essentials, accented with metallic swirls that blend with the tattoos on her arm. For all the finery she’s been adorned with, the look she’s regarding the princess with drips disdain. If she had a blade, I have no doubt Máel would be dead.
“She hasn’t given me her name yet or eaten any of our food,” Máel continues, oblivious to how stunned I am. “But it’s only been a few days since she was brought to me.”
“How is she here?” I ask, looking around and noticing for the first time that there are literally dozens of humans crawling about after their fae masters. Some are even doing tricks like juggling or gymnastics… and are those two fucking in the centre of the courtyard? “How are so many of them here?”
“Oh, the forests of our court are full of portals,” Máel explains. “They stumble through or are brought back when they try to bargain. It’s mostly the same things they’re after: beauty, love, money, youth. This one fancies herself an explorer of the realms. She actually came from the portal in Calimnel. She was trying to use Faerie as a way to realm hop.”
