Page 82 of The Beast King's Bride

He shakes his head. “That’s right.”

“So what can you tell me? To help me understand?”

He leans forward, bracing his elbows on his thighs, turning the glass in his hands, and taking another sip. “A hundred years ago, I was an arrogant young elf prince. I slept around. Broke hearts. Thought that I deserved all the pleasure in the world. All the power.” He lets out a quiet chuckle. “I understood nothing and deserved everything that happened to me, but my people didn’t. Now the empress wants my magic and my death. She isn’t allowed to kill me herself, though, not if she wants the magic that sustains my land, so she’s looking for roundabout ways. I have to give that magic willingly.”

“Willingly? Why would you ever do that?”

“I…” He winces. “Damn.”

“You can’t tell me. I see. Does she have anyone you love in her hands?”

“She has my family imprisoned,” he says.

“I thought they had left on their own. But that doesn’t matter. I thought you didn’t get along with your family.”

“They are still my family. All I have left.”

“Your brothers tried to kill you.”

“Maybe they should have succeeded. I wasn’t fit to be the king and they knew it.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Then I wouldn’t have made a deal with the Empress. I wouldn’t have acceded to the throne.”

“What sort of deal?”

“In exchange for her help to become king, in exchange for stronger magic, and to get her in my bed… I promised her my soul, if that’s what you call the life force, the essence of my magic, my power. Unlike with humans, our souls reside in a gem in our back.”

The gem. I remember it.

“But of course, you cannot give up your soul like that. You have to lose it before you hand it over. She set it up as a game. Gave me the rules. I was so confident I’d find the right girl in no time, lift the curse before it even spread.” He sighs. “Look, Ash, my family isn’t the only reason she has her leash on me. My people, my land. Jassin. The future of Faerie. If one kingdom falls, others may follow. I dread to think what will happen if she takes over our world.”

“Will she look to the human world?”

He nods. “That is my fear.”

“But she can’t kill you directly, that would be against the rules,” I mutter. “If she kills you outright, she won’t receive your magic, your connection to the land. She wants you to give up and be her slave, offer your magic to her so she doesn’t kill off everyone you care for and take over your world. Is this right?”

He stands up and throws his glass into the fireplace where it shatters.

Gods below. That’s what he expects will happen?

“I have accepted my fate,” he says, voice strained. “But I have to fight. For them. I cannot let them fall in her hands without a struggle. They’re innocent.”

“Talen.” I get up, too, set my glass on the floor. “Maybe you weren’t fit to be a king then, a hundred years ago. But you are a good king. You’re better than any other king I’ve heard of. And the people who know you care for you.”

He swallows, the knot in his throat moving. “And you?” he asks.

“Me?”

“I thought you might want to help me,” he whispers. “That you might not find me revolting, or disagreeable. That you might like me enough to help me find a cure.”

“I don’t… dislike you,” I murmur and can’t help a grin when he shoots me a narrow-eyed look. “I swear by the Gods.”

“You avoided me for a week.” He braces a hand on the mantel of the fireplace, bows his head.

“I know. I…” I scuff my toes on the edge of the rug. “I needed time to think.”

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