Page 57 of Court of Winter

The prince’s lips thinned. “I’m sure the last thing she wants to hear about is the females you’ve bedded.”

Prince Norivun’s gaze flicked again to where his brother held my hand. His giant wings tightened into razors at his back as the talon tips glinted like obsidian claws.

“Oh, I don’t know about that.” Prince Nuwin stroked his chin with his free hand. “Some females quite enjoy hearing the details. It can get them quite arou—”

“That’s enough, Nuwin.” The prince strode toward us, his eyes narrowed. When he reached us, he looked his brother in the eye as his aura pulsed again. “Remove your hand from her.”

Prince Nuwin’s mouth formed a surprised “O” when he looked down. “Oh, I hadn’t even realized. I suppose she and I are naturally quite comfortable with each other. It must have slipped my mind.”

He finally let go, and I brought my hand back to my side while I wondered what in the realm was going on between the two brothers. It was obvious that an underlying game was being played, but why I’d been brought into the middle of it, I didn’t know.

“Have you returned to take me home, my prince?” I gazed up at the Bringer of Darkness.

My heart hammered when he looked down at me. I told myself it was because of his sudden return and because he had the power to decide my fate. It certainly wasn’t his scent that rolled toward me or the way his shoulder muscles flexed when he turned in his fitted tunic.

“No,” he replied stonily.

I scowled, drawing on all of the anxiety and anger that had been swirling inside me since the morning he’d left. “Still no explanation for why I’m being kept here either, I presume?”

He glanced over my shoulder, toward the garden. His eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open. “You did it.”

He strode toward the glass doors and was outside before I could reply.

Nuwin and I shared a confused look before following him.

Outside, a look of excitement lightened the crown prince’s face as he moved from plant to plant, stroking each leaf, and testing their strength and flexibility. I watched in absolute bewilderment as the strength of his aura rose until it was a crescendo of epic proportions.

Taking a step away from the seismic energy that surrounded the prince, I crossed my arms and was about to demand that he finally return me to Mervalee Territory, but he turned to confront me.

A look of complete satisfaction covered his face. So much so that my words caught in my throat. In the same breath, a wave of his magic washed over me, and his illusion cracked and broke all around me.

My hair cascaded around my shoulders in soft waves, curling lightly and returning to its true pitch-black color. I gasped at the sudden change just as Nuwin’s breath sucked in.

“She’s like Mother?” the youngest prince asked in shock.

The prince nodded, his smile still in place.

Nuwin glanced back at me, his eyes widening as he reached up to stroke a piece of my hair.

The prince growled, low and deep, and his brother’s hand instantly dropped before Nuwin grinned. “But she’s wingless.”

“She still holds the magic.”

“What magic?” I finally said, volleying between the two of them as I reeled from the feel of the prince’s magic touching me so intimately when his illusion affinity had peeled away.

“The magic to save our continent, Ilara Seary,” the prince replied. “You have the ability to createorem, which means that you can save us all.”

CHAPTER15

“What?” There was no way I’d heard him right. The words he’d just uttered were pure lunacy.

“Your affinity is the ability to createorem,” the crown prince repeated.

I blinked. Then blinked again before I finally found my voice. “I don’t have magic or an affinity,” I said patiently, in a way I often spoke to children who struggled to understand a topic. “And I most certainly cannot conjureorem. I’m a defective.”

The prince’s gaze cascaded over my black hair, his icy-blue eyes sharpening at my condescending tone. “You’re not a defective. Your affinity bloomed late, but it’s manifesting.”

I frowned, my eyebrows knitting together so tightly they felt joined. “That’s not possible. I’m twenty-four winters, a true defective. My affinity should have bloomed ten winters ago like all Solis fae at maturing age.”

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