“At least not on purpose,” he murmured so softly I wasn’t sure if he’d intended for me to hear.
We followed the scent of cinnamon drifting in the air to the kitchen to find Jane brewing a pot of tea. Charles stood next to her, the two of them speaking in soft voices.
At our approach, Jane passed everyone steaming mugs and Charles led us into a sitting room which already had a crackling fire.
I settled myself on the floor in front of the flames, and Darcy joined me, both of us holding our mugs of tea with one hand.
Charles joined Jane on the couch, a hard mask falling over his expression. “I think we should leave Austen Heights.”
Jane blanched. “You’re leaving?”
Charles met her gaze with regret. “Hopefully not for long, but until things have calmed down, it might be for the best.”
“Don’t I have a say in this?” I held up the arm linked to Darcy. “If he leaves, I have to leave too, and I can’t go right now.” Although I still had zero leads and nothing to turn in for my outline tomorrow, I couldn’t leave my family.
“She’s right. It isn’t fair to uproot Elizabeth,” Darcy said. “We’re better off finding whoever killed Easton and putting a stop to this before anyone else gets hurt.”
“I agree.” I tried to ignore how the feel of Darcy sitting so close made my heart pound.
“We need to make a list of any fae with nature magic strong enough to have manipulated the lightning.” Darcy’s lips pressed into a firm line, and the firelight flickered over his eyes, making them appear a darker green than normal.
“With the storm as strong as it was, it wouldn’t have taken as much magic as usual,” Charles said. “I don’t think we’ll be able to narrow it down with that.”
Darcy scowled. “Well, we need to do something—”
“No,youneed to stay here and let me do my job,” Charles interrupted. “You’re lucky I had a tracker on you. Who knows what else could have happened?”
“A tracker?” I glanced between the two men, who were exchanging a tense look. Charles’s words peeled away the last layer of mystery around Darcy so the full story came into focus. The reason Darcy didn’t like opening up to people. The fact that he was so dodgy about his magic, and why he’d been so determined to hide it. Why Charles taste-tested his food and how he’d found us so fast in the fortune-teller’s tent. And, most incriminating of all, the reason that Charles, a member of one of the most elite Marked families in the country, still deferred to Darcy.
Darcy wasn’t just another highborn fae.
“Your name isn’t Darcy,” I whispered, my hand trembling slightly on the table. “It’s Fitzwilliam Valehaert.” And the only reason I hadn’t recognized him earlier must’ve been because of a glamour.
Next to me, Jane stiffened.
Darcy met my gaze, his emerald eyes inscrutable, but a hint of approval softened his mouth. “It’s FitzwilliamDarcellionValemont.”
My stomach swooped out from under me like I was on a roller coaster, but I couldn’t look away from him. “You’re the crown prince.”
Chapter 13
JaneandIgapedat Darcy. For a moment, the only sound in the room was the staccato tap of rain lashing against the roof.
Darcy nodded, his gaze flicking to me, then away. “Instead of constantly having to glamour myself to hide my identity, I wear a charm that makes it so people can’t recognize me.” He pulled a plain silver necklace with a small crystal on the end from beneath his shirt.
Even though I’d come to the conclusion myself, it was still hard to swallow. The distance between us, which had shrunk when I realized he wasn’t the killer, grew to immeasurable proportions again. All along I’d picturedDarcy as the king on the chessboard, but I hadn’t realized just how right I was.
Darcy was the fae crown prince, and his uncle was the king.
Somehow, the title didn’t match the man who saved my life less than an hour ago and blindfolded himself so I could take a shower, but in other ways, it made perfect sense. His haughty attitude at the club. The number of bodyguards that were constantly around him—him,not Charles. The way even the chief of police had had no choice but to listen to him.
“Why hide your identity?” I asked.
“It’s a lot easier to move around if people don’t know who I am.” Darcy’s eyes were tight. “I garner too much attention otherwise.”
He garnered too much attention either way.
“Why are you in Austen Heights, Prince Fitzwilliam?” I threw the title at him like an arrow, even though my frustration wasn’t fair. Darcy never told me his name. I just heard Charles call him that, and I’d assumed the rest. I was mad at how I’d made yet another wrong assumption about him.
