“Lie,” I hissed, and he made a gasping sound as my nails dug into his cheeks.
“I-I… I suppose I have a half brother!”
“Do not lie to me, Jakl Taveem. I willknow.”
“S-sorry! It was an accident,” he tried to reassure me, but I knew that was also very untrue.
Testing. Testing. Testing.
“Have you spoken to any one from the Vale?” I asked and heard the faraway crowd begin to whisper again.
“N-no… I mean… Y-yes,” he admitted, having learned better than to lie to me.
“And did they wish to know about Rian?”
His pause was much longer this time, and I could feel him resisting me more. Trying to pull away from me.
“Yes,” he panted finally.
“Tell me what they wanted to know.”
“Th-they… wanted to k-know if he came to the party. That is all!” he swore.
“Who else besides you knows about this betrayal?”
He squirmed, but he didn’t even have to give them up. Just the question had stimulated his mind to give me the answers as names and faces floated through my mind.
“Rian!” shouted someone, breaking my concentration. “Rian, please stop!” Geera begged as she pushed through the last of the crowd to get to him. I turned in time to see her reaching for him with a familiarity I did not care for.
“I suggest you refrain from touching him,” I advised her calmly before her hand made contact with his bicep. Then I roseand turned to face them as calmly as I could.
Geera seemed shocked by the audacity of my demand, but then she smirked at me knowingly. It was the same smug expression that made me want to make her choke on my fire the night before.
“I have been an Auxiliary to the Autumn Prince for many years,witch. We are quite fond of one another.”
Her words caused a violent hatred to ignite in my gut as she looked up at Rian with a smile. But almost as soon as it flared, my rage was soothed by the realization that Rian was still looking at me. He merely cocked his head when I met his eyes as if to ask whether I would really do as promised and kill her. I had told him not to let anyone touch him if he valued their life, and he did not look like he was going to stop her. She thought it meant that he was “quite fond” of her. But I knew what it really meant.
He might as well have killed her himself.
I could not help a malicious grin at the knowledge and returned my eyes more confidently to Geera.
“Touch what is mine, and it will be you on your knees before me,” I warned her with a gesture at the terrified fey prisoner on the floor.
I heard the crowd erupt with whispers that gradually grew even louder when Rian did not speak up to deny my very public claim. Geera seemed the most confused that he let my words stand without challenge, and she faltered in uncertainty of how to respond. After another moment, she seemed to regain confidence and raised her chin.
“I do not take orders fromwitches,” she scoffed at me before she turned deliberately to face Rian. She placed a hand on his chest, which made him smirk as he glanced down at the offending touch.
“Rian, you are undermining all the years of peace we have worked together to broker,” she said quietly.
The pure rage that was pounding furiously through myblood seemed to fuel my magic. It moved as effortlessly as the moon glided across the night sky and as seamlessly as the tides came in. I had felt it blooming at the edges of my mind for days and now it was finally manifesting.
I moved too swiftly for any mortal and grabbed her by her pretty curls, relishing her shocked scream as the scent of burning flesh and hair tickled my nostrils. Whirling her around, I threw her to the marble floor with more strength than any mortal should possess amidst gasps of shock.
She was a fire fey, so she could extinguish the flames that I’d used to burn her before they would have scarred her scalp and face too badly. Then she looked up at me in a delicious medley of confusion and dread as she realized how grossly she’d underestimated me. She was little more than an opportunistist who had been using Rian to climb the social ladder in Mionlach. She thought I was nothing but a mortal who could never threaten or challenge her.
But she was very wrong.
“Whatareyou?” she hissed in horror, and I could not stop the smile of anticipation that curled my lips.
