MAX
Apixie-like woman with long chestnut hair tiptoes carefully into the room. When she reaches the throne, her heart-shaped mouth parts on an unsteady breath, and she curls her hands into fists. She slides her shadow mask off her face and tucks it inside her bra, revealing her wide amber eyes. They’re almost too big for her face, framed by impossibly thick lashes, and a chin dimple lends character to her otherwise soft features.
A long-sleeved caramel leather jacket with matching pants covers her ballerina figure, and jewels flash across her bare knuckles, just as they did on Luther's.
I might have thought her delicate if I hadn't guessed who she was from the way Ezra’s entire body had gone rigid when he’d seen her.
The Lord of the Tides. And his wife.
She’s as beautiful as I feared.
When she pivots and smiles at him, whatever petty jealousy had begun to take root becomes a raw sore. There’s history in that look. Grief. Affection. Regret.
“Light of my life,” she greets him in a melodic voice.
Ezra stands straight as an arrow and tilts his chin. “Flame of my heart.”
The nickname rings a bell.
The only way for us to be happy is for you to die, flame of my heart,he’d said in my dreams.
I wasn’t the flame. She was.
Yet she doesn’t walk toward him, and he doesn’t leave my side.
The two shadowy Fae that traveled through the mirror before her do not remove their masks. The man is unbelievably intimidating, draped in a dark uniform with a front zipper and hood. Shadows cling to him, softening the edges of his silhouette and making him seem larger than he is.
The woman next to him wears a similar uniform, paired with knee-high boots. A white-blonde braid spills from beneath her hood and over her shoulder. Though smaller than the man beside her, she carries the poise of a predator, one hand resting on the stock of the crossbow strapped across her back.
Together, they look less like Fae royals and more like an execution squad.
“Freckles?!” Devi’s voice caves in on me like a ton of bricks, jolting me back to reality. “Freckles, is that really you?”
Devi removes her mask, too, like it’ll allow her to see better.
I wave to her awkwardly. “Hi.”
She barrels across the throne room and whisks me into a bone-crushing hug before I can brace for impact. The bite of power rolling off her is ten times more potent than it was before she left for Faerie
“Are you okay?” She grabs my shoulders, then pats down my arms as if checking for missing limbs. Her gaze drops to my outfit, and she frowns.
My face immediately heats.
In all the chaos, I somehow forgot I'm still wearing sexy lingerie.
“Yes. We arrived last night, me and E—I mean Ezra,” I blurt out.
Devi freezes. A profound look of unease causes her dark freckles to bunch together, and her silver-flecked eyes flash with fear. “You andEzra.”
Slowly, her eyes slide toward him.
Then back to me.
Then back to him again.
My cheeks burn as she leans in, sniffing me.
“You love him?” she finally shouts, horrified. “I leave you alone for what, two weeks, and you fall in love with EzrafuckingLightbringer?”
