Page 16 of Beauty

“Tell me something I don’t know.” I stand again, Shim at myside, moving as one. “Only today the Seelie kings have come with this news.This is nothing I can use. Be gone.”

I can feel the sluagh’s shock. “I have more, Your Highness.”

“Then you should tell me more or I will cast you from mykingdom.”

The sluagh frowns. “Fine. We have heard the plans of Torinand his hags. They mean to kill all the non-sidhe on their plane, andthen they will move on to this one. They will attempt to control the VampireGovernment with fresh consorts, but each one will be spelled to turn on his orher master when the time is right.”

Beck Finn goes white. “He’s promised a hundred consorts tothe royals. He’ll bring down the whole plane.”

Dante Dellacourt steps in. “The economic ramifications alonewould destabilize us. You’re talking about the most powerful vampires on theplane. They control everything. And I doubt they’ll believe a damn thing I say.I became an outlaw the minute I chose to leave with Beck and Cian. PerhapsJulian could persuade them.”

My cousin looks thoughtful. “I can try, but my influence issmall compared to how hungry the royals are for proper consorts. We age withoutconsort blood. Look at Lach and Shim. Look at me. I’m fifteen years older andyet I look younger than they do. This is a royal’s birthright, and for thirteenyears, Torin has held us hostage. They won’t want to listen to reason.”

Lach turns back to the sluagh. “There’s more, isn’t there?”

The sluagh sighs, his whole form moving in a lazy wave.“There’s always more, Your Highness.”

A long pause. Bloody sluagh. “We’ll fill your bellies for amonth.”

The ogre alone will keep the carrion eaters happy for weeks.Another can be found.

“More, Your Highness.”

There will always be more if I don’t take a stand. Thesluagh are greedy.

Shim whispers, his hand cupping his mouth. “There’s a reasonthey’re here, Lach. And it’s not for corpses. They wouldn’t pick a side if itdidn’t benefit them. Think on it. Devastating the Vampire plane would be goodfor the sluagh. The Unseelie falling would bring more than enough corpses tofeed their armies. Why are they here, then?”

My brother has a point. My mind races with possibilities,but only one makes a lick of sense. “Torin’s found a way to kill you, hasn’the?”

The sluagh frowns. “Torin seeks purity of race, and the Hostis an abomination.”

Now I have them. “Tell me more.”

The sluagh sighs, leans in, and begins to speak.

Hours later, I feel the weight of all the planes on myshoulders. Torin is coming. He won’t stop until all the planes bow to him.

The sluagh leaves, racing away to the caves where hisbrethren hide. Now all around me is quiet. The Seelie kings speak to each otherin whispers, Dante at their side. The rest have an air of shock surroundingthem.

War is coming.

“Son, you did well.” My father sits beside me, his weatheredface a mask of care. There is a long pause, as though he doesn’t wish to broachthe subject but knows he must. “How did you do it? How do you raise the dead?Is it a spell?”

Shim’s eyes roll. “He did it the same way I call forth fire.It’s inside him. It’s the powers we came into thirteen years ago.”

“King Fergus,” Beck interrupts. “I may not know theUnseelie, but grant that my brother and I know what it means to be symbiotictwins. Neither Cian nor I had a whisper of power before we bonded. Not a hint.”

“Yeah, Beck here told everyone it was a myth,” Cian adds.“He still owes me a thousand gold on that bet.”

The warrior king slaps at the Green Man. “Hush. This is noplace for sarcasm. Tell them, Ci.”

Cian becomes serious. “I would bet the kingdom I don’t haveyet that they’ve bonded. They’re what? Thirty? By the time we turned thirty, wewere beginning to fade. These boys aren’t close to fading. They’re powerful.What happened to your bondmate?”

I take a long breath, knowing what I’m about to get into.“She was trapped on the Seelie plane.”

Beck nods. It’s probably a story he’s heard before. “Shemust be strong if you can still feel the bond.”

“We’ve never met her, but we’ve dreamed of her since we werechildren.” Shim watches the Seelie kings.