Page 61 of How Does It Feel?

Lightning flashed against the gray sky.

“Please! No! Stop!”

The girl was physically trying to pull me away from the ledge. Gods, she was beautiful.

And stupid.

A small smile tugged at the corner of my mouth before I fought it away.

Walter saw it and drew his furry brows together in confusion. I never smiled.

“Finish him or I will,” mother stated.

I rolled my eyes at her dramatics.

The queen stood in the center of the roof. I could see how conflicted she was. She was ruthless, but not to my extent. She liked Walter. Probably more than me, but reputation was everything here, and with such an audience, I knew she wouldn’t show an ounce of weakness, or they would use it against us.

“Mother dear. Why don’t you go back to your little party and let me handle this,” I said, still holding Walter over the ledge as I tightened my grip on him.

“Well, it is my sister’s child you hold over the portcullis,” she said matter-of-factly. “And had you truly taken care of it, my party wouldn’t have been ruined by a human.”

She crossed her arms. She was angry, and her magic strained against her fingers turning them black.

“As a matter of fact, had you truly taken care of it, my love, there would have been no more humans,” she trilled.

She despised humans. Possibly even more than the Seelie—maybe not.

She would do anything to ruin the Seelie since Queen Saracen had taken the throne.

Taking the human realm had been her idea. It burned her alive that the Seelie were granted access to the human realm and not us. That the Seelie were given something we weren’t. She let jealously rule her decisions. Another reason she was a weak queen. Emotions and feelings had no place here.

“Get back inside, now,” I commanded her, letting the tiniest wisp of power leak through my words. Enough that they would know I meant my words.

“Not until you finish the traitor and the human off. You see, my friends missed out on their dinner”—she looked the human over briefly—“and I feel I owe them some entertainment to make up for it,” she purred dramatically.

I wasn’t certain I was ready to give up my new toy just yet—I still needed to break it.

“I have all kinds of entertainment for you now, Mother.” I reached out and grabbed a handful of the human’s wet and matted hair.

She tried to slap me away. Cute.

“You see, I’ve just taken a new pet.” I looked back to Walter, his feet still dangling in the bottomless night sky.

With the slightest nod that he and only he could see, I spoke my message to him.

“Don’t worry, brother, I’ll take extra good care of her,” I whispered, heavy on the theatrics as I let my eyes take in her tight body.

He breathed a relieved sigh so deep I saw if from my peripherals.

Then, I opened my hand dramatically and dropped him.

I waited to feel something like a pit in my stomach, something like a feeling of regret, but as usual, nothing came. I shrugged, thinking surely I would have enjoyed that more. I usually loved dropping bodies from high places.

He didn’t even know I’d dropped him into the hidden portal.

For all he knew, I was killing him.

I stifled another smile at the thought of him landing in the golden seas. It was Seelie, the only place this portal traveled, hence why it was never used, and only about a handful of our line’s kings and queens had even known of it.