Page 59 of Seaborn and the Seven Seas

A finger pressed into my cheek. Once. Then again, harder.

“Don’t.” Theron’s voice came sharp.

“I’m simply checking.” Another poke. “She doesn’t look like much. Hard to believe a boarox bowed to her.”

Theron snarled. “She needs to recover. Leave her.”

“She’ll recover when I’m satisfied.” He gripped my jaw, turning my face from side to side. “Interesting bone structure. And that hair—”

“Pierre.” Theron’s voice dropped lower. A warning.

A short, bored exhale came from the prince. He traced a finger over my shoulder, across my collarbone, then lower.

“I give no second chances.” The sound of a hand grabbing fabric and footsteps stumbling back a few steps.

Energy crackled and charged in the silence.

“Take your hands off me.” Pierre struggled to get the words out. “You forget yourself.”

“No.” Theron’s voice dropped low, deadlier than any shout. “You remember who I am. Nobody touches what belongs to me. I brought her here so that makes her mine.”

“If I didn’t know better, I think you like this girl.”

“She means nothing to me, as do you.”

“Awww, brother. You hurt my feelings.”

Brother? So the Seelie queen is his mother? But he doesn’t have ears like hers.

“You’re no brother of mine.”

“Careful what you say,” Pierre drawled. “Our father would be turning in his grave.”

Same father, but maybe different mothers.

“You’ll be turning in yours soon if you don’t get out. Your mother will have a reason to imprison me. I might even burn down this damn castle for what you did to my family.”

Footsteps padded across the floor. Either Theron released him or Pierre pushed back.

“When she wakes, bring her to me.”

He doesn’t know when to quit.

“The only thing I’m bringing to you is your mother’s dead body.”

A growl came from Pierre.

“Don’t you have anything better to do than entertain a woman?” Nira, who had been quiet, said, her voice coming from across the room.

Silence for a heartbeat.

The door opened, then slammed shut.

Nobody spoke for a moment.

“You have to take her out,” Nira said. “Or he’ll do the same, like he did to your sister.”

Theron had a sister. He never told me. But why would he? He owed me no explanation. He didn’t even like me as a friend.