Page 38 of Fae Games

A growl reverberated in the back of my throat. Pokeweed was wrong. I would never, ever mate with a guy as shitty as him and his blond brother.

I turned to the duke. “If there’s anything I can do to help Helen, please ask.”

The older faerie inclined his head in thanks. “We’ve had several statements implicating Gala of Nevermore in the theft of my daughter’s magic and her banishment.”

I nodded, waiting for the opportunity to throw the other three Fated under the bus.

“It’s about her accomplice, Elijah Meadowhawks.”

“What?”

Prince Bradwell wrinkled his nose. “The halfling who defiled you in full view of the academy.”

The duke grimaced, but it was a sympathetic expression. “Meadowhawks has conducted a number of illicit activities. However, until now, he has never acted against one of our own.”

A cloud drifted across the sun, casting us in gloom. My lips tightened at the implication that his participation in what Elijah and the Fated had done to me was no cause for anyone’s concern. Elites like them considered a half-blood unworthy for justice.

“What’s your involvement with Meadowhawks?” snarled Prince Bradwell. “Are you involved with his whoremongering?”

My mouth dropped open. “Whore?”

“Your Highness,” said the duke. “We are here to investigate—”

“Let me guess.” Prince Bradwell advanced on me, his lips curled into a snarl. “You and he split the proceeds from all the humans you procure for law-abiding faeries.”

I stepped back, my heart beating as fast as my wings. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t deny it,” the prince snapped. “I heard that disgusting halfling boast that you knew exactly how to please him. That’s because you and he conducted black magic to help you to taint the crown!”

My next step had the back of my shoulder crashing against a trunk, but I didn’t feel the pain. Whoremongering… Was Elijah a pimp?

“Your Highness!” said the duke, his voice shaking with exasperation and a tinge of restrained anger.

“He is corrupting our males,” bellowed Prince Bradwell. “Allowing them to take on his form and visit his human lovers. Hundreds of faeries have fallen prey to this disgusting habit!”

Rapid connections fired in my head like the DVD I’d once seen of the London New Years’ Eve display of fireworks. Elijah’s sexual variety. How he’d sometimes fuck me hard and fast, sometimes slow and sensual, always wanting to try something new.

Shallow breaths fluttered in and out of my lungs, making my head spin. What if it wasn’t Elijah all this time? What if it was one of those corrupt faeries who had taken on his form to—

My eyes crossed, my vision went double, and the last thing I remembered before hitting the ground was Prince Bradwell’s panicked face.

Chapter 10

A pungent scent stung my sinuses, and I jerked awake. A faerie with hair like dandelion fluff and sparkling, blue eyes loomed a foot away from my face.

He drew back, revealing a room of floor-to-ceiling shelves crammed with flasks and vials and colored bottles. What was this? The fae equivalent of a mad scientist?

“There you are,” he said with a grin half as wide as the Jack of Smiles. “Good as new.”

“What happened?” I rubbed the side of my head and yawned, feeling oddly refreshed.

“My name is Tarax. Artichoke Tarax.” He straightened his gangly frame of over six foot five and raised a long finger. “Well, you see, it’s like this. When young faerie females reach a certain age, magic prepares their bodies for adulthood. By adulthood, I mean the consummation of a mating bond and subsequent offspring.”

Tilting my head to the side, I waited for him to get to the point because in my just-awakened state, it seemed like he was giving me a talk on the birds and the bees.

“Yes, yes,” he said to himself with a self-satisfied chuckle. “Magic can be very strange, indeed. One moment a young female is in the bloom of childhood, and the next, a surge sends all the magic down south, robbing the noggin of precious air.”

I stifled another yawn. “So, I fainted?”