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His eyes seemed to brighten. “I was with three women, one time each, on separate occasions. None of them meant anything to me, and I never saw any of them again after the night. The last one was more than two decades ago.”

Stars.

That shouldn’t have made me feel better, but it did for some reason.

“Unattached, then,” I drawled.

“Completely and utterly attached to the moon.” He pointed to the sky. “And now, to you.” His finger dropped to my chest, resting lightly on my skin just below my collarbone. “Let me feed you, and then we’ll need to get to the meeting with my father’s advisors.”

My stomach clenched.

The meeting.

I was going to figure out who had organized the death of my parents—and get my revenge.

Chapter9

For dinner,Espen reheated something he’d cooked earlier. It was a type of pasta I had never tasted before, and it was delicious. It annoyed me how perfect the Night King seemed to be, but I kept quiet about that because he was treating me well.

After we ate, we headed down to the throne room, which was attached to the council room where Espen explained that his parents used to counsel with their advisors.

As we walked, we rediscussed our options (quietly), and decided that we would need to act like we had decided to be mates in all definitions of the term, and were making our way toward solidifying the bond.

Given my past—and my time in his dungeon—Espen was certain that no one would expect us to have already bonded ourselves to each other permanently.

Namir, Diora, Jesh, and Lavee were already leaned up against one of the walls of the room when Espen and I entered. The seats at a large table were all full, and a quick count of heads showed me nineteen fae men and women.

Stars, that was a lot of them to question and work through, if I wanted to figure out which of them I needed to kill.

Horvis sat sprawled out over the largest chair at the head of the table, which annoyed me for Espen’s sake.

I slid my hand around the inside of the king’s bare arm, marking him as my territory physically as I stared around the table in defiance.

One of the fae in that room had put me through literal hell.

One of the fae in that room was the reason my family was dead.

One of the fae in that room had ruined not only my life and the lives of my family, but Vena and Diora’s lives as well.

At first, no one said anything.

Horvis sat up a bit, like he was about to start talking, so I squeezed Espen’s arm.

Hard.

He got the message, and spoke up. “I brought you all in here for two reasons. First, to meet your queen. And second, to determine which of you I need to kill.”

Backs straightened and eyes widened.

The advisors exchanged expressions I mostly couldn’t read.

If I were telling Espen what to say, I probably would’ve told him to be more sly about it—to figure out how to ask questions and find out who was responsible without threatening them.

But honestly, the blunt admission fit his personality as far as I’d seen.

The man didn’t have the time or the desire to beat around the bush, and I respected the hell out of that.

“This is Queen Akari.” He gestured toward me with the hand that wasn’t attached to the arm I was holding. “As you may know, she tried to kill me a few months ago, and has been in my dungeon since then. The murder attempt was because she had been told that I was behind some of the terrible things she has been through, and now that we’ve cleared that misunderstanding up, we’re moving toward solidifying our bond.”

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