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Darkness flickered inside me, and for a moment, I wondered what would happen if I ripped off the queen’s wings and threw her over the side of the tower.
She was testing us, and the best thing I could do now was to keep my mouth shut, my expression blank. She was showing him to me for a reason, trying to see how I’d react.
Torin lifted his head. “Ah. Queen Mab. How lovely to see you again.” His tone sounded surprisingly bland.Almost bored. “The last time I saw you, I suppose you were cursing my entire family.”
I swallowed hard. Seems we were done pretending he was a common fae named Alan.
“Is that why you came here with this Unseelie? Revenge?” Her gaze flicked between Torin and me, her amber eyes narrowing. “One of you will die first. I haven’t yet decided who it will be. Morgant, do you think either of them can fly?”
Morgant, clearly intuiting it was a rhetorical question, merely raised an eyebrow.
With a sharp movement, Torin managed to rip his arms free. “Are you really this desperate for company, Mab? You don’t have any friends, do you?” His gaze flicked up to the skies, and I knew he’d seen the archers.
Moonlight shone from her skin. She inhaled deeply. “I suppose I do need to be entertained. If I were a purely practical person, you’d be dead by now. But I have dreams and visions I’d like to indulge.”
Mab was like a cat toying with her prey.
“Listen, Your Highness.” My jaw was clenched tight, but I tried to keep my tone friendly. “Why don’t you let the Seelie go, and I’ll stay here. I’m one of you, but clearly, he doesn’t belong here. I’ll stay, and everything will be in its right place. Otherwise, I’m afraid you might have the entire Seelie army descending on you to burn everything to the ground.”
She let out a hiss, the sound like water dousing a fire. “But there’s no queen on the throne of Faerie, is there? It must be in quite a state now. Freezing over.Dragons circling like vultures, waiting to feast on the icy dead. Did you know that they collect corpses?” Her expression changed as she seemed to warm to this idea, and she beamed at me with a radiant smile. “I think we will keep you both for fun. Won’t that be nice, Morgant?”
My fingers tightened into fists. “Let him go.”
“Ava,” Torin said quietly, like he was trying to calm a wild beast.
A thorny silence spread between us until Queen Mab lifted a finger to her lips. “I think she really cares for him.” Her voice was an icy gale that sent a shiver up my spine. “A truly lost Unseelie, so sweet and sad at the same time.” Her gaze slid down Torin’s body. “I can seewhyshe likes him. I may be twice your age, but I’m not blind.”
Torin stepped closer to her, and despite his brutalized state, his movements were fluid and graceful. “My dear queen. You reallyarelonely.”
Was he flirting with her?
Despite the blood running down his chest, he was still so beautiful that it made my heart stop. Maybe he couldcharmhis way out of this?
She put a finger to her lips. “It is lonely at the top, as they say. Are you offering yourself up to me? I’ve never been with Seelie, nor have I been with a male as beautiful as you are.”
Oh, gods. The food in my stomach was starting to curdle.
“Your Highness,” Morgant started. “There are security—”
Mab lifted her hand. “When I want to hear from you, I will ask. But I could use your strength, Morgant.” She turned to me. “I am still thinking of throwing this wretch off the tower to see if she can fly. Do we think she can?”
“I’d advise you not to do that.” Torin’s deep, smooth voice cut through the night air, a sharp blade of warning in his tone.
“And once she is out of the way, Torin, what would happen if I took you to my bedroom to see if you could prove yourself to a queen?”
Torin’s jaw tightened. “If you go anywhere near Ava,” he said smoothly, his tone laced with violence, “I will rip out your spine, Your Highness.”
My gaze flicked back to the archers circling overhead, their white wings pounding the air. One more arrow in the right place, and he’d be dead.
The queen’s eyes widened. “So youdocare for her after all. How interesting. A Seelie king cares for his little Unseelie friend.” She folded her arms. “Well, if you’re going to make threats, you won’t be able to stay in my bedroom unchained. Don’t you think it would be better if your hands were free?”
What the fuck was she playing at? I bit my lip. She seemed to phrase a lot of things as questions, which had me wondering if she reallycouldn’tlie, and the questions were some sort of workaround.
She sashayed closer to him and traced a finger over his collarbone. “Torin, darling. When you first arrived, I thought I knew how I wanted to kill you.” Her finger brushed down his chest. “I thought I’d beat youunconscious and seal you up inside a tree so that when you woke, you’d find yourself entombed in oak, and you’d slowly starve to death over a few weeks, feasted on by bugs. Here, we give back to the forest.”
Bony fingers of dread wrapped around my heart.
“What iswrongwith you?” I whispered to myself, no longer able to restrain myself.
