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This was where I belonged. Here, in Faerie, the smoke rose from the ruins of an ancient war. Peace reigned, even if nightmares would plague us for a while.
The fae had been tempered in the fires of a mountain goddess to live lives that were wild and incandescent. But we didn’tneedbloodshed. The Unseelie lived for duty, the Seelie for pleasure.
And now, I was pretty sure I wanted nothing more than to indulge in the Seelie world.
But as I lay back in his bed, a familiar magic skimmed over my skin, the warm, liquid power I’d felt when my brother had healed me.
I rose from Torin’s bed and crossed to one of his towering windows. Spring had blossomed outside already—within just hours, the snow had melted. The icy walls still stood, but they were fast becoming slush. Green grass spread out from the castle, and a carpet of bluebells strained for the setting sun.
But my breath caught at the sight of two dark-winged figures standing at the edge of the forest, their long shadows slanting over the grass. Twilight, when the worlds thinned...
Morgant and Mab stared at my window, washed in rosy light. My heartbeat sped up, and I felt as if I were looking at ghosts. I stared at them and lifted a hand.
In the distance, my brother waved back.
“What do you think you will do here, as queen?” asked Torin.
I turned back to him, my heart slamming hard. Flat on his back, he threaded his fingers behind his head.
When I glanced outside again, Mab and Morgant had disappeared. My heart clenched, and I breathed out slowly.
“Who says I plan to be queen here?” I asked, my voice shaking.
His lips quirked. “We do technically have a contract.”
I pressed my hands to my chest. “That’s so romantic. You also owe me fifty million, by the way.”
He went very still. “You are staying, aren’t you?”
As if there was any question. I climbed back into the bed next to him, feeling as if I’d just woken from another dream. “I suppose I could open my bar here. Chloe’s? That’s been my whole plan all along, really.”
He brushed his knuckles along my bicep. “The Seelie king and his demon bride.”
“We can get married, but at the wedding, I draw the line at sacrifices. We should fuck around bonfires and in the woods. I was promised this kind of party when I first got here.”
A mischievous smile curled his lips. “At a wedding, changeling? Honestly.”
“A Beltane wedding.” I smiled. “Don’t you remember promising me Beltane?We fuck each other hard up against the oak trees,” I began in my best imitation of his voice, “rending the forest air with the sounds of our ecstasy. When was the last time you forgot your name? That you forgot your own mortality? Because that is what it means to be fae. I could make you ache with pleasure until you forgot the name of every human who ever made you think there was anything wrong with you.”
He stared at me, his dark pupils dilated. The look he was giving me sent a hot electric thrill through me, and the power of his magic caressed my skin. “You remembered that word for word.”
“It’s seared into my memory, and I plan to have it engraved on your tombstone.”
“Are you plotting my death already?”
“Just reminding you of what you promised.”
“Who am I to tell the demon queen no?” He strokeda finger lightly up one of my horns, sending a shudder through me.
He slid his hand into my hair, then pressed his lips against mine, capturing my mouth with his. The kiss started sweet, then deepened into something fiercer, hungrier. Desperate. As if we could sweep away the nightmares of death with the sensual magic of a kiss.
If anyone possessed that kind of magic, I was certain it was my Seelie king.
43
SHALINI
Six months later.
