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It hung between us in the warm, lifeless air, heavy as the mountains around us and as ephemeral as a scent on the wind.
I said nothing.
What was there to say? Veyka had just blamed her court for her brother’s death. As much as I hated to admit, I wasn’t inclined to disagree with her assessment.
Which meant that the elemental court was much more dangerous than I’d initially imagined. And the threats could not be kept out by sealing the entrances and setting a competent patrol. The threats lurked within.
Veyka sighed heavily, her shoulders drooping as she stomped past me. “Come. I am done for the night. Escort your queen back to her gilded cage.”
So I did.
34
VEYKA
I did not sleep.
I lay alone in my bed, counting the breaths, letting the heat flood my skin.
The heat that had nothing to do with the sweltering summer night and everything to do with the fae warrior asleep outside my bedroom door.
I’d seen the Brutal Prince for the first time tonight. The scars inked upon his flesh, a brutal reminder of the powers he carried. The vines of his talisman—a curse, as much as a gift.
And the beast…
That was what growled for me, not Arran Earthborn, my betrothed. But the beast that lived within him, the beast thatwashim. The beast that had claimed me as his own. I’d felt it when his nose touched my shoulder. Proprietary, inescapable. I wondered if Arran felt it too.
I could not forget, could not scrub the image from my memory.
I did not want to.
As my hands skimmed over my body, tweaking my nipples, nails dragging over my inner thigh, finally coming to touch my clit, hard and needy with arousal, I knew the truth.
I had finally seen the Brutal Prince.
And I was not afraid.
I wanted every inch of him.
Male.
And beast.
35
VEYKA
Queen of Secrets.
The citizens of Annwyn would not be able to accuse me of hiding myself away any longer. The doors to the goldstone palace were open, several wind-gifted guards keeping the way open over the Gremog’s strip of terror.
Any resident of Annwyn, be they terrestrial or elemental, rich or poor, could enter the goldstone palace today and make their plea to the queen and her prince. I smiled smugly to myself, knowing that in a few minutes I would be introduced as the Queen of the Elemental Fae, and Arran as His Highness, the Brutal Prince.
The terrestrials had no royal family. Their heirs for the Offering were selected each generation for their strength. Which meant that until we were joined, Arran remained a prince by courtesy only.
He appeared at my side, and I was reminded of how fucking childish that line of thought was. Only an idiot would think a title mattered to someone like Arran Earthborn. He didn’t need one to exude power.
Whatever words Esa used to introduce him, the male standing beside me looked every inch a king.
