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“Sit.” Edric took a drag of his cigar and slowly blew out the smoke. “You are aware Colin and my mother are cousins, yes?”
“Yes.” For now, I wasn’t his equal. I was above him, which meant to hell with his commands. I would sit when I wanted.
Annoyance flickered across his face, but he didn’t address my snub. Maybe he was more intelligent than he looked. “Despite their close genetics, Colin decided at a young age that he would marry my mother and become King of the Otherworld while the Summer Court was in power.”
I blinked. That was some hefty news.
“Only that’s not how it works in your world or mine,” Edric said. “As they grew older, Colin’s obsession with my mother deepened until he demanded she change the fae law and allow him as her consort. She refused and asked him to leave the Summerlands.
“When he resisted, she told him she’d never loved him more than as a brother and that a Spring Court fae would never rule the Otherworld. Especially not at her side.”
Ouch. I slid onto a chair, totally engrossed in the story.
“If only more people knew their places in this world,” Xavier sighed.
I raised an eyebrow. If the vampire followed his own advice, he would be dead. Because his place in this world was six feet under and rotting a millennium ago.
“I’m sure you can imagine how well Colin took that news,” Edric continued. He swirled the ice in his glass before taking a sip. “To punish his subsequent egregious behavior, my mother stripped him of his wings and banished him from the Summerlands. Forever.”
My jaw dropped open, and Lena sucked in her breath behind me. That explained why he hadn’t shown his wings in the Otherworld. He didn’t have any.
But taking a fae’s wings was absolute blasphemy, even for a queen. I shuddered to think what he’d done to deserve such a fate, how far he must have pushed her.
“What did he do to her?” I asked.
Edric’s grip on his glass tightened. “We do not speak of it, but he deserved her punishment and much more. She should have killed him.”
“This doesn’t make sense,” Thane said, frowning. During the story, he sat in the chair beside me, and I hadn’t even noticed. “When we last visited, he escorted us into the Summer Palace and gained an audience with Queen Fiadh. They’re still close, or at the very least, he’s no longer banished.”
Edric’s jaw clenched. “The woman you saw is not my mother.”
“Well, that’s not completely true.” Xavier puffed on his cigar.
“She’s spellbound, and he controls her like a puppet,” Edric argued. “That may be my mother’s body, but nothing she says or does is her own. She’s trapped in her own mind.”
“How was he able to bind the queen?” Thane asked. His eyebrows were drawn together tight.
“Everyone has a weakness, and Colin knew my mother’s from their early years as friends. And no, I won’t tell you what that weakness is, but it worked.” Edric gulped down his remaining whiskey. “She knew he was planning something, for years. She even ordered our people home for the inevitable war, but it was too late.”
Ah. So it wasn’t because she had a thing against half-bloods like rumors suggested. Too bad her plan hadn’t worked.
The prince set his empty glass on the side table harder than necessary “Regardless, Colin has an extraordinary amount of magic for a member of the Spring Court and an inflated ego to match.”
The bartender slipped out from behind the bar to retrieve the glass. As he bent forward, his eyes stared ahead with a glossy look. He wiped the table with a crisp white towel and returned to his station behind the counter.
“I still don’t get how this helps us,” I said, eyeing the human bartender. I wasn’t sure who controlled him, but it seemed hypocritical considering the prince’s outrage at Colin doing the same to his mother. “Except now we know the Queen isn’t in control, which doesn’t ensure a victory.”
A smile played across the prince’s lips. “It does when I can get close enough to her to break the spell.”
“What’s stopping you?” I asked, annoyed. We wouldn’t be in this mess if he had broken the spell.
“Despite his lesser court status, Colin’s magic outstrips mine. I simply don’t have enough to break it,” he explained with a shrug.
“So you left her there to rot while you ran like a coward?” Thane asked, condescension dripping from each word of his accusation.
Edric narrowed his eyes at my mate. “When I realized what he’d done, I had to hide or face the same punishment as my mother. I can’t help her if he binds me as well.”
Thane made a sound of disapproval and pressed his lips together. Knowing him, there wasn’t a chance in hell he would leave his mother behind, tortured by a madman.
