When she stood on the tips of her toes, her breath mingling with mine, she whispered, “He put his lips upon my cheek and upon my lips, and kissed me so that I would remember him.”
She was off making love with some faery last night? No, not love. There was no love shining in her eyes when she mentioned him.
Nothing but coldness.
Piercing anger suddenly coursed through my veins. No, not anger. Rage. My fingers curled and I wanted to pound my fist into the door casing.
In a blink, the rage shifted, and now I felt her fire as she burned me. I was writhing inside, begging her to stop, but suffocated by her smoke. I clawed at my neck. And the reddish haze fell over my vision again.
What’s happening to me?
The fire in me was hotter than the flames that were beginning to taper on the porch.
My rage crested, thinking of another man’s lips on hers. I didn’t want her to make such bargains. Didn’t want her to separate herself from her sister. Not for anything.
She tilted her head, watching me with narrowed eyes. “What’s wrong with you?”
She saw too much and she gave too much of herself away to people who weren’t worthy of her. Grabbing her wrists, I bared my teeth at her. “You would trade your body to end your sister?”
She smiled. “It hasn’t come to that yet, but yes, I suppose I would.”
“Then you’re no better than she is,” I whispered. “What wouldn’t she give to ruin you? By doing this, aren’t you giving her exactly what she wants?”
Hurt flashed in her feline eyes, but it was what she needed to hear, even if she didn’t want to hear it.
I didn’t tell her about the final gift. A letter, addressed to me, sent from Aura. It lay in my pocket, folded and unread. But I could remedy that. As soon as I got a drink.
“I have an errand to run,” she finally said, taking a step backward.
“Errand? Do you mean meeting other men, or is it an appointment with the same one?” I shouted.
She gave a sinister smile. “Oh, tonight I’ll be meeting another. You may know him. Prince Terigon of Ringsted.”
I shook my head disgustedly.
When she pulled her hands out of my grasp, it was like I’d been doused with a bucket of cold water. “It isn’t what you think,” she added, her voice softer. “I plan to remove his tongue.”
“Were you doing that to me just now?”
“Doing what?”
“Burning me from the inside out,” I gritted.
She narrowed her eyes. “No, I was not.”
Another side effect of her spell, perhaps?
Calming my breaths and pounding heart, I asked, “Why on earth would you cut out his tongue?”
“Because he is a liar, and because Malex’s spell requires it. There are other ingredients I’ll have to find as well, should removing the tongue of a firstborn prince prove more difficult than I imagine. Just be lucky it isn’t your tongue he asked for,” she warned.
“You would do it, too. You’d remove my tongue – my head – if he asked. If it served your purpose.”
“One mute prince to save hundreds, maybe thousands? I could sleep peacefully knowing those figures.”
“Of course you could.”
She inhaled deeply and locked her eyes onto mine. “I can’t let her keep doing this. In the spring, we’ll be at the age of maturity, which is when her powers and mine will peak. She’ll be able to blast through the binding salts I’ve used to seal her in. She’ll be crowned, and no one will be able to stop her. Right now, I have a slight advantage with what little magic I do wield in addition to our powers over the elements. But that advantage will shrivel like a grape on the vine at our birthday, and then we will be equally matched in every way. Besides, Malex said that if I don’t sever our life forces now, I’ll never be able to. I will forever be leashed to someone I hate. I can’t live like that. Now, you can either understand that and help me, or you can leave. But know that if you choose the latter, you won’t make it very far. My sister will kill you, and she’ll enjoy every second of it.”
“I wouldn’t go near Virosa.”
“You would. She would slip into your mind and make you walk there, and you wouldn’t even realize it until she stood in front of you with a saccharine, poisonous smile.”
“Why do you care? Is it just because you loved my brother?”
“Isn’t it enough that I do care, Prince, without questioning the reasoning behind it?” With those words, she turned, strode across the room, grabbed her broom along the way, and left the cottage. “You could come with me,” she added from the porch where she stood waiting. Her eyes glowed back at me.
I blew out a breath, tension melting slightly from my muscles.
“I can keep you safe,” she added.
Blinking rapidly, I tried to understand the emotions, the fire that had just roiled through me. It was like when she used her magic, her flame lit me on fire. Not my body or clothes, but me. My emotions and thoughts became scrambled, angry, and incoherent. “I’m sorry for what just happened... I don’t know what came over me.” I tried to search myself for why I was so upset with her. She wasn’t mine. I didn’t have a claim on her.
“It’s fine. You’ve been through a lot, and now that my sister knows you’re here...” she trailed off, shaking her head. “Ember, find a wolf,” she ordered, and her familiar took off into the woods to hunt. How they would communicate once she found it—and somehow, I knew Ember would—was something I didn’t understand.
I blew out a breath, tension melting slightly from my muscles.
If Aura was mad, I didn’t want her to harm my family. I would go with Luna, but I wouldn’t help her carry out these dark tasks.
Luna let out a low chuckle, and my eyes snapped to her. “Why are you laughing?”
She stared at me for a long moment. “I didn’t laugh.”
The distance between us was naught but a few feet, but it seemed like miles in that moment. Was she toying with me?
“Are you feeling well, Prince?” she asked, concern wrinkling her brow.
I swallowed. “I’m fine.”
But I wasn’t fine. I was feeling things that didn’t exist and hearing things that weren’t there. If this was the result of her spell, she’d made a bad one.
chapter eleven
PHILLIP
With a small leather bag tied at her waist, Luna sat on the broom, her dark skirts hanging off it. “Hop on.”
“We’re going to Ringsted?”
“No, since you’re coming along, I’ll get the easiest ingredients out of the way first.”
She meant the safest. She wouldn’t want me to get my princely hands dirty.
“What ingredients are we going after?”
Laughing, she replied, “Whichever we can find.”
“You have no plan whatsoever, do you?”
“Not really. But I won’t fail, Prince.”
“My name is Phillip. Why won’t you use it?” She was infuriating. And beautiful. Even with the marks of the dark fae, she was enchanting. I shook my head to clear it and sat down on the back of her broom.
“Hold my waist, Phillip. I won’t bite... much.”