Saetth said, “As soon as you’ve uncovered weaknesses, we will extract you.”
Lila’s palm sweated through her opera glove as she gripped the dossier. “You want me to be a spy? This mortal realm is bad enough, but at least I’m not damned.” And mated!
How could fate have screwed her over like this? Lila’s tiara must be on too tight. She’d cut off circulation to her brain or something.
Saetth’s lips thinned. “When I first heard N?x’s plan, it sounded as if I’d be sending a lamb into the lion’s den. But the demon will be compelled by his instinct to protect and care for you.”
“And also to claim me.” Nausea churned at the thought.
N?x said, “I’ve assured Saetth that the demon cannot and will not hurt you. Abyssian’s tender feelings for you will make it easy to coax secrets from him.” She tapped her chin with a pink claw. “Of course, you might have to encourage those feelings. . . .”
“Encourage? You want me to seduce a monster, one among a group of them that I’ve hated and feared my entire life? This just gets better and better!”
“You don’t have to go all the way.” N?x winked. “Just a great deal of the way.”
Aghast, Lila asked Saetth, “You wouldn’t mind another male’s hands all over me? A M?ri?r touching your future queen?”
He exhaled, as if he found her attitude tiresome. “Perhaps if I were a demon myself. But I’m better than that. I know this is the only logical course, and I’m not ruled by primitive instincts.”
N?x collected more cotton candy for the bat. “Speaking of instincts, Abyssian might be turning a jot more demonic of late. But with the Accession coming around, who isn’t—am I right? Just be sure to stay feisty with him. He’ll like that.”
Feisty? At times, Lila nearly choked on her rage toward the M?ri?r.
Saetth said, “If there were any alternative, I would undertake it.”
N?x’s gaze flashed to him, and Lila could have sworn a spark of . . . animosity lit the Valkyrie’s eyes.
It passed so quickly, Lila thought she’d imagined it. “I just wanted to come home,” she said, though the opportunity to plot against the bogeymen did hold some appeal.
When she thought of the endless nightmares she’d had about them—waking to her own scream, still feeling the fey-slayer’s arrow in her chest—fury surged.
And Saetth shared much of that blame. He’d sent her to the mortal realm with only a few belongings. No ID, no money, no way to contact him.
Early on, she’d rationalized his behavior: My parents did try to kill him.
But lately, she’d decided to call a dick a dick.
“Accomplish this mission,” Saetth said, “and you will come home. As my queen.”
Lila had three pie-in-the-sky dreams: to live safely in Sylvan, to be the queen, and to start a family that would also live in safety. A distant fourth was the hope that she’d fall in love one day.
Saetth could make three of her dreams come true. He was a means to an end.
All she had to do was give up any sappier hopes. As a calculating fey royal, I should have no problem doing that.
“You know we will do well together,” Saetth said. “With your ingenious mind and my ruthlessness, we will be unstoppable. Which means Sylvan will be unstoppable.” Gazing down at her, he said, “We’ll celebrate your success with a wedding. You’ve always wanted your own family. You could welcome our babe before the year is out. We’ll get started on that upon your return.”
“My return.” Like a glass of cold water tossed in her face. “From seducing the oldest demon alive.” Her groping sessions with furries notwithstanding, Lila wasn’t exactly seductress material.
N?x pouted. “But you don’t have to go all the way.” Then the soothsayer grew abruptly serious, and a lightning bolt fractured the sky in a spectacular display. The crowds below gasped, thinking it was a part of the show. Thunder boomed with such force that the castle shuddered. “I’ve foreseen this future—if you journey to hell, you will save Sylvan from the M?ri?r. Because of your sacrifice, your people will be protected. For an eternity of eternities.”
Dramatic much?
“I’ve also foreseen that if you don’t journey to hell, the M?ri?r will declare war on Sylvan—imminently. Just as they leveled my home, they will destroy yours. Then the archer will use his new foothold in the fey realm to uncover more of the royal line.”
Lila didn’t care about any of her cousins; they ran the gamut from scummy to vile. She’d only ever cared about her own survival and maybe Saetth’s. “If the demon knows I’m one of the archer’s specific targets, he could turn me over to his ally despite his . . . matehood with me.” A sentence she’d never thought she’d say. “I might not get a chance to encourage anything.” Don’t vomit.
N?x shook her head. “With your human accent and ballsy ways, he’ll never suspect you’re a princess of anything—just as long as you don’t let on that you know you’re his mate.”
Sylvan’s destruction versus a throne and a family.
As Lila had struggled to survive over these years, she’d at least had the hope of returning to her beloved kingdom. Would she allow its ruin because she wasn’t ready to sacrifice for her people?
Isn’t sacrifice what queens do? “How would I begin?”
N?x said, “Go about your regular daily life—it’s an excellent cover. We’ll arrange for the infiltration.”
“How?”