Page 146 of Court of the Fae Princes

We’re on the same page, and it’s blank.

“What does she want?” I ask the darkness. “What could she possibly gain from doing this to us?” My anger builds, but I have no one to take it out on, and no energy to even try.

Cobar shakes his head again. “She was just supposed to humiliate us, force us to do favors for her, even strip us and gawk. What she’s doing isn’t the standard for our courts. These kinds of deals aren’t followed through like this. It’s one of those unspoken rules of engagement. I don’t get it.”

Cobar pauses and eats his food from a plate to his side that I hadn’t even noticed. I look down at my plate. It all looks terrible, but I need the energy. I begin eating too, sinking down next to him, pondering if I should share what I think with Cobar or keep it to myself and let him flounder with his thoughts. Floundering would do his heart some good versus knowing what I think is the truth. Telling him will drain him of any hope he may have left.

But he deserves to know.

“The House of Death has chosen a different path,” I begin, debating about how carefully I should speak my thoughts aloud. “It’s not about humiliation or favors or anything like that. The Keeper of Death is isolating us. And keeping us hidden. There’s a reason.”

Cobar clenches his fist in frustration. “But what is it? What the fuck do they want?”

I release a slow breath and decide the hell with it. “They don’t intend to ever free us.”

Cobar turns to look at me, his expression surprised. “What makes you think that?”

Don’t hold back. He needs to know.

“If they let us go at this point, our courts would rain down their wrath on the House of Death. They’ve gone too far. Their only solution now is to never let us go, knowing the deal we struck will provide them with some safety.”

His eyes widen. “That never even crossed my mind.”

I wince as I feel the iron demons bashing against the barrier. It takes effort, more effort than I ever imagined to reinforce the barrier, but I manage it, with the help of the other princes’ magic. I can feel it feeding the barrier, from all four of us. When I look at Cobar, dragging in air once more, he’s rubbing his head, looking miserable.

He finishes the food on his plate, his expression upset. “We’re the only ones who can rule. The only ones who can keep the barriers up against the iron demons. We can’t last forever against this torture.”

“I know.”

“So, how do we get out of this situation? How do we keep our word and keep our people safe?”

That’s the question of the hour. It lingers in the air, heavy with the fate of our courts in its answer. How do we get out of this?

“We don’t have any good options,” I say. “If we fight back or try to escape, the breaking of our word will cause pain beyond even what the Keeper of Death is capable of. We won’t make it far enough to make any difference at all.”

“So, we have absolutely zero good options.” Cobar shakes his head in disbelief. “There’s no way to escape a deal with a fae.”

He’s right… but my thoughts start turning. All wealthy fae hear fairy tales about the fae from a young age. Fairy tales that we more or less consider our history, since we have so little written history from the time the humans ruled. These stories are used to teach young fae about our ways. In those tales, we learned that it was rare, if not impossible, to escape a fae deal, but there was still hope.

I lean in, glancing around the shadows of the room, and whisper, “We find another deal. We strike an agreement that tips the scales in our favor. It’s the only way out.”

“Another deal,” he repeats, then he smiles. “Zane, you’re a genius.”

“Yet, it’ll need to be a good one to entice the Keeper.”

He frowns, nodding.

“One that doesn’t involve getting a woman to love us.”

Without another word exchanged between us, Cobar and I sit in silence. Despite my best intentions, my intentions to focus on a deal to get us out of this, my thoughts drift to Cassia. At the very thought of her name, my head pounds with a different kind of pain than I’ve been experiencing over the past few days. I feel our connection. I feel the way my soul is tied to hers. And yet… she rejected us.

“Why?” The question slips from my lips before I can stop it, my pain too raw to control my mouth. “Why did she reject us?”

It’s the question we’ve all been asking ourselves since we climbed on our horses that morning and made our way here. All logic says that Cassia should have accepted us without hesitation. She was our mate. She would be elevated to queen after marrying us. We had saved her, risking life and limb for our bride.

And she’d rejected us still.

“There must have been something she needed that we couldn’t give her.”

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