Page 166 of Court of the Fae Princes

She pulls him into an embrace that lingers. Then he holds her too, and my heart feels… full. Not empty. Not jealous. Full.

“You guys are rank,” she says and laughs, waving her hand in front of her face.

“You didn’t smell like roses when we rescued you either,” I tell her. Laughter from all of us floats through the chamber. It’s a sound I never thought I’d hear.

Then she slides over to me and gives me a hug. I suspect she wanted to be quick, but I pull her close, not wanting to let her go. She smells like sunshine, warm cookies, and the outside world. But she feels even better. She feels like a woman that would fit perfectly against me… a theory I can’t wait to test out further.

Then she moves to Sulien. He won’t lift his head, so she does for him. “You’re okay.”

He shakes his head slowly.

“Maybe not right now, but you will be,” she says gently, then unchains him. “Let’s get you all out of here.”

Tucking herself under Sulien’s arm, she helps him rise, then glances at us. We manage to get to our feet with a few unmanly moans of pain. I bite my lip, fighting against the urge to lay right back down. Outside is freedom. A life with Cassia. All that’s down here is doom and gloom.

“I have something to tell you,” Sulien says, and Cassia pauses, looking at him in confusion. “Something important.”

Cassia’s face goes ghostly pale. “Prince Sulien…”

“I just need to tell the truth. Trust me.” His eyes plead with her. The rest of us stand there, watching them. Realizing this must be the secret that Sulien’s been so reluctant to share.

She gives him a slight nod, but the confidence is gone from her stance. “J-just don’t hate me,” she whispers, her gaze moving between us.

Like that’s even possible. No matter what she says, we’re not capable of hating our mate. She’s our everything. Our one and only. Surely, she has to know that by now?

Sulien takes a deep breath that rattles. “Cassia and I struck a deal the day of the ceremony. She would come, I would use a spell, and she would appear to be my mate.” That’s impossible. But he doesn’t give us time to react, just presses on. “I thought I had everything planned. It was a way for me to ensure I didn’t have a real mate, and it was a way to ensure her family was cared for.”

His words fall like an anchor around us. Cobar, Frost, and I look at each other, bewildered. If what he’s saying is true, Cassia isn’t really his mate, so isn’t our mate, either. Which is impossible. I’ve known lust. I’ve known infatuation. This is neither of those. This is love. It’s the bond between mates.

Yet, the way he speaks… he believes each word to be true.

“Impossible,” I say, shaking my head.

“It can’t be true.” Cobar sounds broken.

“It’s not,” Zane says confidently, almost angrily.

Cassia suddenly looks like she’s going to cry. “I’m so sorry. That’s why I tried to stay away from all of you. I knew the spell went wrong. I was never supposed to match with you. I’m not your true mate.” Now, tears are tracking down her cheeks. “I lied to you.”

“No,” I say, my heart screaming that it’s not true.

“That’s not the end of the story though,” Sulien whispers.

Cassia is still holding him, brushing tears off her face. “Yes. We’d wanted to fix it. I thought if I just refused to marry you, we could fix things. We weren’t planning to deceive you unless there was no other choice.”

Sulien slips off her shoulders, wincing. She tries to help again, but he shakes his head, then stands before us, barely strong enough to be on his own two feet. His face is blackened and bruised. His body is covered in whip marks and marks created from the jagged bones of the undead. “I’ve done all of you wrong by not sharing this. Especially you, Cassia,” he says, meeting her gaze. She, in turn, simply looks confused. “I never used the spell. We’re true mates. All four of us.”

Cassia’s mouth falls open, and she sucks in a deep breath, as if she’d forgotten to breathe for a moment. “That’s not possible.”

“I’d planned on using the spell, and then the sparks began, and it was too late. I didn’t know what to do, and then you matched with the others. In so many ways, I was in my own personal hell, having a mate that didn’t want me. Becoming my father–” His voice breaks.

A hushed silence falls over the room as his words sink in. Cassia is my mate. She rejected me because she thought she wasn’t. And now? She is my mate. She wants me. And I’m tied to the three men I now see as brothers.

And Sulien is just standing here looking like he’s ready for another beating? Fuck, no.

I stride toward Sulien and hug him gently, but also with enough gusto that he understands what I’m not saying out loud. Because of him, we all came together. Without him, our mate would’ve never come to the ball that night, and we never would have matched… I wouldn’t know her, and I wouldn’t have formed this brotherhood with Sulien, Cobar, and Frost. Sulien gave us all of this, even if it wasn’t done in the best way possible.

Pulling back, I squeeze his shoulder lightly and nod before looking at the others.

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