Page 83 of The Fae King's Labyrinth

“She is the key! What is her name? Humans are always careless with their names. I will summon her.”

“How should I know what she’s called?” Grizzlemunch didn’t bother to hide the irritation in his voice. “She is human and disposable.”

“Fool!” The Unseelie king roared in anger. “She is how he broke my curse!”

“Callie,” a guard, standing beside the throne, volunteered hastily. “I heard the king call her Callie.”

Cold anger pierced through my calm. I glared at the guard, memorizing his features. He would pay for that betrayal. Not that anyone could summon my wife with that name. Nicknames had very little power, especially those that were rarely used.

Calypso stirred in my arms, her growing fear tangible beneath my breastbone as our invaders’ attention shifted toward me.

“That isn’t your true name,” I reminded her in sotto voce. “He can’t summon you.”

“But that is what he called the cat,” another of the guards commented, gripping his weapon still in its sheath. “I bet she is the cat. She’s probably a shapeshifter.”

The Unseelie king rounded to face me. Despite the half a throne room between us, I could see the malice in his eyes as he glared at Callie. “Seize the cat!”

“Stay behind me,” I commanded as I set her down and drew my sword. Straightening to my full height, I accessed my birthright. My magic flooded forward, eager to be used in the service of my mate. “Touch my wife at your own risk.” Tapping into my magic, I hurled a paralysis spell at the other king. It was time to end this once and for all.

Off to my left, the throne room was growing hazy and the heavy tingle of ancient magic brushed my senses. I ignored it as I met the first troll’s attack with my raised sword. Vorpalus sang with power as he flared bright and golden amidst the growing misty haze.

“Cease this drama, Greyson!” the Unseelie king commanded. “If you cause me to lose this fight, I will see you lose your status in my court.”

“I made my stance on this issue clear from the beginning, sire.” Greyson’s rumble at my back caught me by surprise.

I drove the troll backward deeper into the growing magical fog until he tripped and fell over something neither of us could see. “To your right,” Greyson warned.

I swung around mere seconds before a second troll brought a great ax down on my head. I sidestepped the blow. The ax head cracked the tiles where I had been standing. Triggering a blindness spell, I blasted the troll full in the face and then bashed the side of his head with the flat of my sword. He fell to his knees before crumpling over; Vorpalus hummed with satisfaction.

Calypso barely leaped out of the falling assailant’s way with a hiss before launching herself at my leg. In a hasty series of claw pricks, her small gray body scrambled up my back. Calypso perched herself on my shoulders, winding around the back of my head. “Mert,” she chirped in my ear as her soft tail caressed my cheek.

“Not the safest place,” I told her. A third troll clopped in from behind. I raised my blade to engage, but Greyson reached him first. Magic flared and for a moment, I thought I glimpsed black wings and massive claws. However, when I blinked, the fog cleared from my watering eyes and Greyson stood over the inert form of our would-be attacker.

“You saw nothing,” Greyson informed me evenly as he adjusted his gloves.

“Nothing,” I agreed.

“King Az.” I turned as a shadow elf melted from the gray haze. “All assailants except the Dullahan have been subdued.” The elf eyed Greyson. “We assume you do not wish for him to be likewise constrained considering his actions to defend you.”

“Correct.” I turned to Greyson. “Would you clear the air?”

With a sharp nod, Greyson complied, drawing in his magic. Within moments, the fog, mist, and haze rolled back into nothingness, revealing all the trolls bound, on their knees, facing the far wall. Only the Unseelie king and my councilor remainedstanding, but both of them were under guard by at least two shadow elves.

Greyson silently approached his glaring king. “Sire,” he said with a bow.

“Traitor,” the Unseelie king hissed.

Greyson positioned himself behind the king’s shoulder as though his sovereign had said nothing at all.

“Now,” I announced as I turned to confront my former councilor. “Does anyone here know how to perform a truth spell?”

But before anyone could answer me, a great dragon roar shook the walls of the castle. Everyone’s heads turned at the sight of Ghost’s body hurtling past the windows.

“Perhaps it would be best to find out what’s going on out there first,” the shadow elf commander suggested.

I didn’t bother to respond. Placing a steadying hand on Calypso as she hunched over my shoulder, I strode toward the main corridor.

Twenty-one

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