Page 66 of The Forbidden Fae King

I turn my simmering scowl on Keira, now hidden behind Klara, who whispers in her ear, and I beckon her forward. As she reaches my side, her sister’s facade of nonchalance falls away and Caitlin suddenly perches forward to the edge of her seat.

I place a hand on Keira’s arm. “Did you feel the bracelet?” I ask in a low tone.

“No, but I was too terrified to notice,” she murmurs.

“Keira, are you okay? He promised me you wouldn’t be hurt.” Caitlin stalks right off the dais and tries to charge past Cyprien, but he holds out his arm like a wall. She turns on him like a hissing wild cat. “You said she would be safe. He brought her to a damned ambush!”

“I said he would treat her well. I never promised she wouldn’t die from his stupidity.” Cyprien doesn’t lift his gaze from me. “Sit back down, Caitlin.”

The woman analyses Keira for so long I think she is going to defy him, but then returns to her throne.

“I’m fine, Caitlin,” Keira utters and the coiled tension falls from Caitlin’s shoulders.

I turn my hostility back to Cyprien. “Well, I’m here. What do youwant from me? I assume there is a reason you traveled all the way to the borderlands from the capitol.”

The smugness drops from his face and his eyebrows knit. “Aldrin, I’ve come to realize that I was wrong. That?—”

“I’m sorry. Can you say that again?” I can’t help the grin that grows on my face. He has always been too easy to rile up.

Cyprien gives me a deadpan look. “I was wrong.” He suddenly claps his hands. “Everyone out. We have things to discuss.”

Soldiers file out of the room. They are a volley with multiple currents, and my people are an island of stillness within them. Around us metal plate armor clanks, chain-mail rattles, and leather swishes.

Hawthorne resolves out of the mass of soldiers and approaches me. I look him up and down, searching for signs of assault, but the young man’s skin and clothes are clean. His hair is pulled into its usual neat topknot, with the sides of his head freshly shaven. There is a scar that runs over his right eye and down his cheek, but it is old.

I slap him on the back. “Were you treated well?”

“Yeah, like the rest of them,” Hawthorn says. “They shoved me in the barracks and I caught up with a few old friends. Kept an eye on me though, so I couldn’t escape or get word to you.” I nod and he leaves with the rest of them.

I grab hold of Keira, and motion for Silvan, Drake, and Klara to remain. They slink into the shadows, watching and waiting for any threat. I walk to the dais with Keira in tow, but Cyprien makes a show of takingmyseat again.

Lilly resolves out of the shadows and stands to Cyprian’s side, behind the throne, clearly still his second in command. I didn’t realize how much I missed her calm presence until her honey-gold eyes land on me, glowing with warmth.

She dips her head to me in acknowledgment, and the firelight shimmers off the tattoo of long lines and swirling runes that cover her forehead and entirely bald scalp in an intricate cap, in perfect harmony with her caramel skin. Earrings that run up her peaked ears and connected by a chain dance with the motion.

I drag my attention back to Cyprien, and stop just below the dais,though it kills me. “Tell me. Will you back me? Do you believe in the corruption now?”

Cyprien holds up a hand. “Not so fast. I was merely saying I was wrong in assuming you went so far as to let two human girls into this realm. Not even you would push it so far.”

Disappointment crashes within me. I may have won the first battle before I walked in the door, but the greater still lays ahead of me.

“No. I did not,” I mutter.

“We have become fast friends, Caitlin and I. She has told me a lot of interesting things about humans.” Cyprien raises a hand in her direction.

“Not fast enough friends, since you still hold me as your prisoner,” Caitlin snaps at him.

“You are my guest.” Cyprien gives her a sidelong glance, as though they have had this conversation countless times. “Have you not made friends here?”

Her cheeks color, but she mutters under her breath. “A guest that can’t leave.”

Cyprien leans forward in his seat, the thick braids of his long, dark hair flicking forward over his shoulder and the gold beads threaded into them clinking. “Do you know that when we brought her back here, she knocked three of my soldiers unconscious and almost burnt down an entire building in her attempt to escape and rescue her sister?”

I nudge Keira beside me and give her a sidelong smile. “The two of you are similar, then?”

She gives me a long, withering look. “I am still not happy with you. Do not forget our bargain.”

The reproach burns.

---