Page 33 of King of the Unsightly

Then he patted my back with his wing at an awkward angle.

If I had told myself a month ago a bird would be consoling me, I would have laughed my ass off at the sheer absurdity. Yet, he perched there, comforting me.

“Thank you, Gren, but you can stop now.” I forced a smile, stood up, and dusted off my hands and knees, but the dirt still clung to my clothes.

So Lucien and I were both played for fools. He had no idea the woman he adored was toying with him.

My heart clenched and I tried like hell to stabilize myself as I clutched my hand to my chest.

Gren spoke, cutting me off before I spiraled further. “You need to learn magic. It’s the only way to deal with them. And I’m sorry. I should have known sooner. She was a part of your mom’s coven, and she did everything in her—” A violet light shot down from the sky and struck Gren’s chest like a lightning bolt.

Gren whimpered as the magical current pulsated in waves until it evaporated.

“GREN.” I scrambled to pick him up. “Are you okay?” I smoothed his feathers out, and a couple fell from where the bolt struck him.

“Yes,” Gren croaked. He shook his wings as they expanded to a couple of feet. “The oath is more potent than I anticipated.”

“I’m starting to see that nothing comes without a price.”

Gren didn’t respond, but he knew what I meant.

My options kept getting more limited, but it didn’t matter. I wouldn’t let anyone harm Lucien. There were some lines I would never cross, and letting a friend die in my place was one of them.

I would figure out the rest of the details later. Right now, my focus stayed on retrieving the other key.

“The fae is coming. Don’t speak a word of it. No one can be trusted until we know our plan of action. I know you won’t leave your boyfriend to rot,” Gren whispered.

I almost corrected him, but it held no importance if he thought Lucien was my boyfriend, so I nodded my head.

In a millisecond, Kaschel towered above me and scanned the area. His lips pressed in a fine line, his hair now loose and tousled. He looked chaotically untamed.

Gren stuck his beak out and glared at Kaschel, oddly cute for a crow.

“Your presence disappeared and now the air is thick with magic.What happened?” Kaschel growled, scrunching his face in aversion.

I wondered, if he thought I might betray him, would he cut me down where I stood?

I raised my chin and crossed my arms. “Can a girl not sit in the forest and be one with nature? It’s called meditating, you should try it sometime. It might fix your egotistical personality.” I pointed at him and headed back to the cabin.

Kaschel appeared stunned and he fell short of words—for once—or he didn’t want to indulge in my craziness. Well then, the feeling was mutual.

I trusted him as far as I could throw him. So telling him about his ex-lackey coming to visit and threaten me? Didn’t seem like the best idea until I understood the whole picture, which got more skewed by the second.

Gren and I wandered more than ten meters before the sinister cabin came into view.

“You’re going the wrong way.”

I shuddered from his voice—a delicate whisper in my ear. He hadn’t budged a muscle and stayed in the exact spot I left him.

Was he using magic? Uncalled for.

I took a deep breath and turned around. He definitely planned that. What a petty man.

With my head held high, I trudged to Kaschel’s side. “Then where to?” I asked and let all the annoyance roll off my tongue.

The side of Kaschel’s mouth curved into a smirk, and I yearned to wipe the conceited look right off his face.

God, he irked me in more ways than one.

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