Page 63 of Blood On His Lips

“Aerinne!” Numair’s alarmed voice reached me and I straightened just as I felt Darkan growl in m mind.

I whirled around, slapping my hands on his chest and shoving him backwards. It wasn't dignified, it certainly wasn't very lordly, but it broke the tension and got my point through.

“I said give us a minute,” I said, voice ragged. “Everyone is already on edge, and you're making it worse.”

He thinks you are his,Darkan said.I will kill him if you do not control him, Aerinne. I will not suffer this. He is no longer a child. He looks at you with covetous eyes.

GET OUT OF MY HEAD.

“Numair,” Juliette murmured.

She was frowning, her widened gaze flickering between all of us. Clearly, she was no happier with the situation. Usually it was Numair trying to drag her and I off some type of ledge rather than the other way round. But I suppose we had all gotten on his last nerve today—and he was male, after all. He could only maintain his composure for so long.

I was going to have to talk with him soon. He deserved to know that we could never be together. Even if I still wanted it—Renaud would kill him. Without a second thought.

As my guards retreated, I turned back to Renaud and Nayya. My gaze clashed with his for a second. “I don't suppose we can take this conversation somewhere private?”

Right now, getting him away from people I cared about, who could be used against me, was my main priority. I was unraveling at the seams, and I wanted nothing more than to fall apart in a dark corner somewhere, but with power comes responsibility blah.Fucking.BLAH. I shoved aside my splintering heart and psyche and focused on calm.

Nayya’s gaze brushed my face, something like approval glinting in her eyes, and then that emotion was gone.

“I agree,” the Prince murmured. He turned to his mother. “I must ask you to depart my territory. We will speak later.”

I stared at him. He was exiling his own mother? Another cold example of how different the High Fae were from the Low Fae.

Nayya returned his stare. “We will speak now.”

“You enter my territory, without my leave, and manipulate my bonded without my permission.” The edge in his soft voice worried me. This was hismother.He was treating her like a threat. That didn’t bode well for how he might treat me when I was powerful enough to warrant it. “You will leave now and take my father with you. Or we will have a significant disagreement.”

“We need to—”

She shattered. Disappeared. Was swallowed by shadows. I wasn't quite sure which, except that suddenly she was gone. I stepped forward, examining the place where she’d just stood, then turned to Renaud, my eyes wide.

He lifted a hand. “I did not kill her. She is not dead.”

“She wasn’t here.”

“It was a projection.” He glanced towards the forested area, gaze intent for a moment as if he were determining that his parents really were gone, then he faced me fully. “We have much to discuss, little one.”

The endearment was a slap in the face, a reminder of everything between us. I closed my eyes for a brief moment. Embriel had warned me. Had warned me when I was fourteen to flee and not return if my goal for my life was to remain in control of my destiny, to guard the integrity of my will. He'd known his father, known his grandmother, I now realized. But I’d been young and jealous, and had rejected his offer of aid.

Then, of course, years later I’d killed him. If I hadn’t hated Renaud before, I did now. I never would have raised a hand against Embry if I’d retained my memories. Or maybe I would have. I’d been jealous, and the training games Raniel had played with me had stoked my dark side, designed to strengthen my avatar. But. . .I didn't think Renaud knew.

It was another memoryRanielhad taken from me. . .or Darkan. I would have to untangle what aspect of this man I was dealing with at what time. The three males who were as entwined with me as my own spine, and they were all the same person.

I needed to retreat and think. To unravel the secrets of my past. To build my interior defenses against the Prince so I could meet him on as even a playing field as possible. If I had known this the other night, I never would have played that game with him. Never. I didn’t think Nora would have given me the same advice if she’d known.

Instinctively, with a flash of awareness birthed by the bond between us, I understood that Raniel’s fractured psyche was protecting itself. Raniel knew Embriel was dead, and at my hand. Darkan knew.Renauddid not.

. . .Not yet. Renaud, the unstable part of him, the dangerous part, did not know.

Realms. When he woke, fully woke to everything, I didn't know if I would survive. Raniel had loved his son.

For a wild moment, I considered falling on my sword. It would be a swifter, cleaner death. Instead, I focused on the Prince’s face, on the eyes now more gray than blue. I searched for any trace of Raniel, my childhood companion, the first male I had begun to love as I grew into adulthood. Simultaneously I began to imprint his face onto the mental image of Darkan. This was still that face on my dart board.

The face of my enemy.

And DarkanRaniel had watched and listened to me rant about killing the Prince foryears, and he’d said nothing.

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