Page 24 of Fae Crown

My gaze landed on her easily. I’d already known exactly where she sat. I’d found her the moment I entered the room, before even finding the queen, the number-one threat.

Curious, that. I wondered why. Elowyn was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. That, I’d realized the instant I first laid eyes on her, when she’d entered the Great Salon of Delicacies to sit as far away from meas possible by order of the queen. Her eyes, face, lips, body … all of her had lured me toward her as if she were a flower with the sweetest nectar and I a starving bird.

She possessed … an undeniable allure.

But she was also one of the few who was new, someone perhaps as of yet untainted by the court of Embermere. Surely, Elowyn was far safer without my attention.

When I next found the queen, she crouched at Elowyn’s feet. Several orbs floated around them, illuminating the women’s faces. The queen’s was too still, too calm, when I would wager she was contemplating murder.

In contrast to the eerie placidity of the queen, too many emotions for me to name warred across Elowyn’s face. Beneath the silver glow, her eyes were a dark and furious violet. Her nostrils flared with that same fury. Her lips were … fucking perfect, shit. So fucking perfect. They waggled in every direction as if Elowyn were attempting to settle herself. If she was, her efforts were failing spectacularly. With the hard set of her shoulders, the rigidity of that long, delicate column that was her throat. The heaving of her plump breasts pushed upward by her corset, their swells smooth, milky, enticing curves…

By dragons’ veins, I shouldn’t have let the guys convince me the umbrac poison would dull my misery.

At least I now knew if I struggled to get hard withthe queen, I should picture Elowyn’s face across hers. Elowyn could forgive me for what she’d never know.

Interesting that, too. The women’s features were oddly similar. The long, dark, slightly wavy hair. The arched brows, the straight noses, the high cheekbones, and plump lips. The big, round eyes, different colors but comparable in shape.

The women could easily be sisters. One repelled me, the other drew me toward her with the promise of nectar.

Yet another time I realized seconds had slipped by and I’d missed them.

The queen had flung the skirts of Elowyn’s dress up over her knees, revealing lean, strong legs pressed into barely-there high-heels. My cock jerked at the sight of those legs and their lines of sleek muscle, and I leaned to the side to better see around the queen.

Elowyn’s thighs were also on display, yes, but so was how viciously the queen dug her fingers—nay,claws—into Elowyn’s skin. Droplets of blood trickled around the queen’s fingers, a deep, dark crimson in the dim lighting.

The anger and accusation that scrunched up Elowyn’s face didn’t waver, and I found myself leaning in her direction a bit more. Who was this strange woman who dared defy this legendary queen? Where had she been all this time?

Her eyes flicked to mine. Her brow arched in surprise when she found me staring.

The most lethal woman in the entire Mirror Worldwas inches from her face, already drawing blood, and … the anger washed away from Elowyn’s face.

She smiled at me, and for several moments it was like storm clouds had parted to reveal the sun.

The queen drew her arm back and slapped Elowyn across the face so hard that Elowyn was left blinking in a daze. Despite the suddenness of the strike, none of the other females so much as gasped this time. Not with the queen so close to them. So ready to punish any one of them—or all of them.

They had to know as well as I did that the Fae Heir Trials was a convenient narrative for the queen to ultimately choose the heirs she wanted.

That fresh reminder of why I was here, why I was even willing to do what I’d come here tonight to do, was sufficient to loosen the fists that had balled at my sides, the tension in my jaw, and relieve the desire to run to Elowyn’s aid. It also gave me a whole new reason to want to rip the queen’s head from her shoulders.

Already, a red mark in the shape of the queen’s fingers bloomed across that perfect cheek.

After another glance at me, Elowyn tilted up her chin so she’d have to look down at the queen. A risk, and a big one. The queen’s second hand rejoined the first around Elowyn’s thighs and more blood dripped down that perfect skin.

Elowyn didn’t so much as wince, nor did she seek to soothe the sting of her cheek. Steadily—so fucking bravely—she held the queen’s stare as she said, “Even if Rush is ‘eager to please’ and he’s here of his ownvolition”— she didn’t bother to disguise her obvious skepticism—“that doesn’t mean anyone here should treat him with such awful lack of respect and dignity.”

Now, some of the others did gasp. I couldn’t recall ever hearing anyone speak to the queen like this.

“He’s aman, and a very good one at that. He’ll make a fineprince. You know what he isn’t, Your Majesty? A collection of body parts to beoohed andahhed over.” Her mouth twisted in disgust. “To be ogled over loudly, like he’s not even in the room with us listening to every word.” At that, she glared at Natania and Malina, temporarily ignoring the monstrous queen who was close enough to bite.

I stalked away from Ivar so he couldn’t sneak up behind me while I continued to study Elowyn. This was all about me? She was upset about how they were treatingme? Didn’t she realize I had to be here? That there was no better choice? That many others would die if I didn’t please the crazy woman with a crown who could order anyone dead at any moment for any reason or none at all? Who could withhold Braque’s treatments of Larissa among a thousand other things?

“He’s not just adick, even if it’s a beautiful one, to take your pleasure from,” Elowyn continued to the loudest rounds of gasps yet. She spun to her right again, pointing at Natania, who craned her neck back and away. “Not for any of you.”

Once Elowyn silenced, everyone, even her and me, waited to see what the queen would do next.

After a final squeeze of Elowyn’s thighs thatcaused steady lines of blood to drip along her skin and to the floor between them, the queen pushed back and stood. Despite her bare feet and legs, her near nudity, she somehow still managed to appear all-powerful, and it wasn’t solely due to her crown that wouldn’t budge.

“You don’t have to be here,” the queen said too casually for the circumstances. “If you don’t appreciate the nature of the entertainment I’ve secured for you tonight, then you can leave.”

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