Page 171 of Bride of the Fae Prince

I must be careful about this.

“I believe we do, my High King,” I say. I do not give the false nonchalance and carelessness I usually wear. Instead, I’m serious, forthright. “What is it that you want from me?”

“Compliance.”

I draw in a breath through my teeth. “Compliance for what?”

“Everything.”

I nod slowly. “You wish to tell me you want something, and for me to say ‘Yes, Father,’ and go do it?”

Teeth glitter back at me. “Exactly.”

I narrow my eyes at him, take one step closer to him. To Stella in the palm of his hand. “Do you want that more or less than you want me dead?”

He thinks for a moment. Gives Stella another toss that sends my gut swooping once more. “Less.”

Rahk is doing his best to not react, but he blinks just a smidge too quickly at that. Many people know Faradir is corrupt. Few people know how deep his hatred truly runs.

Or perhaps . . . how deep hisfearruns.

“Easier to start over with a new heir than risk this one turning on you,” I say, and take another step closer.

Pointed incisors gleam at me. “You understand.”

“I understand some,” I correct, tilting my head to one side. “But there are other things I do not understand. For example, why you have trapped my wife in a spell instead of killing her.”

Faradir shifts in his throne, sitting up instead of lounging. “Ah! That. Yes.” He takes the globe, brings it closer to his eye, and gives it a quick shake.

My blood pounds as Stella hits the roof of the globe, then falls back to the bottom . . . and stays there. My hands clench intofists. For a second, my vision goes black with fury. I breathe, count to five, and wait until the darkness clears and there is Faradir once more, sitting on his throne with his crown on his brow.

“I need her for a few things,” says Faradir. “One of which is your wedding. She’s going to be one of the witnesses.”

I blink. “My wedding?” My mind goes back to that bargain we made the day I went to the human lands for a bride. I wrack my brain for the exact wording of the bargain, for what I might have missed—

Great Kings.

Every drop of blood leaches from my face.

Faradir taps his chin. “I do believe the wording of the bargain specified you must be inpossessionof a wife by Lulythinar. And . . .” He looks up at the ceiling, where there is only the tiniest sliver of sky visible before the moon fills the skylight. “We’re only moments away from the deadline. Last I checked, you might be married, butIhave possession of your wife.”

I barely keep my feet rooted to the floor instead of staggering backward.

Rahk’s head whips to the side even before a small door to our right opens, and two women enter.

One I barely even know. It’s Lady Iluna, the one friend of Listhra that Faradir didn’t kill. One of the women who tormented Stella. I may not know her, but I certainly hate her.

The other is the High King’s wife, and she shuffles with bunched shoulders to his throne. She bows and says the only words I’ve ever heard her say: “I brought her as you requested, my lord High King.”

“Let us begin the bonding at once!” declares the High King, standing and gesturing with a broad grin to me and Iluna. “Kneel before the throne, both of you. Trenian, I recommend you comply if you don’t want anything bad to happen to yourhuman.” Then he frowns, glancing at his wife, still bowing at his feet. “Get up, woman. You’re dismissed. Three witnesses are more than enough.”

She does as he says, keeping her head down as she makes toward the door she just came through. Iluna kneels as bidden before the High King. I start to follow, my hands shaking, my mind spinning, my heart reeling. How did I miss that when we made the bargain?

In possession of a wife.

He put that clause in the bargain for this very reason: so he could trump and null my choice if he didn’t approve. And I didn’t—

Wait.

---