Page 26 of The Cursed Crown

“Isn’t anyone going to join us?” she wondered, glancing at the crowd, stuck together against walls to leave a large circle clear at the center of the hall.

“Not unless I allow it.”

“What a charmed life you must lead. No one treading on your toes without your consent.”

“No one?” he repeated, lifting one brow.

Rissa’s smiles were few and far between; the one or two times he’d seen her lips curve upward, he’d been fairly certain she was daydreaming about strangling him to death. Now, her face lit up, morphing into a softer, innocent monkey grin. Dimples appeared on either side of her high cheeks.

Dimples.

“I suppose fate thought fit to place me on your path to manage that overinflated ego of yours.”

She hadnoidea.

“Do you have human blood?” he wondered.

She shook her head. “I doubt it. I don’t know much about my mother, but she’s from the Wilderness.”

He nodded, though her maddening curves and those honest-to-god dimples suggested otherwise.

“Why do you ask?”

“I’m attempting to understand you.” Mostly, failing.

“How’s that going?”

The music started to fade in one last long note. Letting her go with reluctance, he ignored her question. “Remember our bet.”

On that note, he turned to his subjects, walking through the courtiers and petitioners, greeting those he liked by name, stopping to make small talk.

His awareness never left her. Rydekar smirked as he saw the seelie lords—who usually remained close to the wall, a vantage point where they could better take in and criticize everything about his manner of ruling—approach her.

Part of him burned to join her, protect her from their manipulation, discern whatever ill intent they may have toward her. But she was their queen, whether she admitted it or not. She had to figure out how to survive her people on her own.

How was his understanding of her going, she'd wondered? Terribly. Each time he uncovered another layer, it shrouded her in more mystique. She was strong, yet reserved, brash and teasing one moment, biting her lip the next. She had a unique power coursing through her veins and seemed utterly disinterested in making use of it. Rissa seemed tamed, like a bird of prey who never learned to fly. Caged. Yet her talons were still sharp and her wings, strong.

She could have been everything.

She wasn’t.

The Fairy Child

One century ago

Rydekar was loatheto leave the Court of Myth so late in the winter, when surely his counsel would be needed, but no one said no to Queen Charlotte. His grandmother wanted him on seelie land, so on seelie land he went.

“I thought it was supposed to get colder as we travel north,” Siobhe moaned. “My furs are too warm.”

His wife was excellent at moaning. Needless to say, she didn’t think to simply remove a layer of fur, quite content to complain instead.

Rydekar looked out the window, tuning her out. Khal had more patience. “The Court of Myth is higher, set on hills. The Court of Sunlight might be farther north, but it’s practically at sea level. Besides, the descendants of Mab rule it. They have sunlight magic—they’re bound to use it to make their winters more tolerable. Shouldn’t you know that? You’re from here, aren’t you?”

Siobhe snorted. “Hardly. Denarhelm isn’t like Tenebris. Each court is vastly different, and I haven’t concerned myself with the doings of the Braer. I don’t think they have much magic, anyway.”

Khal glanced to Rydekar and sighed.

Siobhe hadn’t been Rydekar’s choice any more than his winter destination. Being the grandson of the unseelie queen came with a set of rules and expectations. One of them was that he marry advantageously for the realm. Siobhe, a princess of the Iron Court, had come with a mountain of gold and diamonds—a dowry they’d needed to rebuild various courts after centuries of war. She was pleasant enough to look at, and richer than the other options presented to him at his hundred and fiftieth birthday, so he picked her. They signed a contract for a hundred years, as was often the case for political alliances. After putting up with her for sixty-five years, Rydekar firmly intended to choose his wife far differently next time. He might even date the next princess, to ensure he could stand being in the same room as her without being taken by a sudden need to poke his eyeballs with a fork.

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