Page 69 of Prince of Never

It would take so little to destroy him.Just a touch, and he would be a puddle of rotting flesh at my feet.Too bad there would be so many consequences.‘We’re done here.’

‘I don’t know how long you’ll be able to keep your little morsel cooped up in there.’His gaze was fixed on the spot Imogen had disappeared.‘And what will you do to her when you realise she isn’t what she seems?She’ll need someone to come and scoop her up.’

‘Solas.’My voice was low, simmering with suppressed violence.‘Come anywhere near her again, and you won’t live to see the war you’ll instigate.’

Finally, he broke eye contact and took a step back, playing it off by dusting at some dirt on his sleeve.‘We’ll pretend for a moment that you could actually follow through on a threat like that, though we both know you’re a toothless tiger as far as political influence goes.It’s far more likely that I could kill you now, and the Unseelie Court would breathe a collective sigh of relief.But where would be the fun in that?’

‘Give me one swing at you, Sun King,’ I snarled, crowding him into taking another step back.‘One fair fight without your treaty and your crown to hide behind, and we could settle this rivalry here and now.But you won’t.Because you know you wouldn’t walk away from it.So you’ll keep paying lip service to the queen while trying to undermine me in the background, only because you know I can’t touch you.But let me make something clear.’Solas recoiled as I raised my hand between us, and curls of destruction magic wound around my fingers, a whirl of black smoke that dissolved whenever it made contact with my skin.‘There are limits to what I will tolerate for the sake of Oberon’s vision of peace.Don’t push me.’I closed my fist, dropped it to my side, holding onto the cold burning away at my skin, trying to tamper it down.

He smoothed over his expression as he straightened up the collar of his jacket and ran a hand over his hair.‘You’ve always been depraved, even by Unseelie standards.Your mate will be running for shelter before long, and it’ll be even more satisfying because you’ll have driven her away yourself.’As he spoke, he began to fade from view, bending the light around him in an illusion that left a metallic taste at the back of my tongue and a slight ringing in my ears.‘I’ll be watching,’ he said as he disappeared completely.

I made my way back to the wall, every sense alert to the fact that he might still be there, lurking about unseen.Fucking coward.But even he wasn’t stupid enough to enter Dreadhold without permission.There were only so many lines he could cross.

I paused at the wall to glower at the hole.I hadn’t fit the first time, and I wouldn’t fit now.I stormed back the long way, all the way around the wall to the front gates, kicking at weeds and burning off my anger one slither at a time.

I was almost inside when the sound of someone hitting something around the corner grabbed at my attention.I followed the sound as muttered cursing joined the muffled thumps and rounded the building to find Imogen energetically taking a baton to a rug hanging from a tree, sending clouds of dust puffing into the air each time she swung.I heard my name among the strings of insults and swearing.

‘What are you doing?’I asked as I approached her.She stopped beating the rug, turning to me as she was pushing her hair back from her face.There was dirt smeared across her cheek and her skin was damp and flushed with heat.Her eyes were a blaze of anger.

‘Helping Sarah,’ she snapped.‘Since I’m supposed to be a servant here.Unless warming your bed excuses me from other duties.’She raised the baton as I moved closer.‘You stay away from me.You don’t speak to me the way you just did and then swan in here like nothing happened.’

‘You want to complain about the way Ispoketo you?’I grabbed at the baton, but she jerked it away.‘Why don’t you tell me what you were doing out there?I leave you in my bed and find you withhim?’

‘It wasn’t like that.’

‘And what did he give you?I saw him hand you something.What was it?’This time when I went for the baton, I caught it.She held on and we glared at each other across the stick of timber.

‘Nothing to do with you,’ she said, jutting out her chin.‘And just so you know, and so you can’t start telling yourself that I’m out to get you like you seem to think everyone else is, I didn’t know he was out there.He tricked me.It wasn’t some prearranged meeting for me to sell him all your secrets.If you knew anything about me, you’d know that.’

That surprised me enough to drain some of the anger away.Because I did know she wouldn’t do something like that.Even in the short time we’d known each other, I’d seen her openness, her honesty.Wasn’t that why I was so enthralled by her?

Her brow crumpled and she swiped at her eyes, succeeding in smearing more dirt across her face.Was she crying?HadImade her cry?

‘What a colossal fuck up this has been,’ she continued, her voice wavering, full of hurt.‘We’re practically strangers.’

I sighed, released the last of the anger, of thejealousy,and tugged the baton, drawing her in, enfolding her in my arms.She stood stiffly for a moment, but then softened as I murmured, ‘I’m sorry,’ into her hair.She curled her fingers into my shirt and pressed her face into my chest.

‘This is madness,’ she sobbed against me.‘This place is madness.And how am I supposed to know who I can trust and who I can’t?’

‘I’m sorry,’ I repeated, closing my eyes.What an animal I’d been to her.I’d taken her to satisfy my own needs and upturned her entire future.And my only excuse was that I’d had too much to drink.That I hadn’t been able to control myself.That she’d been too beautiful to endure without touching.‘I didn’t mean for this to happen.I didn’t mean for last night to happen.’

‘You regret it?’

I drew back.‘Imogen, look at me.’I tilted her chin, looked down into her tear-bright eyes.‘I don’t regret you,’ I said, trying to find the words.‘But there is a lot that you should have known, that we should have spoken about.It should have been a decision you made with your eyes open, not one made in the heat of the moment.’

‘Then explain it to me now,’ she said firmly.‘It’s not like we can take it back, right?’She held out her wrist.I smoothed a thumb over the little white mark there.A mark of fate, of eternity.What had I done to her?

But her expression was so determined, her mouth set firm, her eyes smudged with dirt, that a smile kicked up the corner of my mouth.

‘Come here,’ I said, licking the pad of my thumb and rubbing at the dirt.

She squirmed away, pulling a face.‘Don’t clean dirt off me with spit.’

‘I don’t remember you having a problem with me licking you yesterday.’

She immediately blushed bright pink, and I had to kiss her.Her hands curled around my neck as the rest of the fight sighed out of her.

A gasp broke through the kiss, and she turned from me, immediately dropping her arms to her sides.Sarah was standing on the doorstep of the servant’s entrance, holding two glasses and staring at us, her mouth wide with shock.I released my grip on Imogen’s waist as she pulled away and stood fiddling with her dress.Sarah dropped into a curtsey, but her expression when she straightened was grim.

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