Page 59 of Brutal Fae King
The war counselors whip around.
And he’s there. Just as I remember him. White hair and dark eyes, like a living skull. A sexy, crooked smile.
“Dralis!”one of the war counselors snaps—then draws a sword.
Dralis moves faster. One of his hands snaps out, and a pulse of purple power blows both of my escorts down the hall. They crack as they hit the floor again, not uttering a single cry as they tumble.
Then, his hand grabs my wrist like a vice.
“You’re coming with me.”
“No!”I scream. “I know who you are, and I—”
“I’m not giving you the choice,” he replies before pulling me by the arm.
I tumble forward into a swirling purple vortex. It’s like being pulled into a whirlpool of purple water, but once it flows over me, my consciousness flows away with it.
***
When my consciousness returns, I’m on something furry. Heat radiates from one side, and I recognize the crackling of a fire. I open my eyes and look around.
It’s… home. It’s my home.
I stand up slowly, scanning my eyes over my family home. A simple single-room hut, but warm and smoky. Comforting.
I walk past the large bed, running my fingers over the duvet to get to the window. When I pull the curtain aside, I see Maribelle outside in Thawallow.
“Maribelle!” I gasp to myself.
She’s not just well. She’sglowing.She’s out with other girls in Thawallow, talking and laughing. She has such a warmth on her face.
I drop the curtain and dash over to the door. I whip it open and-
Dralis’s muscular body almost feels the entire doorframe, his pecs just barely visible in a hardly done-up shirt. He walks in,and I back off. My body trembles and the sparks scatter from me. Dralis gives me a sexy little smirk.
Don’t do that… you look too much like Vicmar when you do that.
“This is it, isn’t it?” he purrs.
“This is what?”
“What you want,” he answers, then gestures around him. “Exactly this? Your home, warm and welcoming. Your sister, recovered from Weeping Fever, living her best life.”
I swallow hard. It’s like I can feel his magic already shuddering through my body with every step he takes closer to me. It… throbs.
I drop my gaze from his. I can’t keep staring at those devilishly dark eyes.
“What I want… doesn’t matter,” I murmur. “I have to stay in the castle as the queen, or Faevea falls.” I scowl at him. “And you know that.”
“I know what therumorsare,” Dralis answers back.
He fully steps in and shuts the door. I hear it click in a way it never did before—and I just know it’d be locked if I tried.
“Rumors?” I ask. “You mean the prophecy?”
“Ah, yes,” he purrs. “The prophecy… Enlighten me.”
“It says that I am—”
