Page 46 of The Serpent's Bride
Her uncle.
Fuck.
THIRTEEN
Nadi could not stop swearing in her head.
And thanked the moons above and the great lords of the deep Wild that she was a shapeshifter currently wearing someone else’s face. Because the fear and panic in her expression could easily be explained as that of a human’s first time meeting a fae. Rather than the truth, which was that Nadi recognized the fae she was staring at.
She knew him very, very well.
All the jokes about her joining his ranks…how much he’d have to pay her father for her to join the human Iltani foot soldiers.The price of two moons,her father would always reply. Her father.His brother.
Fae were rare in the Iltani clan. Most of them were humans, cast out from society for choosing to live on the fringes of the Wild. Her father and her family were the only kin Luciento had that she knew of.
And Luciento had been the reason her whole family had died. It had been Luciento’s mistakes that had cost everyone she loved their lives. And for a short time, Nadi had hated Luciento for that. But…when she’d been forced to quickly cometo realize how hard life was living on the outskirts of the human civilization? She’d soon forgiven him.
No, she didn’t blame him.
But that didn’t mean he wasn’t about tofuckingruin everything for her.
Thank the moons for her glamor being impervious even to other fae.
“Never seen a fae before?” Luciento chuckled.
No. That was very much not the problem. “My father kept me inside the town walls.”
The others in the room were all part of the Iltani clan. Humans, all of them. Nadi didn’t recognize any of them from back in the day—it had been so long, the ones she would recognize were likely all long dead.
“I’m sure you’ve heard all sorts of stories of how we eat the flesh of pretty littleligaslike you.” Luciento grinned wide, flashing his slightly pointed canines.
“I have. I never really believed them, though.” She shrugged, trying to play up the game. Trying to tamp down her panic. Raziel and the others might send a force to rescue her to salvage some of his dignity. That meant Luciento was in danger. And no matter how long she’d spent separated from him and his clan, they were still her family.
“Oh?” The Iltani patriarch shifted, dropping his foot from the table to lean forward. Despite his age—he was nearly four thousand years old, if Nadi could remember correctly—he was still limber and could beat anyone in a brawl. “And why is that?”
“Because we’d have a lot more dead cows if that were the case. I’ve heard humans taste terrible.” She smiled.
Luciento blinked in surprise, then cackled in laughter, slapping his thigh. He pointed at her and looked over at the three men who had brought her in. “Ilikethis one. Shame she’ll have to die, eh?”
Shit.
Her shoulders slumped.
The older fae clicked his tongue. “Bah. Don’t give me that look,liga.It’s nothing personal. We just know an opportunity when we see one, and you are a fantastic opportunity.”
“What’re you going to do to me?” She kept swearing in her head. This was going to get ugly, and ugly quick.
“Nothing worse than that bastard was going to do, trust me,liga.”Luciento hopped off the table, his beads jingling as he moved. He walked up to her and crouched down at her feet, smiling up at her with genuine kindness. “You’ll die fast. Painless as we can make it. Sorry to say you’re just the bit of cheese in the trap.”
Ah. She watched the fae’s iridescent green-blue-yellow eyes for a moment, and her heart cinched in the memory of him from her childhood. Those days of happiness were so far gone that they were little more than ghosts. Yet there was one, right in front of her, as bright as day. “Are you after Raziel or the whole family?”
“We’ll take as many of them as we can get.” He patted her knee and stood before walking over to a pack of his people who were gathered by the wall. He clicked his tongue and jerked his thumb, gesturing at them to get their things and go. “But I’ll settle for that onefuckand be happy with it.I na’h ha. Ish iba baleha.”
He was getting his people out the door and fast. But she wanted more answers, first. “What did he do to you?”
“Oh, sweetie.” Luciento laughed sadly. “What hasn’t he done?” He picked up a canvas bag by the wall and slung it over his shoulder.
Yeah. She knew how he felt.
