Page 40 of Beyond the Winter Kingdom
“Yeah, and?”
“Well,” I jutted my chin toward Vareck. “He’s real. This is him.”
Sadie blanched. “No way.”
“Yes way.”
She slapped a hand over her mouth. “Okay, but you were kidnapped by the fae king. So where does this guy play into—” She stopped short, the pieces coming together in her expression. “Ooooh shit.You’reKing Vareck?”
He inclined his head once, calm and unapologetic. “I am.”
Her eyes snapped back to me, and she muttered not so quietly, “And he’s your fated mate?”
“Erm. Sort of. Yes.” I cleared my throat and winced. Yeah, it was a tad painful to hear even to my own ears.
Vareck’s jaw tightened. He said nothing, but the air around him shifted; quieter, colder. Not angry. Just ... distant. Like he was pulling the pieces of himself back. Away from me. I sighed. I needed to do better at this.
Sadie didn’t seem to notice. She stared between us, frowning. “So let me get this straight. You’ve been off playing royal mate with the freaking king of Faerie while I’ve been stuck in a nightmare dimension with knockoff Ewoks?”
Damon sighed and rolled his eyes. “This keeps getting better.”
“It wasn’t a vacation,” I muttered defensively, glancing at Damon with an apologetic look. “We’ve been attacked multiple times. After I was taken from my apartment, I fell out of a castle window. I got kidnapped by some asshole brownies at the castle and hauled off in a freezing wagon. Well, one asshole. The brother was mostly going along with what his bitchy sister wanted. Then Lou’s cousin tried to force me into prostitution, then his familiar knocked over a bottle of pixie dust, and let me tell you, Atlas was right. That stuff’s no joke.”
“You got kidnapped by brownies? Why didn’t you use persuasion?” She raised a brow.
“There were ... circumstances preventing me from being able to. That changed later. I have my powers back now.”
“You have themback?” she repeated slowly, then narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips, assessing Vareck. “So this is all your fault.”
Vareck sighed. “I don’t have to explain myself to you.”
“That’s not really helping your case,” Sadie snapped.
“Wasn’t trying to make one,” he said, voice steady.
“Okay,” I cut in, rubbing the bridge of my nose. “Let’s not do this. There’s a lot to unpack, and none of it’s going to get better if we turn on each other.”
Sadie crossed her arms. “Fine. But I’m still mad.”
“Welcome to the club,” I said, then waved a hand. “Now go on. Tell me about Lou. Portal. These weird bears.”
She nodded. “Right. I tracked down Lou at the Witching Hour, cornered him. He told me you were with the fae king,and I was about to knock his teeth out when Amelia dragged me away. She asked me to grab something from the back of the bar before I left to chase more leads. Next thing I know there’s a portal in front of me and she’s gabbing some bullshit about playing the long game.”
“Guessing we went through the same portal, then,” I mumbled.
Sadie cocked an eyebrow. “One minute I’m reaching for a light switch, the next—poof. I’m landing flat on my ass in the middle of a cave.”
“That’s where I found her,” Damon said, stepping into the circle with a dry look. “Or she found me, I suppose.”
“Wait, how are you here?” I asked, and Sadie groaned.
“I would very much like to know that answer as well,” Vareck chimed in.
“I figured you already knew, seeing as you are the reason I am here,” Damon answered coldly, ignoring his uncle altogether.
“I deserve that,” I said softly, nodding. “For what it’s worth, after I handed you over to Lou, my intent was to track you back down. People aren’t property. I wasn’t okay with what happened.”
He scoffed but decided to answer my initial question, and maybe not for my benefit, but to inform Vareck. I had a feeling my sister had heard the story more than once considering she mumbled in a familiar tone she had when she was annoyed. “Not long after you left, your man Lou knocked me out. The witch made a speech about the fact I was bait and that I shouldn’t take it personally, though I can’t imagine how anyone wouldn’t take it personally when they were kidnapped and then shoved through a portal into Eversus.”
