Page 771 of Hell Hath No Fury
“Your name,” I demanded, the bite of my words filling the air and reminding me I was not the man she had perceived in those visions.
If this was a ploy to seduce me, then she was too ignorant to have done her research well to paint me correctly within them. Though the realness of them was hard to deny, the strength of the truth woven into them so certain to me, how could I really refute it?
“Merissa,” she said, her eyes still trailing over my features as she lowered her hand from my face, and I instantly missed the contact of her.
We were attracted to one another with the force of magnets, and I could not pull away from her, instead standing there rooted to the floor feeling like my entire life had just been turned on its head.
“Merissa…” I tried out her name and her pupils dilated in a way that set my pulse hammering. Fuck, she was stunning, her features delicate, yet sharp too. She looked exactly like I imagined a star would look if it shifted into Fae form.
“Sire, do forgive the gobbles of my gables-“ Hamish started up, inching closer. “But I cannot hold my loyal lollygagger a second longer. The lady has come bearing a bounty, it would be customary of the gentleFae in question—that is, your most magnanimous, majestic self—to offer her a moment of your invaluable time and perhaps a syrupy sup to wet her whimsy, hm?”
“A syrupy what?” I snapped at him, my eyes still on her.
“A sup, my liege,” he bowed his head. “A syrupy one at that.”
“What are you blathering about?” I demanded, anger splashing in my chest like acid as I rounded on him.
A pang of guilt hit me as he shrank back like I was about to strike him, and I remembered a time when he and I had been close friends. Nowadays, I couldn’t seem to get past the way he frustrated me, and even as I worked to wrap my tongue around an apology, it sizzled out and died right there on my lips.
“Perhaps I could give you a tour of the city?” Merissa cut in, reaching out and taking hold of my arm with an overfamiliarity that should have had me teaching her a lesson in respect right here and now. Instead, my blood burned with the touch of her and I moved into the arc of her body, taking hold of her chin to examine her more closely. Her breaths fluttered a little faster past her lips, but she didn’t flinch in fear like any other Fae would have.
“You’re a Seer?” I guessed and she nodded.
“I’veseenyou coming for a long time, though I didn’t know it was you until now,” she said, her throat bobbing, and I tracked my thumb down to it to feel it swell and fall.
“Mm,” I grunted, desire blazing through me, my gaze falling to her soft lips. “And you know who I am?”
“I do now,” she said.
“And yet you remain here while most Fae would run,” I commented, my face so close to hers she was all I could see. I was trying to crack her resolve, intimidate her and see that fear in her eyes which I saw everywhere else. But it did not appear.
“Most Fae do notseewhat Isee,” she said with such confidence, it made me ache with curiosity.
I hadseena snapshot of a future we shared, and I knew I could not walk away from that fate now that it was presented to me. It had me aware of a reality in which I was profoundly happy, and as unlikely as that seemed, the beast in me wanted to seize it.
“The emperor has offered me use of one of the royal carriages.” I snapped my fingers at Hamish. “Prepare it for immediate departure.”
“Oh joyous day! Indeed, sire!” He raced off ahead of us down the corridor and I released Merissa, sweeping past her so that she might follow in my wake.
Instead, she moved with speed, taking my arm as she joined my side, chin held high like she had every right to touch me so. I did not scold her or push her away, my chest was expanding and there was a fierce sense of pride in me over having this beautiful creature at my side. It felt impossibly right, and yet defied all nature of logic.
We wound through the castle with its golden walls hung with towering paintings that depicted a land of fortune and prosperity as well as portraits of warriors deep in the belly of a sun-baked jungle, weapons in hand and little else. I had heard of the Marriage Trials Voldrakia was famed for, the barbaric game played to weed out the weak among the nobles and create powerful pairings to ensure the strongest of lineages. It was admirable in ways, proving themselves worthy and wetting their hands in blood before their magic had even been Awakened.
Merissa seemed familiar with the halls, so I supposed she must have been a lady of the court here. She was dressed too finely to be a servant, though probably not important enough to have partaken in the trials, or else she would not be here offering herself to me.
My pulse was pounding with the anticipation of getting her alone, and though this was the definition of madness, I could feel myself already deciding that she was mine.
Outside in the courtyard, white flowers hung from vines across the wooden pergola that stood above us between pillars of gleaming stone. Hamish hurried off to fetch a carriage and Merissa released her hold on me, moving to admire the circular well to our right while I admired her in turn.
“Does our fate not phase you?” she asked me.
“I am phased by little in this life,” I said darkly, and she glanced back at me with a frown.
“I have waited so long to meet you, and now I know who you are…” she whispered almost to herself.
“Are you afraid?” I closed the gap between us, the open back of her dress drawing my hand to her skin.
I ran my knuckles up her spine and she shivered, a breath catching in her throat as I passed between her shoulder blades, a sign that her Order possessed wings.
