Page 121 of Finding Love with the Fae King

Cosmo glared at Elaine while he banged the bars with his hands. “Impossible! She has no mate! She was as worthless the day I chose her. The only good thing that came out of her was nothing but a good, forced virgin fuck. Everything else was useless!” My father handed off Elaine to Lucca as he reached through the bars and grabbed his neck. Wings flew out of Cosmo as he tried to struggle and get away. Sputters of spit landed on my father, but never once flinched. His wings banged the bars violently, like a bird in a cage trying to get away from an apex predator.

“What was that? I didn’t catch what you said. I swore you said you forced her.” The grip grew impossibly tight as Cosmo’s face turned a bright red. Veins protruded from his forehead as the blood was trapped in his face.

“Your Majesty, will all due respect, we need him to speak until we get the information we seek.” Osirus took his hand to calm my father, but his grip only tightened. Elaine forced herself out of Lucca’s arms and ran to my father as her arms went around his waist, hugging him tightly.

“I’m all right now,” she whispered into his back. “We are here together, that is all that matters. Let’s save Melina and Osirus from a terrible fate.” The grip loosened around Cosmo, but my father’s large hand remained.

“The serum, Osirus.”

Osirus immediately handed over the vile and puckered Cosmo’s lips open, and he swallowed. With a hard push, he was forced to the ground and landed in his filth. Father turned and gripped Elaine as he kissed her cheeks and had her bury her face in his chest. “I’ll kill him,” he whispered to her. “I’ll make him suffer a thousand deaths for forcing you.” Elaine gave a soft smile while she held onto him. “He will never see the light of day, and I will rip his wings from his back and hang them on my trophy wall.”

“That’s gross,” Lucca whispered while I slapped his chest.

Cosmo sputtered and groaned as he rose to his feet. On the way down to the dungeons, Osirus said it would take just minutes to work, but the minutes passed by like hours for us. The serum would eventually tell us all we needed to know how to get Daphne to stop the madness. My thoughts wavered at the idea he might want to strike a deal with us, his life for his own daughter, but the way the evil had overcome his soul, I doubted anyone would win at this point.

Osirus stepped up to the bars. “Cosmo, you can no longer hold your secrets, and we plan to extract everything we need to know. For your first secret to spill, we need to know if you are still in contact with Daphne.” Osirus’s command gave me shivers as I drew closer to him. My hand was holding his as he squeezed it tightly, letting him know I was never letting go.

“That brat? She ratted me out as soon as she could. Who knew my blood would betray me? I gave that bitch everything. The clothes on her back to the political gain. She is just like her mother, a conniving, worthless slave. I’m glad I left her to starve after she gave birth.”

Our confusion was heightened after his words spilled from his mouth. “What?” Elaine spoke. “I was never a slave or servant?” It was true. Elaine was born in a noble household and was bartered so Cosmo could take Elaine’s status while her own father ran off with his true mate. She has never been a slave or commoner.

“Ha, after all these years, you couldn’t figure it out. Does Daphne look anything like you?” Elaine grabbed her heart with one hand and rubbed her stomach with another. Disgust clouded her face as she stared at him.

“I carried her in my womb for four months. I birthed her and cared for her until she could take care of herself. Of course Daphne is mine! She has lost her way, but I will do my best to set her on the right path. I love her and will do what is best for her. I just need you to talk some sense into her since you brainwashed her!” She cried.

Laughing manically, Cosmo sat in the chair on the far side of the room. His ankle crossed over his leg as he scratched the scraggly beard. “Daphne isn’t yours,” he whispered. Elaine’s eyes watered as she gripped her chest. Father picked her up again as Elaine felt faint. What could Cosmo possibly have done? The filthy man was more screwed up than I thought, and the chances of Daphne coming to her senses were now low.

“Daphne is the product of my true mate.” He scoffed as he rose from his chair. He was now pacing the bars as he looked at her dead in the eye. Instead of being the prey, Cosmo tried to be the predator. He wanted nothing but to feel in charge, to break Elaine’s soul even more. With my father here, that wouldn’t happen. Elaine was in excellent hands now, with a large family to love her.

“I found Opal near the sea, picking shells to sell at the market. Her hair was a chestnut brown, and the rose-colored lips had my dick instantly hard at the sight of her.” Cosmo started rubbing himself, and I looked away in disgust. “I had already made my plans to bond with you that night, and I dared not give that position of power.” The room grew silent. The only thing that could be heard was the constant dripping of water, hitting puddles in a nearby cell.

“Took her to the nearest, cheapest inn I could. I told her I would give her the world, and she believed it. The poor thing hung on every word, so she took me and my cock.” My heart clenched—the poor woman.

“I never marked her, just fucked her. That was the best I ever had. Sorry, sweetheart.” His look glanced over to Elaine. “She fought me a bit once I said I would not mark her, but she gave up. She straight up rejected me, ballsy if you ask me, but she was supposed to be my mate, so of course she was strong. Luckily for me, you both fell pregnant simultaneously, and with my watchful eye, switching them out was a gift from the Gods when you birthed the children on the same day.

“Opal was a strong fae, and our child would be, too. I watched her birth Daphne with only two pushes, and immediately Daphne cried and fought for life on the forest floor. I immediately ran to her and scooped her up into my arms. I knew she was the key, so my family name would rise and have her sit beside Osirus as his bride.”

I growled out at myself, startling everyone as I held Osirus close to me. This prick had another thing coming. The urge to take my claws and rip him to pieces was so damn strong, but Osirus kept me in his arms repeatedly, telling me he wasn’t leaving me.

“Opal was weak, losing blood, so I took Daphne as my mate passed out. She didn’t even know what gender she had just given birth to, so I brought back Elaine’s child, a son that Elaine had birthed. Opal knew it wasn’t her baby, but she clutched to it like a lifeline. Motherly instincts can be so”—Cosmo shook his head as he pensively stared at the wall—“primitive.”

“Dear Gods, what a sick fuck!” Lucca yelled as he banged the stone wall. It crumbled beneath him as Elaine started crying hysterically. My father’s rage was fierce. He wanted to go into the cell and kill him off then. Father’s hair became white, his scales ran up his neck, and his claws extended. With great restraint, he held onto Elaine as he neared the cell.

“Where is your mate and Elaine’s child?” The rumble was felt through the floor and up to my chest. Osirus didn't let me go for fear I would vanish.

Cosmo started laughing hysterically. “Really? Do you want to know? The bitch hid. She hid from me, she tried to get away, I know she is here in the kingdom, I can feel it, but she put a cloaking spell on her and the child once she figured out who I was and figured out what my intentions were. If Daphne had ever died or didn’t listen to me as a child, I would have taken Elaine’s child back and worked on him. Opal was damn smart.” Cosmo threw the chair across the cell.

“A cloaking spell! A damn good one, too. The child’s cloak won’t not let him grow up, can you believe that?! I looked for years for a witch that specialized in it only to find out she had died after casting it!” Cosmo waved his hand dismissively as he sat back down in the chair. He groaned and laid his head in his hands.

“It’s wearing off,” Osirus spoke.

Lucca and I looked at each other. Cloaking spell? To not grow up? “Osirus? Can that be done?”

Osirus’s jaw ticked. “Yes, it can. It is a powerful spell. If the spell is to be taken off the boy now, he would have to grow on his own. He wouldn’t revert to his true age.”

This world became much stranger to me than it already was. I knew nothing about the witches, only the elves and the shifters. Witches scared me and learning all that they could do with just a simple spell. Now that we were going up against an entire coven, would we be able to withstand it all? Two kingdoms fighting just one coven seems easy if it was a physical fight, but this would not be a physical fight. It was magical and scary.

Doubt crossed my mind. We were in trouble. Osirus pulled me to his chest as tears brimmed my eyes. Tulip was in more danger than I realized, and we needed to get her back. It was all my fault that I sent her into the lion’s den. No word had been brought back, and it had been days. Alec trusted me to bring her home safe. So many supernatural lives were on the line. Lives would be lost.

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