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It was well-known that the muscles of a werewolf gave you unparalleled strength. The hands of a faerie lent you their magic. The lungs of a nymph brought the ability to breathe underwater. The heart of my kind would eliminate all the eater’s fears.
“What is your name?” the stranger asked. I realized I’d been staring. His voice was crisp and unhurried, like a dead leaf falling from a tree. “Fuck,” I answered, hiding my embarrassment. “Would you like to guess my last name? I’ll give you a hint. It rhymes with ‘shoe.’”
Fortuna, never make a promise that you can’t keep. Nightmares may be lies, but we don’t have to be liars.
God, give me patience or an untraceable handgun,
The sort of grief that couldn’t be given a voice, or it would become so big, so loud, that it ripped you apart from the inside.
“Collith.” “A little louder, please.”
You need to be brave one more time, little brother. Take one more chance.”
“Haven’t you heard?” Jassin leaned close. He smelled like everything tempting and addictive. Like chocolate. Like sex. “Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.”
“They will write songs about you, Fortuna Sworn. Oh, how they’ll laugh and sing. You’ll be a legend. The female who married the King of the Unseelie Court and didn’t even know it.”
With every lash, I lost more than skin and blood. I lost the potential to someday love my mate.
I was Fortuna, whole and finished no matter what magic wanted me to believe.
I would never love the Unseelie King. But maybe I didn’t have to hate him, either.
I’d follow you into whatever afterlife there is. The rest doesn’t really matter, does it?
“It’s simple, really. Close your eyes. Picture the worst possible outcome. Be cruel to yourself. Spare no pain. Do this again, and again, and again. Until one day, you find yourself immune to it, and the fear no longer controls you.”
“Even if you win, you don’t win.”
“The Queen of the Unseelie Court must possess extraordinary strength, for the crown is heavy. She must be as cunning as the Dark Prince, for she will defend our doors. She must be devoted to the people, for not all have power or wisdom to do so themselves.
which meant that this creature had a consciousness closer to that of a human. And I was supposed to kill it.
A creature of myth and legend reduced to nothing.
I killed a creature that was in the same circumstances as me. Trapped. Angry. Alone. It wasn’t a clean death. If it weren’t for you and these dreamscapes, I’d probably have nightmares about it for months.
Which made my plan simple―knowledge first, action later.
God had created his angels beautiful for practical reasons, rather than aesthetic ones. A beautiful thing was much harder to destroy than an ugly thing.
“I made sure to feel every single lash,” he murmured.
So I was no different from the rest of the females here that I’d seen draping themselves all over the fae. Groupies. Mindless. Morons.
YUCK! I'm not like other girls. Be better Fortuna!
“Nothing ends, Fortuna Sworn,” he responded airily. He kept his gaze on the humans making their harried arrangements. “There are only continuations and beginnings.”
“Don’t thank them for their fealty. You’ve earned it. It’s your right,” he said.
There’s something else you should know. One of the rituals during the coronation might make you reconsider. After it’s completed, in the same way you and I are bound, so you would be bound to them. Them? Every single faerie that resides in this Court.
Oh, you poor, stupid creature. Of course we can. We lie about everything. That rumor was established millennia ago. Some clever faerie thought it would be advantageous if the rest of the world thought we could be trusted.
