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“I am not powerless. If you’re tricking me, I will lock you in a darkness so deep and vast, you will pray for the refuge of your nightmares.”
Is this a sign of Sebastian’s love for me or further damning evidence of just how premeditated his choices were? He knew I’d die when I bonded with him, and he kept the truth from me. He stole my human life so he could take the Unseelie throne.
“I thought it was real,” I whisper against his soft cotton shirt. “You made me believe you loved me.” “I do love you.” I shake my head because this is a dream, and dream Sebastian will always love me. Will always protect me. He would never betray me.
“As we speak, two of the most powerful males in our realm are fighting over you.” He waves a hand up and down. “Now that you’re cleaned up, I can see why. Perhaps I’ll let them destroy each other and keep you for myself.”
“What could you possibly need to discuss with me? I’m no one but a foolish girl who was tricked into bonding with a manipulative prince.” Again, more than I wanted to share. It seems I can’t help myself. His eyes blaze, and he tilts his head to the side. “Your anger is intense. I like it.”
As long as I wore the crown, no one else could lay claim to the throne, but now Sebastian has the crown because of me, which means that Finn will never sit on the Throne of Shadows.
“The princess doesn’t have the crown anymore. She’s nothing to us.” Finn spins on him, eyes narrowed, and Jalek straightens and retreats a step, contrition on his face. “Pardon me, Your Highness.” Jalek bows his head.
“Queen Mab made the throne with her very magic. Magic isn’t free. There are rules,” Lark says. “Sebastian isn’t following them.”
Finn shrugs. “Make yourself at home.” Kane gapes at him. “You’re kidding me.” “Sleeping under this roof doesn’t make one king. Mordeus proved that.”
“Sebastian may have taken the crown from Abriella, but Abriella still possesses its powers.”
None of us asks for the burdens we bear, but that doesn’t make the way we handle them any less significant.”
“Do you have a goblin in the palace? I want to go see Sebastian.” His eyebrows raise, but it’s the only sign of his surprise. “Why?” “Well, I’d like to . . .” I bite my lip, trying to think of a good way to explain that I need to gather as much information as I can. “Ah,” Misha says, cracking a smile. “We call that spying.” I glare. He chuckles. “Please don’t misunderstand. I absolutely approve.”
“How could you do this to someone you love?” I draw in a sharp breath. I will not cry. “Was I supposed to wake up and be okay with everything? Did you expect me to put it all together and then happily march to your coronation?”
“You can’t put this on me. You chose the crown over my life, and you’re upset that I didn’t hang around to chat about it?”
“I knew you’d die, and I knew you’d take the potion. I was okay with that because—” “You were okay with it?” I seethe. The selfish faerie arrogance.
“I’ll be ready.” He shakes his head and swallows. “I can’t let you go with them. I won’t risk you like that.” “You can’t control me. I am not human anymore. I have this power, and I’ll use it.”
“What? She’ll kill me so the power transfers to you? Isn’t that what you want?” I stare at him unblinking, daring him to lie to me.
In a move so swift he doesn’t see it coming, I use my knife to slice off a lock of his white-blond hair, then back away before his mouth can touch mine. Sebastian blinks, then narrows his eyes at the lock of hair in my fist. “What’s that for?” “It’s fare for my transport back to Castle Craige.”
“I wasn’t sure you could forgive Finn.” “Finn used me, but he’s not the one who broke my heart.”
My power purrs in his presence, and I don’t bother reining it in. Tendrils of shadow slip from my fingertips and coil around my wrists before snaking up my arms. Finn follows their path, impassive.
“Never doubt my appreciation for the way you saved me from the queen’s clutches, Princess, but with all due respect, there are bigger things at stake here than your broken heart.”
“You have so much to learn about this world, Princess.” Of all the pompous, condescending bullshit—
Sebastian searches my face. “You want this? You—no, it doesn’t matter,” he says, his voice cold as he turns back to Finn. “Brie is mine. She bonded with me, not you. You can’t have her.”
Goddamn it no means no
Don’t you realize he’ll take this as an opportunity to steal what I have—what he wants?” I stiffen. “How could he steal my power?” “Not your power. You.” He can’t steal something you don’t have.
“Finnian’s jealous that I have you and he doesn’t. Don’t let him get in your head.” Even though I know it will hurt him, I say, “You don’t have me, Bash.”
“I know you felt it too. I know you meant every word you said when you took the bond. You loved me.” “I loved the male I thought you were. Twice. And both were a lie.”
“Who else would be this deep in the mountains at this time of night?”
“Probably some local fisherman out for a pleasure cruise…at night…through eel infested waters…”
“All we can do is wait. She needs rest. She needs to be home. Put her close to anything she naturally draws power from. Take her to the roof and let her rest beneath the stars.”
Like Jacob and Bella in eclipse
“She needs everything she can draw power from, and she told me her power is stronger with you.”
“Home,” I say softly, burying my face in his arms. I don’t know where we are, but home feels right.
I feel myself being lowered into a bed, and I cry out, afraid he’s going to leave me here. I can’t find the words, but I don’t want him to leave, I don’t want to be alone. Because I’m dying.
I know Finn’s here. Even though I haven’t set eyes on him, I feel him.
My jealousy is unreasonable and unwanted. I shouldn’t feel this way, but feelings very rarely care about should and shouldn’t.
“I’m afraid to ask just how you do that,” I say, but my cheeks are hot as my imagination latches onto any number of ways I could celebrate fertility with Finn.
When she uses extraordinary amounts of power, she pulls from me. I get weak. When she first became fae and used her power to escape the Golden Palace and lock everyone she left behind in darkness, I thought I was dying.”
It feels good to be free of my own skin. Feels good to be alive and know Finn is so close. Because he’s the one I want. In the dark of this dream, with nothing but my shadow for my body, he’s all I want.
“Next time you straddle me,” he murmurs, “wake up first. I want all of you, not just some dark and twisted secret corner of your mind.”
“I would have. I wanted Sebastian.” But I wanted Sebastian to be the male I thought he was. The male whose top priority was protecting me, not cheating me out of the crown. “Well, you got him.” Her face twists in irritation.
I think about how I’ve somehow fallen for two faerie princes—romantically, completely, and simultaneously. But unlike Pretha, I shouldn’t trust either one.
Because he’s not you. Because I can’t stop thinking about our kiss or the way you comforted me last night. Because though my bond with Sebastian might heighten the things I feel about and with him, none of it compares to the way I feel when I’m close to you.
“Did you have a nice nap?” Finn asks. “Yes, thank you,” I say, smiling through the lie. Admitting that I spent the whole time wishing he’d join me will only sound pathetic.
“I’ll take the next dance. She’s supposed to be my betrothed, after all.” “Oh, is that why?” Misha asks. “To keep up the ruse? I thought it was something else.”
I nudge him with my elbow. “I’m sorry I don’t stroke your ego to your liking.” He rakes his gaze over me. “It seems I find you irresistible nonetheless.”
I don’t want pieces of you. I want all of you, and I won’t share.”
“Go there, Abriella, child of Mab.” Finn’s snaps his gaze to me, wide-eyed and staring, but I can’t take my eyes off the dead woman speaking to me. “The Great Queen waits for you. Bring your tethered match,”
“It seems that Mab wants to see her descendant. Abriella is a child of Mab.”
The only thing Sebastian hates more than this plan to send you to the Underworld is the idea that Finn is your tethered match.
“I feel you. Despite your efforts to shut me out, I feel you. And I feel you falling in love with him.” “Then dissolve the bond.” I can’t stand hurting him, no matter what mistakes he’s made and how he’s hurt me. “Let me go—for both our sakes.” He shakes his head. “You ask too much.”
“You’ll stay bonded to me, even knowing I want to be free of it? Knowing I’m falling for someone else? Knowing the way I feel about Finn?” He flinches. “Yes.” He cups my face. “You’re mine, Abriella. I found you first.”
“I will be by your side,” he says, cupping my face in one big hand, “as long as you’ll let me. Wherever you are.”
