The Unseelie Crown (Maze of Shadows, #2)

by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

“Good. Someday, all of us will return to the Earth. Some sooner than others, and some sooner than we would like.”

As of late, the prince’s demeanor came in two varieties—furious or brooding. Both were equally likely to end in someone’s death.

He did not agree, nor would he let the Court get in his way, but he had not sought the death of all those who did not obey him. Now that had changed. The High Lord’s wrath had pointed swiftly inward as he vowed to find the culprit who had been responsible for leading the mortal girl to the field of flowers. And when no criminal could be discovered?

Her heart was racing. Her opinions of the Bloody Prince were…complicated. Complicated and conflicted. She pulled the cloak tightly around her, letting out a wavering breath. She was terrified of him. But…her sacrifice had not only been about sparing the lives of millions. It had been because his attempts to seduce her were working, and she was scared of what would happen if she let it continue.

Half the world around her. She knew what the other half was. Death. Valroy.

And there was the man responsible. Valroy. And at his back was an army of grobles, goblins, bogarts, and trolls. The Unseelie King held a sword in one hand and an iron chain in the other. The chain ran around the neck of a woman who knelt as his feet. It was cinched painfully tight. Blood oozed from where the accursed metal touched her skin.

“No. I did not. But her power, dear husband…it outmatched mine. Without trying, she undid my magic.”

She had chosen death over the inevitability of her surrender to him.

Day to night. Light to dark. Life to death. Both were immeasurably and equally beautiful in their turns. Simply…different.

“I know it is impossible. You have said it yourself—no one in their right mind would love me. And I agree. But I wished to have a queen who, even briefly, might look at me in something other than disgust and greed. I chose a mortal whose eyes glittered in fascination and terror, instead. She would come to hate me in time, despise me like all the others, but at least…for a time, I thought perhaps I might win her.”

“Bah. See past the reach of your own cock for a moment, will you?” “I’m not sure I need to. It goes quite far.”

“But now she will not simply wear my crown.”

“Now…she will also wear my chains.”

Must he and I be enemies? Why had she asked Beatrice that? And there, burning in the middle of her heart, as sure as the amber sun overhead, she had her answer. It was simple, it was obvious, and it was staring at her in the face. Because she did not want them to be enemies. Deep down inside, buried beneath the rock it had squirmed out from underneath like the slimy nightcrawler it was, was the honest truth. If he did not wish to take so many lives, I would have surrendered to him within a fortnight.

“Why won’t it go away?” “Because you don’t want it to.” Uri was unpacking the basket of food, laying out items that Abigail was honestly not paying any attention to. “I do.” She huffed a laugh. “I really do.” “You’re afraid of it. There’s a difference.”

He embraced her like a lover. He laughed with her like a friend. He hunted her like a wolf. And he delighted in her fear like a tyrant.

Perhaps also accusing him of having the emotional maturity of a child had not been the best course of action. Oh, well.

“She belongs with the Seelie.”

The Bloody Prince let out a long, deep sigh. “I am in love with Abigail Moore.”

“Oh, come, now. Here you are, angry at me. I figured you might actually be proud that I have come here to apologize for once.” “You stabbed me six times.”

“That’s what he says.” Valroy pointed at Anfar. “I rightly wouldn’t know, or so he claims, because I am a ‘pitiful child’ with ‘the emotional sense of a brick.’”

Valroy took in a deep breath, held it, and let it out in a long rush. “Find a way to kidnap her, make her my prisoner, and torment her until she loves me back, of course.”

“Thanking the fae.” Uri huffed. “Bad manners. But you were just a mortal girl, so I suppose it makes sense.” “I think I spent my entire time in the Maze thanking things that didn’t try to kill me.” “Well, there’s your problem!” Uri grinned and playfully swatted at her again. “No wonder you were such a disaster.”

“They are capable of love. I know this without question. And that, to me, is the measure of someone’s worth.”

“Opposites. But not enemies. And there is a world in between where we meet. The sun gives way to the night at dusk, and dawn in return. In those times, we were one people, not two.”

Unseelie killed—Seelie lied.

You are not simply connected to the trees, darling. You are connected to life itself.”

How dare you? How dare you make me love you?

He was in love. And what did love desire most above all, but to be returned in kind?

If she takes me into her embrace, I may discover my love for her was a charade all along. The sight of her did bring him grief. Oh, how he hurt. He hurt for her. He hurt for himself. But he was not the broken, weeping pile of a man he pulled from the edge of the Gle’Golun, his hands bloodied and half-eaten away from the vines.