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“I said no.” He sighed. “Oh, my queen. When will you learn to stop bargaining when you have nothing to offer?”
“Nothing to— I will do it!”
“Go ahead.”
“This isn’t a bluff,” I cried, shaking. “I’ve stabbed you once before. A second time won’t weigh heavily on my conscience.”
“Undoubtedly.”
“Tell me where the boy is,” I burst out. “Tell me or you won’t be having any sons of your own!”
He blinked lazily. “A lesson, Princess, once you start shouting your threats instead of delivering them, you lose all sense of authority.”
Snarling, I crunched his soft, fleshy bits to burst—
Or at least, I tried to.
My hand wouldn’t move. Neither hand would move. I lay stiff and frozen, mentally shouting commands at my nonresponsive body.
“Oh, little bird.” Alisdair slid free and unharmed. “You are a unique and marvelous specimen. You make it so hard to resist you, but tonight, I must. You caused me no end of aggravation today, and I’m hardly going to reward that with multiple orgasms.”
Reward?! Did this man think he was punishing me by denying me sex? As if I was the wanton minx chasing after him every night!
“You’re done exploring for the night.” He turned his back and walked off. “Take the time to think about what you’ve learned.”
A blanket whipped out of the wardrobe and fell over me. Alisdair slammed the door on my internal shouts.
Chapter Eight
The next morning, Aeris led me out to the courtyard. Court wasn’t being held that day while they did repairs.
Alisdair stood in the middle of the courtyard, basking under the shadow of a statue. I only saw its silhouette the night before. Morning didn’t bring the sun, but it did bring the lighting of a dozen orblights scattered along the twisting paths—all casting their glow upon a beautiful stone woman with long hair, bare feet, and an expression of everlasting mourning.
I fell in beside him. “The true reward was a night free of you.”
Alisdair flicked down to me, amusement tugging the corner of his mouth. “How many hours last night did you spend crafting that rejoinder?”
I warmed under my collar. “Shut up.”
Naturally, he laughed at me. Alisdair was particularly handsome that morning, and that was saying something. It wasn’t that his horns were diminished, because they weren’t. Or that his claws retracted, because they hadn’t. He was very much the beast bursting out of a summer fae’s skin. No, he looked handsomer that morning, because he looked free.
Gone was the heavy black cloak. In its place were simple breeches, boots, and a tunic opened at the chest in defiance of the cold. His hair hung loose and free—a rushing raven waterfall drawing my gaze to him again and again. Every time I saw him, his face was a mask of boredom, rage, or irritation. But not this time. Alisdair looked like he had decided the day was going to be a great one, and it had barely started.
“What has you in a good mood?” I snapped.
“Likely whatever has you in a bad one.”
I flashed him an obscene gesture, which only made him chuckle.
“The disappearing island that we spoke about. We found it,” Alisdair said, again surprising me with a straightforward answer. “Our men were able to retrieve something that’s going to make all the difference in the coming war. It’s on its way now. Our victory is absolute.”
I clenched my jaw hard. He was right. This news had the opposite effect on my mood. “Stop sayingweandour. What you do, you do for yourself and your revenge. No one wants war. No one ever wants war.”
“What we want are things only war will achieve. It is the same thing, little bird. If Elvans truly desired a simple, peaceful life, they’d return to the trees.”
I scoffed. “Just because you say it in a slow, calm voice doesn’t make it wisdom.”
His laugh was light and free. Oh, yes, he was very pleased with the destruction he was about to cause. “Do you not want the laws in Lyrica to change, and for women to be allowed to keep their magic?”
