Page 83 of Fae Mates

Prince Rory spun around, shielding me with his body. Pale-blue light flashed over us, and his limbs convulsed with rapid spasms. I twisted around to find streams of lightning crackling over his back.

My breath froze. Queen Titania was killing him.

“She’ll stop if you let go of me.”

“I can’t,” he said through clenched teeth. “No male would abandon his mate.”

A sob caught in the back of my throat. “She’s killing you.”

Prince Rory shook his head. “This is nothing compared to how she punished us when we were young. I’m cushioning the blow with my wind.”

As Prince Rory jolted under the weight of Queen Titania’s attack, tears filled my eyes. This was futile. The queen wouldn’t stop until she had ridden me of her kingdom, and she didn’t care what kind of damage she did to her sons.

My gaze darted to the marble sphere, where I expected Pokeweed would be unconscious from having absorbed King Oberon’s destiny.

“Release that filthy salamanderrat!” The queen increased the intensity of her lightning, filling this side of the throne room with blinding, white light.

One by one, the courtiers and the guards attacking Pokeweed’s marble sphere fell to the ground, twitching from the lightning strike.

Prince Rory’s breathing quickened. “I can’t hang on for much longer. Her Majesty is the strongest lightning user on the Isle.”

Twisting in his grip, I said, “Look around.” I placed a hand on his chest and gestured at the fallen bodies with the other. “It’s not affecting me. I think I’m absorbing her magic.”

His face went blank, his arms slackened, and he fell to the ground with a thud.

The lightning attack stopped, and fury crackled across my skin. I dropped to my knees and placed a hand on Prince Rory’s chest, which rose and fell with even breaths.

Anger burned through my veins, adding to my fury. In Doolish, we considered lightning strikes as deadly. At best, they killed a person on the spot, and at worst, they seemed fine until strange things happened to their bodies.

First, the victims would exhale smoke like a drake. Hours later, any liquids they consume would evaporate from their mouths. It was the lightning, burning through their insides and leaving them with just enough lung capacity to survive its effects.

Some would linger for weeks in this accursed state, while the lightning would burn everyone, including their eyes and tongue, leaving them to die a perfectly preserved husk.

My pulse pounded like a war drum, and blood roared through my ears, screaming at me to avenge the injury done to my mates. I turned to the throne, where Queen Titania pulled herself to her feet and adjusted her dress.

“Why don’t you just die?” she snapped.

“I’ll be asking you the same question in a minute.” I stood and advanced toward the staircase.

“What are you doing?” Queen Titania pointed her fingers, and bolts of lightning shot from their tips and hit me straight in the chest.

The energy crackled across my skin. Instead of bouncing off, I absorbed it and glowered at the queen.

“Guards!” she screeched. “Arrest that human impostor.”

“They’re all suffering from your lightning attack, you daft bint,” I snapped.

Her silver eyes bulged. “How dare you—”

“How did you think you could get away with murdering King Oberon and blaming it on my mate?”

“Why should you care?” she said with a sniff. “Humans despise faeries.”

Now my skin fizzled with irritation. I bounded up the stairs, taking them two at a time. “Does the word mate mean anything to you? Of course, it doesn’t. You killed yours.”

Her lip curled. “What kind of whore mates with Pokeweed, anyway?”

My hand curled into a fist, and I swung at the queen. “Fine words from a twat who wears dresses made of centaur spunk!”