What. The. Fuck!
“Yeah, let’s do three-oh-five.” She nods to the auctioneer, and the woman smiles nervously as she looks from Aries to the beady-eyed fuck and then back again.
“We normally do bids by tens, Princess. It would be three-ten,” the woman says on a whisper.
“Ohhhh,” Aries gives this tight-lipped back-and-forth shake of her head, as if that last five fuckin’ crowns are really pressing her royal budget.
She gives me another once-over while I glare a hole through her pretty little empty head.
“Yeah. Uh. I guess—I guess that’ll be fine.”
“Perfect!” A sharp pin jams into my shoulder, and as I’m waved off the stage, I mouth Aries my thanks in the form ofI Hate You.
She smirks at me, and when she blows me a fuck-you-too kiss, my heart skips a beat. I nearly choke as I swallow down the strange feelings. I meet Damien at the base of the stage, and he smiles at me like he, too, enjoyed Aries’s little performance.
The assholes.
A large fae man with a silver name tag that readsCardenceis speaking in quick fast words over a demon and a fae, but I barely pay any attention to him as Aries casually strides toward us. She smiles and shakes hands with nearly everyone she passes.
She’s here for us, but it seems she cares for them, too. Her people, they adore her.
It’s not hard to believe. She’s a beautiful woman. A powerful princess. A sexy fucking...
“I kind of feel bad for not letting that guy have you. He seems really upset,” she tells me as she peers back at the mousy cocksucker still watching me.
Scratch all the kind things I just said about her.
She’s a brat.
Always has been.
“You three are my last. Let’s go,” the large man, Cardence, calls to us. When he lifts his attention and realizes who he’s yelling at, he changes his tune. “Oh. Princess Aries, I didn’t recognize you. You’re as radiant as I remember.” His gaze drags over her body as he stares at her with a sort of starstruck admiration.
“Thank you. Are you performing the bindings today for my father, Cardence?” she asks him on an all-too-sweet voice. It’s like an angelic melody. I don’t even know who that voice is.
“Yes, I’ve been his binder for the last two years or so.”
“Great!” She holds her hand out, and before either of us reacts, she takes Damien’s hand in hers.
I don’t know what they’re doing. The temporary binding was just a quick spell of fast-spoken words that all blurred together in my dazed state. I don’t remember holding the fae king’s hand, though...
My brother’s gaze is locked on her with a sudden seriousness. I’ve never seen him look so lost and found all at the same damn time.
Is that what love fuckin’ looks like?
Does he love her?
My distracted thoughts slip away as Cardence’s meaty hand carefully takes theirs. He turns their wrists until Damien’s knuckles are facing him, and Aries’s small hand is hidden beneath my brother’s large one.
A long sharp pin lifts in the sunlight. Cardence holds it like a dagger instead of a thin little slice of metal. “I bind thee in magic. I bind thee blood. I bind your mind, your body, and your soul. Until death do thee part.”
Fuck that’s ominous.
Then he jams the pin right through the back of Damien’s hand and into Aries’s.
What the fuck.
Damien’s shoulders tense. His jaw steels.
