I’m fairly confident it’s a rhetorical question. So I keep my silence. I merely lick my lips.
Prince Selwyn huffs out a little breath. He releases my chin, turns sharply on his heels and strides across the cell. He pulls open the door and strides out.
Just before he disappears out of view, he stops. He calls over his shoulder.
“Come. I will not have my future consort locked in a dungeon.”
My feet scurry to obey him. I hurry out of the cell and fall into place, three steps behind him.
Future consort. He called me his future consort. Does that mean the wedding is still on?
If so… is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Chapter four
“Why didn’t you seduce him?” Mother’s green eyes are narrowed. Her mouth is pinched. “You were alone with him. It was the perfect opportunity to snare him.”
I really don’t think it was. He is a fey prince, not a British noble. He is not at all bound by the same social expectations. Why would he care what a conquered people thought about him taking a vessel that wasn’t his?
Nevermind that seduction is a skill that is completely beyond me. I wouldn’t even know where to start.
“I’m sorry, Mother. I don’t know how to seduce.”
Her lips turn down. Her nose wrinkles in disdain. She turns and starts talking to her two associates.
My stomach twists. I hate disappointing her, even though it is impossible not to. And I know this incidence is deeply unfair. She never had my trainer teach me the art of seduction. She chose not to equip me with those skills when she designed my curriculum with intense attention to detail.
Yet still she has managed to make me feel guilty. As if all of this is my fault.
I take in a deep breath and drop my gaze to the floor. Time to be quiet and still until she requires me again.
She is unhappy with me, but we are alive, and confined to these beautiful rooms in the palace and not a dungeon. I think that is plenty to be grateful for.
“We need to fully satisfy the fey’s blood lust. Prove to them that we were hijacked and are very willing to make amends. We cannot merely execute Lord Coxley,” says Mother.
I shiver.
“We caught him,” says Lord Dunavon.
Mother scowls. “He didn’t even bother trying to run. He is not stupid. He simply dropped the gun and stood there. Heallowedyou to bind him with magic.”
Lord Dunavon flushes, but wisely he says nothing. He is Mother’s longest-standing follower. He understands his place.
Viscount Bellany coughs. “How about disembowelment? That’s a nice and bloody show. Should be entertaining for the fey.”
A queasy feeling rolls through me. I really hope Viscount Bellany’s experience comes from his passion for fox hunting and not from murdering humans.
Lord Dunavon’s expression turns thoughtful. Mother taps her lips.
She is seriously considering this? Unease itches along my skin. This is deeply unsettling. It is as if the foundations of the earth have shifted under my feet. I have been underestimating her determination. I didn’t realise she was this level of ruthless.
“I think that could do the trick. Especially since Prince Llywelyn is set to make a full recovery.”
I blink. He didn’t die? An image flashes of all the gold spreading everywhere. The stiffness of his limbs. The feel of his spirit leaving.
I would have sworn that he had died. As I was watching. While that handsome man held him and sobbed as if his heart was breaking into a thousand splintered shards.
But the prince is going to be fine? Wow. I guess fey really are hard to kill.
