“Yeah, she nailed it,” one of the females murmured.
Tarian’s eyes connected with Daisy’s, and he lightly kissed the back of her hand. She melted right there in front of everyone, fluttering her lashes and offering him a simpering smile she couldn’t quite help. His other hand slipped around her waist, drawing her closer. He placed a soft kiss on her forehead.
“I wish we could just stay here tonight,” he murmured, moving side to side in a silent dance. “I wish we could’ve found each other under different circumstances. A different life.”
“We’re fae and human.” She closed her eyes, her heart aching. “Despite our feelings to the contrary, we never would’ve worked.”
“We could’ve figured out a way. To feel like this, to have you, I would’ve figured out a way.”
“Maybe you can put your attractive heads together andstillfigure out a way,” Niall said. His brother, Darryn, nodded silently.
Tarian stepped back, his eyes full of regret. “Maybe so.”
(And maybe not, because she wouldn’t save herself and sacrifice her family. That wasn’t how family worked.)
His brow pinched in that way it did when he realized she was keeping something from him, but he stepped away without asking. The hard mask of court settled over his features. His posture changed to venerable playboy mass murderer, sexy and vicious and violent. It made her a questionable person, but fuck she found that so hot.
He entered the corridor first and waited for her to walk out in front of him. Now was her chance to pull her weight. So far in this court, all she’d done was get picked on, get saved, and learn. Now it was time to use her training. Because shehadtrained for this.
Every little bubble of society operated differently. Even in one city, for example, the people just trying to get by were vastly different from the wealthy people making the rules. Criminalswere different still. And that was all in the same geographical location. Fae would have their own social bubbles, different from humans, but they would have rules, like not killing people in court. Those rules could be learned, worked within, and exploited.
The one thing that would help had also given her the most trouble to understand. The magic here all came from the same place. There weren’t different types, like in the human world. There were different creatures using it. Each fae decided how to work within the magic offered to everyone according to their power level and, most importantly, themselves. Figure out the fae, figure out the magic. Play the player, not the hand.
It was time to meet that shitty princess and her disgusting father.
21
Daisy
The corridor filledup quickly with swishing dresses, sewn-on jewels, and fierce-gazed “servants” following too closely. Bodyguards, obviously, amid actual servants who gave the powerful elite a lot more space.
As they moved, gazes found Daisy. They had barely turned a corner when the whole corridor worth of nobles eyed her.
I assume the crystal chalice magic is on full display?Daisy surmised. She still controlled that part unconsciously. The contraptions weren’t helping her figure it out.
Yes,Tarian said.You want to be noticed, and you’re letting your magic shine. As you should.
She wasn’t sure about that last part.
Careful not to look anyone in the eye or seem to notice them at all, she took in every garment. Every jewel and its possible worth, its placement. Every shoe.
Okay, well, noticing the shoes was because she was just not getting the fashion here. The footwear never seemed to match the clothing and accessories.
It was when she noticed skin that she started to feel uncomfortable.
The black lines on these fae’s skin are because of magic, right?she asked as a male stopped along the wall of the somewhat busy corridor to watch everyone pass. He was up to no good—his shifty eyes gave him away. He had lines curving around his cheekbones, running under his eyes and over his forehead—he had so many black lines on his skin that they almost ran together. Between them was the unnatural gray, obviously caused from the same affliction.
The result of twisted magic, yes. Remember when my magic was healing the poison from the Celestial weapon? That’s what these fae’s magic is trying to do. They are trying to heal thewrongnessin their system. But their magic is twisted, so they are making things worse. They are pushing the magic more out of balance, and it will then seep into those around them. It is black because it is unseelie magic. Celestial lines would be gold. Those of the Ruby kingdom would be deep crimson, etcetera.
They don’t look in a mirror and get nervous that their magic is very clearly fucked up?
They can’t see it,he said, slowing as the way before them grew more crowded.Twisted magic doesn’t want to be rooted out. It’s a disease. It wants to infect. They see themselves as completely normal.
And no one is like, “Hey, you’ve got the twisted plague, bud. Maybe get that checked out.”
In this court? No, because the royals are worse. To call it out is to callthemout, and no one would dare. Usually, the Celestials, on a routine visit, would see what was happening and step in, but because of the deal concerning me, there are no routine visits, at the peril of the realm and the destruction of this kingdom. And so everyone here fights with that magicevery day. They fight the toxicity that tries to seep into their bodies. Into their very beings.
Fuck, this place was awful.
