[It’s just him.]
[I’m on my way.]
[No, Khort, it’s too risky. It’s fine. I’m fine.]
[I’m on my way.]
Reyna’s protests fall against the wall Khortland puts up. His magic allows him more control over their blood-bond than Reyna has. She can’t keep Khortland out of her head, even when she desperately needs to.
“Well?” Malice prompts her.
“Erm…” Reyna stalls.
The Dragon-Fae brings his hand to his nose, squeezing it, and murmuring “For fuck’s sake,” to himself, before opening his eyes and training them back onto her. “I was threatening you, your life, your family’s lives, everyone you’ve ever known, your entire Human settlement, this clinic.” His deep voice sounds bored. Perhaps his initial threat had been delivered with more vigor, but the message hits her all the same. Like ice in her veins.
Reyna swallows around the lump in her throat. “Right,” she barely gets out. “And what exactly would I do to earn such wrath?”
“I can see why the Prince likes you,” he grumbles. “You both are utterly useless.”
Reyna wants to protest, but her self-preservation wins out this time.
“Hear me this time, Human; I won’t repeat myself again.” Reyna squeezes her sides, nodding. First her deal with Aerin and now this? “Your loyalty to Aerin Tolvare will be aboveallothers. Including your Prince, your family, your friends. You will do nothing to betray her. In taking the locket from her, you are agreeing to this.” His voice rings like a toll bell on Reyna’s life.
The locket. Khortland talked about giving the Princess an item of jewelry for the magic to be held, the magic that would turn her Fae.
“Ultimate loyalty? Indefinitely? I don’t even know her! What if she’s evil? What if she commits atrocities?” Reyna wants to mention that the Princess isn’t exactly stable. That she turns creaturesinto small animalswhen upset. The murderous look in Malice’s eyes forces Reyna to swallow those words.
“If you accept the locket then you accept all of her. And if your loyalty is broken, mark my words, little Human, I willtorcheverything.”
Reyna has no doubts Malice is telling her the absolute truth.
Khortland swears they can trust Aerin. For the first time since she started her affair with the Fae Prince, Reyna wonders if he has her best interest at heart. Or if he is just as blinded by the Tolvare Princess as Reyna herself is blinded by him.
53
MALICE
For the most part, the Human is good at schooling her emotions. But now, she is like an open book. Apprehension, worry, consideration, worry again, all flash across her features after Malice’s threat. Humans, generally, are timid creatures. They keep to themselves, mostly for self-preservation. Those who venture into the full-magic society usually find themselves as playthings under the thumbs of predator Shifters until their usefulness reaches its end. Then, they usually find themselves dead. It’s worse in the West, where the abundance of Humans results in less wariness and more carelessness.
When they first discovered the Fae Prince with this particular Human, Malice assumed the Prince was paying her a sum for her services. Looking at her now, he wonders if perhaps he was wrong.
She seems smart. Level-headed. A hard worker if she became a healer, even harder to work at a clinic inside of the City-State walls. It is odd that she of all Humans would be with a Fae. Everything points to her being more sensible than that.
After a few seconds, her soft features settle back into hard determination.
“Well? Is that all?” she snarks. Her attitude is laughable considering her size and strength, but Malice admires her for it all the same.
“Is he holding something over you?” Malice asks, maybe looking for a reason to continue hating the white-haired Fae who unfortunately is becoming more tolerable the longer they are in Zeneith.
“What?” Reyna has been surprised by many of the things Malice has said during this exchange, but by this she seems the most baffled.
“The Prince, is he holding something over you? To compel you to continue the affair?” Reyna first looks appalled, and then angry again. Always angry.
“How dare you!” she shrieks, nostrils flaring. “Who the hell are you to come in here and questionmyrelationship?”
“That is not a ‘no’, Human,” Malice points out. What he wouldn’t give for a reason to convince Aerin to ice out her Paramyr.
Letting out a small shriek, Reyna chucks a jar of popsicles sticks across the room. The glass shatters on the wall behind him, the throw so far off Malice didn’t need to shift at all to avoid it.
