“No.No,” he protested as he shook his head, copper hair flying. “I love her. It’s not magic.”
“If you say so.” I took another swig, hoping he would go away.
“You know, talking about her like she’s a possession you have to win, or like she’s a damsel who needs to be saved, is really not doing you any favors.” A voice from behind said.
I turned to see Harpina, her bright red hair was now down in big waves that shined in the light of the fire, her arms crossed as she glared at Soren. My mouth tipped up into a smile I tried to hide in my drink.
“What?” Soren asked, visibly confused.
She scoffed, moving to sit herself down between us, her arm brushing mine and making goosebumps erupt along my skin. “You think of Asteria like a doll. ‘Oh, she needs to be saved from Cyrus, she needs to be saved from Calix.’”
Her mocking tone had me snorting out a laugh against my permission. She sent me a quick wink, smirking before she schooled her expression to face Soren once more.
“She did need to be saved from Cyrus!” Soren threw his hands up in exasperation. I almost felt bad for the kid. He truly just didn’t get it. He seemed so young still. It was hard to believe he was the same age as Asteria and me. Her comprehension was so far beyond his.
I didn’t get what she ever saw in him, honestly—beyond a pretty face, at least. One couldn’t deny he was good-looking for a human, but he wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen a million times before.
“Yeah, but you wanted to be her savior. Calix recognizes that Asteria may need help sometimes, but he’s content to step back and let her handle herself otherwise,” Harpina insisted, raising a brow. “He knows she doesn’t need a savior. This is the girl who risked her life spying on the crown prince of Dusk Kingdom just to try to find even a slim hope of a chance for escape. Asteria is a fuckingqueen. Maybe try showing her the respect of one.”
With that, she turned her body to face me, dismissing Soren where he sat with a shocked, open-mouthed expression. She crossed her right leg over her left, leaning toward me with her elbow resting on her knee. She raised a brow, amber eyes flashing as she tilted her lips up in a sultry smirk. “Hey there, sunshine.”
I raised a brow back at her, unable to stop myself from matching her smirk. “Hey there, kitty-cat.”
She laughed, tilting her head back slightly in a way that exposed her pale throat. From seeing her shift in training earlier, it was all too easy to see the grace of her cat-like form in her movements now. “How goes the transition from courtly prince to rebel?”
I scoffed a laugh. “I’ve always planned to rebel against my father, so I guess it feels pretty natural.”
“Hmm.” She hummed, looking me over blatantly. “I suppose that’s true. Still, I’m surprised how well you’ve taken to this.”
“And why’s that?” I asked, cocking my head to the side.
“Your mother was also planning to overthrow your father, and she doesn’t seem nearly as pleased with the rest of it.” Harpina countered, and I realized what she was doing.
“Ah.” I nodded my head. “So you think something must be up, and decided to flirt with me to get me to let my defenses down and spill the truth.”
She looked a bit chagrined, wincing slightly, before admitting. “Well, I wanted to flirt with you anyway. Watching you fighting with your sunlight earlier was quite the sight. This just seemed like a good excuse.”
I couldn’t help the smile that slowly tilted my lips upward.
Chapter Forty-five
Cyrus
Things werenotgoingto plan.
I had finally found a way to draw Asteria out, and then…
They called me paranoid, but was it paranoia when you were right?
Someone was sabotaging me.
It was the only reasonable explanation. Someone in my court, most likely one of my meddlesome siblings, was trying to ruin everything I was trying to build.
One of my camps lay in ruins. The humans were gone, their chains dangling, broken open. Dead Fae littered the ground, those loyal to me to the last. Charred structures that were once workshops and soldier barracks greeted me everywhere I looked.
The humans in the city were getting louder in their discontent, too. Always hiding, scurrying around like rats as they defaced my city. Painting on the sides of buildings to scream to the world their wretched thoughts.
Madman. Tyrant. Chaos Bringer. Balance Destroyer.
