Rowan’s face remained a mask of stone, but I saw the muscle twitching in his jaw, the way his hands trembled before he clenched them into fists. Every fae death wounded him.
A guard circled behind me while all eyes were on Rowan. His hand clamped around my arm, yanking me backward, away from my sister and my mate.
I let him. I decided to play along.
“Surrender, traitor!” the guard shouted, his blade pressing closer. “Or we’ll gut your woman slowly!”
He thought I was easy pickings.
I giggled, my claws extending, and stabbed backward without looking. The point found his eye. He screamed, releasing me. For a moment, I considered gouging it out and eating it in front of the crowd, but I scratched the idea. I was civilized now. Instead, I unleashed a pulse of white light, throwing the remaining soldiers into the bed of sharp, writhing thorns my sweet mate had conjured from the earth.
“Touch my sister again,” Barbie said, her voice high-pitched as black flame roared to life around her, “and you’ll die adeath so horrible it will become a legend.” She strolled through the courtyard like the world’s hottest human torch—a goddess, truly. “Who wants a taste?” she roared. “Who will call my sister or me a whore again? Who dares to lay a hand on us, or on Prince Rowan? I could drain every drop of moisture from your bodies without touching you. Turn you all into husks, nothing but bags of skin and rotten bone.”
What a showwoman!
“Had enough?” Rowan bellowed.
A lanky fae soldier dropped his sword, hands rising in immediate surrender. “Prince Rowan, I yield! You win!”
The remaining soldiers who could still move followed his lead, abandoning their weapons and dropping to their knees.
Rowan gave a curt nod. “You are welcome to join the fight against Ruin and protect this realm. You, and all the guards, are also free to leave, provided you vow never to take up arms against me, my mate, or my allies again.”
“I swear it on the name of Captain Ashborn,” the surrendered fae said, his voice thick with emotion. “I am Fen, his bastard son.”
A bastard too? No wonder Rowan went utterly still, his gaze sharpening as he studied Fen. Barbie had torched his father.
“I am sorry about your father, Fen,” Rowan said, his voice heavy with regret. “Had he chosen a different path, he would still be standing here.”
Now that the skirmish had ended, the courtyard began to fill—fae students who had peered from windows, warriors who had been hiding or imprisoned now released. Hundreds poured into the space, and as one, they bowed to their prince.
“I may no longer be your prince in the eyes of the crown,” Rowan called out, his voice carrying across the gathered crowd, “but I am still the head of this House on academy grounds. From this day forward, this House will be independent from thecrown that has abandoned its duty to fight the God of Ruin, the ultimate enemy of our realm.” My mate’s chest heaved, raw emotion surging through him as his silver eyes glinted with fierce, unyielding light.
“I offer every fae a choice,” Rowan declared. “Those willing to fight Ruin, stay. Fight under my command. We’ll stand with the other kingdoms, united against the true enemy. Those who choose my father’s path of isolation and cowardice, leave now. I won’t stop you.”
“Pretty words.” A noble student leaned against a balcony railing, his silk tunic marking him as one of the high lords. “But you are exiled. You have no crown to offer, no kingdom to promise. You are no longer a prince but a criminal. A traitor wielding earth magic you have no right to. You should be stripped of it entirely.”
“Then come and strip it from me,” Rowan said, his voice cold. Fire ignited in his left palm, while shadow and lightning crackled in his right. “Why don’t you, Corbin? Why hide on the balcony instead of facing me like a man?”
He’d gained the other heirs’ powers through their blood bond, but he’d never shown them off until now.
Shocked gasps and murmurs rippled through the courtyard. It was rare for a fae to master two elemental magics; Rowan had just effortlessly revealed four. And I was certain he hadn’t even shown the air and water magic he’d gained from the shifter and vampire houses.
A stunning woman pushed through the crowd to stand at the front, her chin held high and her silver hair gleaming in the light. “Prince Rowan will always be the prince heir to me,” she announced.
I recognized her, an old nemesis of Barbie’s from Shades Academy. Barbie wouldn’t let me eat her.
“Lady America,” Corbin sneered. “If you support the traitor, your parents will disown you.”
“Let them,” America said, puffing out her chest—this time with defiance, not the simpering display she’d used during the Brides Selection, when she’d paraded herself before the heirs, especially my mate. “Prince Rowan has been protecting the realm while our king and his nobles hide behind palace walls. The realm will never be safe until every Shrieker is dead.” She paused, her gaze sweeping from the crowd to Barbie.
“I had a personal encounter with a Shrieker. It would have eaten me, if not for Barbie. She saved me. Twice. From a Shrieker and from a demon train. Barbie is even more powerful than Queen Lilith. That is why all of us who tried to undermine her failed. A goddess walks among us!” She knelt before Barbie, her head bowed. “Forgive me, Goddess.”
A wave of murmurs swept through the crowd.
“You don’t need to kneel, Lady America,” Barbie said, her tone magnanimous. “We’re cool. I don’t hold a grudge. I have a very big heart.”
She was a liar. Barbie had once held grudges against Silas, Louis, and even Killian with the tenacity of a bloodhound.
