“Give him to the bogey,” I said. “Act as if it's an offering for his obedience. The creature will devour it and there will be no remains to be found. The room outside the queen’s chambers will need to be sanitized quickly. We can leave no remnants of what took place.”
“As you command. Do you require anything else?”
I shook my head. “No, that'll be all.”
Acaden went to the passageway and hit the switch, then disappeared with the body, leaving me to think on all that had taken place.
While fae were fickle, traditions involving their king andqueen were taken seriously. The entire court would expect Deirdre and me to spend the night together, truly becoming husband and wife, king and queen, partners…
It wouldn’t be me they would question, but her, assuming I was too disgusted to lie with a human since I hated them so much. Yes, I could admit the truth, but that would not appease the highborn elves, and some of those nobles were critical to the entire fae kingdom.
There were few farmlands here on the mountains and we needed our fae nobles to provide food, soldiers, and to keep the kingdom running efficiently. Many of them were fanatical when it came to the priesthood and our traditions.
“I knew you wouldn't do it.”
I turned my head around to the fireplace mantel where Olivia appeared, sitting on the edge, legs crossed.
“What are you doing in here?” I hissed. “Spying on me?”
She scoffed, looking at her nails. “I wanted to see if you would actually do it, but I knew you didn't like her.”
“I've told you before, don't hide in my room.” I dashed forward and she flew up toward the ceiling, hissing and flashing her pointy teeth at me.
“I told you she would never be our queen,” Olivia sneered. “And you've just made sure of that.”
“Weren't you the one who said things were boring? That we should give the court some entertainment?”
Olivia flew over to where there was a secret passageway, only small enough for the pixies. She moved the grate aside. “You should never have brought the human to the cave of blessings. That wasn’t our plan! When the court finds out what you’ve done, murder and all, they’ll have her head for it. You’ve made it clear that humans are manipulative and can’t be trusted. No fae wants a human on our throne. We need a fae queen.”
“This situation is under control.Sheis under control.”
“That’s your problem. You needto control everything. Youdon’t see the danger, but I do, and I won’t let her be your downfall.
“What are you saying?”
The sneer disappeared into the fiendish grin that only appeared when Olivia schemed. “I would do anything to protect my king, even from himself.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Deirdre
Something tickled my nose,and I sprung up, my mind disorientated.
With the drapes to the window still drawn, I couldn’t tell what time it was, and I still wore my wedding nightgown. The air weighed heavily with dampness, the room eerily still like the calm before a storm.
Flashes of last night came back to me.
Kane’s bedroom, the blindfold, the murder…
I don't know what I expected our wedding night to be, but I thought it was going to be a moment I could never recover from. That I would be forced to lie with the fae responsible for Crispin's death. And yet Kane had stopped, knowing that our marriage was not solidified until we made that bond.
Why did he care about my feelings? Or was it because hecouldn’t?
Those old insecure thoughts bubbled to the surface, threateningto drown out any sense, but this time there was a slight pause because Kane hadn’t acted like I disgusted him. If I was being honest, he had been kind, something I didn’t think possible from the Deathless One.
Then there was that moment… closing my eyes, I breathed in, letting the guilt wash over me.
While Kane probably assumed my reaction to his touch had been complete fear, there was something else… something much more terrifying.
