“Yes.”
“As in Fabian’s brother?”
“Yes, Tink, unless there are other Princes I’m unaware of.”
“Why are you with him?” Tink demanded. “Oh my God, did you really have a date tonight and then lied about looking for younglings? Oh, my God, youhussy.”
“Tink—”
“Hussy Brighton got good taste, though. Hold on, I need popcorn for this conversation.”
“Tink,” I snapped. “Come on, I’m not on a date with him and you don’t need popcorn for this conversation. I was out looking for the youngling and I ran into the Prince.” I figured I’d leave the whole Elliot part out at the moment. “He was shot multiple times.”
“Oh, dear.”
“Yeah, and he’s in pretty bad shape. He didn’t want me to call his brother or anyone from Hotel Good Fae.”
“You just called me,” he pointed out.
“I know that.” Exasperated, I closed my eyes and kept my voice low. “I called because he’s in bad shape and he hasn’t fed.”
“He should still be okay. Probably needs to sleep it off—”
“He hasn’t fed in two years,” I cut him off.
“What?” Tink shrieked. “Are you serious right now? I need to call Fabian—”
“Don’t call him. He asked me not to.” I had no idea why I was following his orders. “Look, is he going to be okay or not?”
“No, Lite Bright, he is not going to be okay!” Tink yelled, and my stomach sunk. “If he hasn’t fed in two years, he’s basically mortal except it’s just going to take him longer to die!”
“Crap,” I muttered, turning back toward the Prince’s door. “Well, this sucks, because he’s alone at his place, and I’m not sure I can lure a human back for him to snack on.”
“You can feed him.”
“What?” I almost dropped the phone. “Are you out of your mind?”
“It’s not a big deal. Trust me. You’ll probably like it.”
My mouth dropped open.
“Brighton, he can’t die. Do you understand me? If he doesn’t feed, he will die and if he dies….”
“He’ll be dead?” Screw this. “Go ahead and call his brother. I don’t care if he gets pissed at me. I’m—”
“There’s no time to call Fabian. He’ll be dead by the time Fabian can get to him. You either need to offer yourself up as an all you can eat buffet of Brighton or you need to go kidnap some person and serve him up a dish of unwilling human.”
I had no words.
“And considering his background and all the terrible shit he knows he’s done while under the Queen’s spell, I’m sure he’ll be down for that,” Tink continued on.
There was another pitch to my stomach. “That sucks, but this isn’t my problem.”
“You called me, so obviously you think it’s your problem.”
He had me there.
“He can’t die,” Tink said into the phone, his voice more serious than I’d ever heard him before. “If he dies, then the entire Summer Court will be weakened.”
