“Because she and I are in a power struggle, and whoever controls you will win that struggle.”
My lips settle into a line before I arch my eyebrows at him. “You forget the first part of the promise I made. I said I wouldn’t fight you, but before that, I vowed I would fight your people. That would include your mother.”
A smile flickers around his mouth, but it fades, and the darkness in his expression grows. “You don’t understand how precarious your life is now that you’re here, because I suspect you’ve never been exposed to true cruelty.”
I tip my chin up. “I’ve seen cruelty. I saw it today when flames struck innocent villagers.”
Antony shakes his head at me, a warning in his voice. “Not like my mother’s cruelty.”
I want to object, but the darkness in his eyes stops me.
“Allow me to tell you a story,” he says, “that willdemonstrate what you’ll face once I take you back to the Starlit Court—and unfortunately, I have no choice but to do that.”
I give him another brief nod, indicating that I’ll listen.
“There was once a lady in Mother’s Court who attracted the attention of one of her lovers. It didn’t matter that his attentions were unwanted. Mother was incensed.” Antony pauses, and the tension around his eyes increases. “She punished the lady by sending five brutish men to her bedchamber and ordering the guards to ignore the woman’s screams. The next morning, they pulled what was left of the lady’s body out of her room. Mother made sure I was there to see it. That is what she is capable of.”
My lips have parted, my stomach turning. I can’t stop my shudder. “What did you do?”
“I was seventeen. My father had died three years earlier. My reign was young, and my army’s loyalty to me was fragile. I couldn’t do a fucking thing. But I vowed to always know what was happening in Mother’s Court and to never let anything like that happen again.”
“Did you succeed?”
“Fuck no.” He scowls. “Mother is untouchable. You see, Thyra, when a single fae holds a kingdom’s safety in the palm of their hand, they hold unchecked power.” His gaze burns me now. “You, Thyra, are my check on my mother’s power.”
He leans back slightly and takes a deep breath, his broad chest rising and falling deeply. “And now you must surely understand how much power you have over me.” He blows out a soft exhale. “That is the truth.”
I believe him.
I can only guess what it cost him to tell me.
Still softly, still slowly, his thumb runs across my palm, a soothing motion that draws my focus to my hand, and then to the chain thatlies beneath it.
“The circlet keeps me at your side,” I say, speaking my thoughts aloud. “I can’t be physically separated from you.” I try to smile, but it feels gruesome. “No brutes can come to my bedchamber at night. You would kill them.”
“I will kill any man who touches you, Thyra. Whether lowborn, highborn.” He pauses. “Or another King.”
As his threat sinks into the space between us, I gently raise my eyebrows and test the boundaries of his promise. “But not your brother.” Who he clearly loves.
Antony’s eyes narrow at me, glittering and cold.
Or…I could be wrong.
“Victor would not be so stupid as to lay a hand on you,” he says. “Neither would Hadrian.”
Slow and smooth, his thumb runs along my palm to my wrist, and then up along the blade’s image, stopping at the inside crease of my elbow. The action brings him closer to me.
Dangerously close.
Especially because what I need to say could draw his ire.
Trying to speak through the constriction in my throat, I whisper slowly, “I need you to help me.”
His forehead crinkles, and he tips his head a little, the glistening black strands of his jagged hair falling away from his eyes. “With what?”
“Help me break the curse.”
His voice is low and mesmerizing. “Tell me how, and I will.”
