"I've been trying to lure this fool into the woods for months," Kaelis continued, nodding at a whimpering Narcisse. "But you were the one silly enough to go in on your own, Delphinium, and straight into the arms of my sworn enemy. I would think a child of mine would have more sense."
Delphi's world tilted. The blue eyes. The witch fire. The reason Narcisse hated her and feared her as she grew older… Even her hair was so red she struggled to keep up with dying it.
Kaelis wasn't lying to her. Narcisse wasn't her father, and he knew it. This… Thismonsterwas.
Bile rose in Delphi's throat. She had considered it a possibility, once she had learned that he had offered Cassia to Kaelis. It was one thing to imagine it, and another to know it for certain.
"She isn't crying or wailing, Narcisse," Kaelis said, with an amused grin. "This is why we fae loved our witches so very much. One fuck is all it takes to get an heir."
Kaelis stopped before her, just beyond Tenebrys's reach. "So now, we make a new bargain,daughter. I'll spare Narcisse. I will even give your pet beast here the cure for the poison that eats away at his soul. A permanent cure."
His offer hung in the air, glittering and deadly. "In exchange, you will either come with me and serve by my side. Or…" his smile turned razor-sharp, "you will give me what is rightfully mine. Your witch fire. The extraction will be unpleasant, but it will leave you as you were always meant to be in this world: a normal, powerless, utterly breakable human. I can't promise removing the magic will protect you from the pyre. Having no magic left certainly didn't protect Cassia from it. Isn't that right, Narcisse?"
Delphi stared at Narcisse, willing him to deny it. He wouldn't even look at her, his face gray.
"The woman in Montcrillon…" Her voice broke, as the revelation tore her apart. She could believe that Kaelis was her father, but this was unfathomable.
"She got sloppy and got caught! I couldn't save her. Not without condemning you and me!" Narcisse shouted, lashing out in sudden anger as he always did when he was guilty.
Delphi rocked back on her heels, her stomach roiling. Narcisse had made her watch her own mother burn and told her it was a lesson to always hide who she was.A lesson.
"You see, Delphi, humans are the real monsters," Kaelis said, clicking his tongue. "Stay here and you'll become kindling. Return to Faerie with me and rule. Forget about this uncivilized place."
Through the bond, Tenebrys raged in defiance, a wave of pure, possessive fury. The bindings groaned around him, but they held despite the magic Delphi had tried to send to him.
Delphi knew Kaelis would never let Tenebrys live, even if she did agree to his terms. He was too much of a threat to his plans to get the fae back into the human world.
Tenebrys was the only one who had ever cared for her, and if she asked Kaelis to cure him, she would lose him forever.
Delphi's horror at the thought of losing him crystallized into a diamond-hard point of rage, and the world of magic opened to her like a veil passing over her eyes.
The shadowy tendrils around Tenebrys and the others weren't just vines. They were a complex weave of sickness and decay, a net of intricate knots and threads. She could see the seams, the points where the power was gathered and twisted. They could kill them instantly if Kaelis wanted them to.
Her focus narrowed, pushing past the carnage, past the monstrous revelations, past the impossible choice. She zeroed in on the central knot of the spell binding Tenebrys, a pulsating nexus of green-black energy.
Delphi met Kaelis's chilling eyes, her own sparking with the fire inside of her.
"Do I look as dumb as Narcisse?" she bit out, the words laced with venom. "Even children learn never to make a deal with the fae. You think I would fall for your promises so easily?Pathetic." She threw his own insult back at him.
Kaelis's eyes narrowed, and he shook his head. "You would rather stay in this doomed world of monsters? I'm giving you a chance to be aqueen!"
Delphi raised her head and stared him down with all the rage in her heart. "I'm already a fucking queen."
She reached for the magical bindings not with her hands, but with her will, her witch fire turning white hot. The gossamer thread of power holding the entire construct together sizzled and snapped.
With a roar that shook the world, Tenebrys exploded from his bonds, the poisonous vines shattering into dust. He launched himself forward, a blur of muscle and midnight fur, claws of obsidian extending to meet the beautiful, monstrous face of the Lord of Plagues.
36
Tenebrys never thought he would get a chance to fight Kaelis again. For thirty years, he had fantasized about destroying the monster who had cursed his people—not once, but twice.
Kaelis drew two long-bladed daggers, dodging Tenebrys's claws, moving like water. The fae lords were all good fighters, and Kaelis was one of the best he had ever seen.
"She will never belong to you, Plagues," Tenebrys snarled, lunging forward. His claws raked through empty air as Kaelis twisted away with inhuman grace.
"She's never going to be able to learn what she is from anyone else, monster," Kaelis replied, his voice smooth as poisoned honey. The twin daggers flashed, forcing Tenebrys to pivot hard to the left. "She is my blood, and she belongs to me by fae law."
"She is my mate," Tenebrys hissed. "And she belongs to no one but herself."
