“Stop. Please. I don’t want to hear this.”
“When the predators draw close, they have to fight for the right to claim their prize.”
I shudder as his meaning becomes apparent. “I’m that prize?”
“Prize isn’t quite the right word, but yes. No one plays with my toys until I’m done with them.”
For frick’s sake, somebody needs to punch this guy in the pretty mouth. Take him down a peg or ten. “Why me?”
He shrugs, as if my selection was completely arbitrary. But the burning hatred in his eyes says otherwise. “Because you represent everything I despise about mortals. You’re soft. Weak. You don’t belong here.”
“Unbind me and I’ll show you weak,” I growl.
He tsks. “Now. I’m only going to ask you this one more time, and then you won’t like what happens next. Why did that creature protect you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it wasn’t protecting me. Maybe it thought I looked too stringy and the selkie would taste better.”
His heavy-lidded eyes make a point of looking me up and down, and then his turquoise blue irises go scary-dark, the ominous shade of raging storm clouds.
Fuck buckets. This guy is horrifying when he’s mad. A tremble starts deep in my core. I can’t breathe. From my fear or his invasive magic constricting my chest, it’s a toss-up.
I flinch, shivering against his touch as he closes the distance between us. Strange golden light swirls inside his dark eyes, and something about the molten light fills me with innate fear.
He can’t touch you.
His eyes suddenly shift behind me just as the ripping sound of a portal fills the air. A wolfish grin plays over his face. “Are you following me, E? I thought we already discussed appropriate boundaries—”
Eclipsa flies through the air, smashes her knee into his chest, and connects her elbow with his sharp jaw.
Hell. Fucking. Yes!
The magical binds snap from around me as Hellebore rockets backward. A human male would have dropped, but Hellebore barely flinches as he finds his balance and rights himself.
“Get behind me, Summer,” Eclipsa growls, her eyes never leaving the Spring Prince’s. A part of me hesitates. I’ve never seen Eclipsa turn full Fae assassin. Even when we were fighting the darklings, she was lethal—but calm.
This Eclipsa could make the Darken her bitch.
Deciding to take my chances with the monster I know, I scramble to her side as Hellebore circles us. “That was uncalled for, E.”
“Screw you and your twisted aunt,” Eclipsa snarls.
He chuckles. “I don’t seem to remember you wanting to bring my aunt to bed when we—”
Twin daggers slice toward him, spinning end over end. Last second before they sink into his chest, he turns sideways and they thunk into the haunch of the closest centaur statue behind him.
Hellebore has the audacity to look wounded by the attack. “If I’d known breaking your heart would have made you this exciting, I would have done it sooner.”
Her voice is cold and terrifying as she snarls, “Next one won’t miss, Hel.”
He sighs. “Hey, it’s not my fault she stumbled into my portal. You know the rules. Once she enters my court’s territory without permission, she belongs to me.”
“Screw your permission. Summer belongs to the Winter Prince, so unless you fancy kicking off a war with the Unseelie Court, back the fuck off.”
Her words are like a punch to the gut. I know in Everwilde, everything is fair game to be stolen, like some cruel game of Monopoly, which makes the Fae possessive with everything they own. But to hear Eclipsa talk about me like a possession—
Ugh. I try to make excuses for her words. She’s pissed, not thinking straight. But stupid tears prickle my eyes.
No. I will not cry. Straightening my shoulders, I blink the tears away before either Fae can notice.