“Nope.” The iron collar was warm around her neck. The glamour washed past her, like an icy mountain stream parting around a rock. “Really don’t.”
The owl-griffin made a small, amused sound.
Morcant muttered something under his breath. He raised his voice again, glaring at her. “You will come with me if I have to drag you, woman.”
Oh crap, he really means it this time.
Morcant seized the back of her tunic. A surge of panic shot through Tamsin as he lifted her clean off her feet.
At the high table, Maeve abruptly sat up straighter. Her delicate nostrils flared, as though she’d suddenly smelled something delicious.
It is your passions that fascinate us, Cuan had said, what felt like a lifetime ago. Your kind feel things so strongly, so intensely…
That was why the unseelie had wanted her in the first place. So that they could savor her emotions…
Tamsin gulped, and let herself feel all the things that she’d been holding back behind her show of bravado.
Her fear for herself.
Her greater terror for Cuan.
Even more, the sharp, tearing stab of regret.
Because she could have saved him. Saved them both.
The court would make sport with you, Cuan’s deep voice said in her memory. Mock you, taunt you, uncover your weaknesses and destroy your sense of worth. That is how they capture the most treasured flavors; humiliation, despair, the bitterness of self-hatred.
She’d let him protect her. Let him risk his life over and over, even though he was fighting to lose her. And now he was lost, and it was all her fault. If she’d only mated Cuan earlier, before Morcant had arrived…if only she’d realized just a few hours earlier how much he’d come to mean to her…
“Ah,” Maeve breathed.
All around, the unseelie high sidhe were leaning forward, just like Maeve. Faemarks glittered with flashes of excitement. A couple even had their mouths open, almost drooling.
Morcant alone seemed untouched. He glanced around at the entranced court, and his lip curled very slightly, as though in disgust.
“This human is mine,” he said flatly. “I will take her now.”
“No!” Tamsin didn’t even try to hide the terror in her voice. Terror was good, the high sidhe liked the taste of terror. “Not yet! I still belong to Cuan! You haven’t beaten him yet!”
Maeve licked her lips. “Perhaps…perhaps you are being just a little hasty, my prince. Midnight is scarce past. We should give my beast at least a little time.”
“Yes,” Tamsin sobbed. “Please, I know Cuan will be here soon. He wouldn’t leave me. Don’t just let Morcant snatch me away from the court. Don’t let him win so easily.”
Come on, you evil elf,she thought, in some calm, distant, carefully locked-away part of her mind. Figure it out. You don’t want this show to be over so quickly, do you? Not when there are all these juicy emotions leaking out of me…
Maeve’s tongue ran over her top lip again.
“I did tell the beast that he must face one challenge per night,” the elf queen said slowly. “According to the letter of the law, he has until dawn before he forfeits this match.”
“What difference does it make?” Morcant snapped. “If he does show up, I shall simply run him through. This delay is pointless.”
It was overly dramatic, but at this point Tamsin was willing to chew as much scenery as necessary. She burst into tears, noisily and messily.
Morcant—looking highly alarmed—actually let her go. She collapsed to the floor in a heap at his feet, clutching at his armored ankles.
“No!” she wailed. “Please don’t hurt him! I know he’ll turn up, I know he’ll fight for me! Please show mercy! Don’t make me watch him die!”
Maeve inhaled sharply. Tamsin had been betting that the evil cow wouldn’t be able to resist that bait.
Maeve straightened, her voice firming into a tone of command. “The formalities must be obeyed, Prince Morcant. We are high sidhe, after all, not some lawless wild fae rabble. My beast has until dawn to answer your challenge. You must wait until then before claiming this woman.”
Morcant’s jaw tightened. He shook Tamsin off his boots, as though he’d stepped in filth.
“Very well.” He stalked back to the throne, every line of his body tight and angry. “Dawn. And not a moment longer.”
And Tamsin could only pray that it would be long enough.