“Are you fucking kidding me? This is your fault,” he seethed. “And where the fuck have you been? You were supposed to bring her directly here.”
“Oh, was I?” I pretended to think. “I suppose that order didn’t register correctly.”
“Where did you take her?” Another command. One of these days, he’d realize that I didn’t consider myself one of his precious subjects to be dictated to.
“Let go of me,” Aflora interjected, twisting her arm.
He tightened his grip. “Where did he take you?”
She gave him a defiant look. “While trying to return me to the Academy, his exhaustion kicked in and we ended up in an unknown location. He didn’t want to risk getting us more lost, so we stayed there for the day while he napped. Now I’m here. Happy?”
Kols’s jaw ticked while my lips canted into a delighted sm
irk. My clever little mate had used my riddled explanation without even blinking. “Exactly,” I agreed just as Zeph burst into the suite.
His gaze narrowed, a flash of anger crossing his features as he headed right for me.
Great.
“What the fuck were you thinking, Death Blood?”
“That my father would never believe Kols’s little duel story and I needed to give him something to distract him,” I replied coolly. “It worked.”
Zeph paused midstep, his calculative gaze raking over me as he considered the reason. That was one thing I liked about the Warrior Blood—he preferred logic over emotion. Some of his fury melted, but not completely, his green irises whirling with notes of annoyance. “A warning would have been fucking appreciated.”
“A warning could have impacted the fate of events.” They weren’t meant to know my intentions. Not yet. And I refused to alter the scope of Aflora’s path just to appease her other mates.
“Fate of events,” Kols repeated, his voice holding a mocking quality. “What are you, a Fortune Fae now?”
I merely smiled. “Do I look like a Fortune Fae?”
He scoffed. “You do love your—”
“Aflora!” Ella ran into the room, her blue eyes rimmed with relief. “Thank God you’re okay.”
God, I thought. How human.
Ella stopped short at seeing Kols’s death grip on Aflora’s arm, her expression going from relieved to livid in less than a second. “Let her go, jackass,” she snapped.
Both his eyebrows flew upward. “Excuse me?”
She poked him in the chest, her petite form raging. “It wasn’t enough that you destroyed all her things, so now you’re going to manhandle her? Fuck you, Prince.”
The fiery little Halfling just went up a peg, in my opinion.
“Destroyed my things?” Aflora repeated, her brow furrowing. “What do you mean? He had me locked up, but only for a few hours.”
“You didn’t tell her about the little tantrum you threw in her bedroom?” Ella sounded like she was ready to kill Kolstov, something I wouldn’t mind watching unfold. He’d have a hard time protecting himself, what with her being his twin’s mate and all.
How fun, I mused, folding my arms and settling in for the show.
At least until I saw Aflora’s lower lip give a subtle wobble as she whispered, “You destroyed my room?”
“Technically, it’s my room,” he muttered, killing any sense of amusement I felt over the situation. Because that was precisely the wrong thing to say.
“You’re un-fucking-believable!” Ella screamed, causing Tray to run out into the living room.
“What the fuck did you do, Kols?” he demanded, looking at his mate in dismay.