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“I’ll speak of him however I want,” Roar snorted. “You and him, you make no sense. But I told you, Neve. Together, we would have beenunstoppable. A Falk heir, Princess Isolde, with the lord of the wealthiest house in the kingdom? One with an army to rival the royal army. We could have reshaped Winter’s Realm! Do you have any idea how powerful the last Lisika and Falk marriage was? It unified the realm!”

My heart clenched. He’d even known which twin I was.

“Wewere never a true couple, Roar. Only on paper, but never in my heart, no matter how many times you tried to force yourself on to me.” The number of times he’d tried to kiss me, to keep me close and cloistered, came back to me. I’d missed so many warning signs—taken them as acts of protectiveness for a female who held no power of her own.

Well, I was no longer that fae.

“Force himself on to you?” Vale growled. He came to stand next to me and a whine rang through the cavern as he unsheathedSkelda.

Roar laughed. “Are we to fight, then? In here?” His cloak, the red color of House Lisika, fluttered as he gesticulated to the mine cavern.

“You act as though you don’t deserve to die,” I growled, prompting the women to take a few hurried steps back. “As though you didn’t put me in so much danger. As if you didn’t keep things from me and then left me to the wolves. And as if you’re not, at this very moment, luring humans over and selling them into slavery!”

“What?!” one woman screamed and looked at the bait faerie. “You said we would go to a faerie ball!”

“Everyone’s got to earn a living, love,” the bait faerie replied, his accent odd, from the human world. Though I’d taken him as a full fae before, that he’d lied told me he had to be a half-blood, half human, most likely.

Still a cretin.

“Don’t eat the food.” I spoke directly to the humans. If they didn’t eat, then they could return home. That was, as long as Roar did not close the portal.

Did he have that ability? Or had this one been left open since his father’s passing?

Roar chuckled, ripping my attention back on to him, where it should have been. My eyes bulged. His soldiers had drawn their swords, but not Roar. No, he had nothing but a dagger on him. No bow and arrow, Roar’s favored weapon, and nothing else large and powerful enough to bestSkelda. Nor the sword I carried—the one I’d taken from King Harald’s suite.

However, the Warden of the West didn’t need steel. Not when he possessed the deadly power of tooth and claw, each growing at a profound rate as he shifted. For the first time, I’d see Roar’s shapeshifting ability.

And as his magic changed his body and another form took shape, I realized it might also be the last time I witnessed such a thing.

Chapter 55

NEVE

Iblinked, taking in Roar’s animal form, the glowing white fur patterned with brownish-red spots, his long tail flicking behind him. As lovely as he was deadly and so incredibly large.Muchlarger than I’d imagined. Or perhaps it was just Roar’s shifted form, and the regular felines were smaller. Blindingly white and lovely, in this form, Roar had to be as large as the golden snow leopard statues flanking his throne room. Twice, maybe three times, Roar’s already impressive size.

How to defeat such a creature?

“Caelo, out here.” Vale rushed forward.

I suspected he was intending to go for Roar, but two of the faerie guards sprinted ahead of their lord to meet Vale. The others came at Sir Caelo, who raced past me a second later. Their swords clanged, the sound of metal-on-metal echoing in the chamber. Near the portal, the human women shrieked.

I risked taking my eyes off Roar and found that the faerie who’d lured the humans to this world was nowhere in sight. No doubt he’d escaped—slipped back through the portal to safety. The coward.

“Neve!” Vale shouted above the din of swords. “Arm yourself!”

I swallowed and called my powers. Roar had slipped around the fighting and had had his sights set on me, his pace slow, his gait as graceful as a true feline. Though his expression should have been unreadable, I thought I caught a smirk there.

We’ll see who is smirking at the end.I unsheathed my sword.

Roar faltered, almost as if he’d recognized the blade. I took that opportunity to seize the upper hand, rushing forward, my free hand outstretched and magic flowing through me. A blast of frost momentarily blinded Roar and a hiss sang through the mine when my blade met fur. Blood sprayed across my face as I retreated before he lashed out with claws and teeth.

Would he kill me? I wasn’t sure. Knowing my secret opened up many avenues of possibility for him. But one thing I was sure of was that the others weren’t safe.

My throat burned to warn Anna and the miner to run, but I swallowed my words. Roar did not know they were there, and Anna could not feel the cold of shackles of slavery around her again. It might break her. If Vale, Caelo, and I did not survive this, I hoped they ran far, far away.

With protecting my best friend in mind, I sized up Roar. He was not approaching, and I detected a familiar curious look in his eyes.

I realized that he wanted to see my magic in all its glory.