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He doesn’t respond to that, but he doesn’t need to. It’s all in his expression.It’s yours to take.

“It’s almost as dark in here as it is outside tonight,” one of the guests murmurs to her companion as they pass us.

That one little sentence interrupts the moment Des and I were having. A laugh bursts out of me, and the Bargainer’s lips spread into a secretive grin, his eyes crinkling at the corners. Little do those fairies know that the man next to me is responsible for the unusually dark evening.

Des pulls me in close, the action not going unnoticed. For the second day in a row, we hold the room’s attention. It’s not as obvious tonight, more like something I feel rather than see, their gazes warming my skin. I imagine there’s something particularly alluring about the King of the Night—the ruler of secrets, sex, dreams, and violence—enjoying a human.

Des runs a finger along my exposed collarbone. “Have you noticed?” he asks.

“Noticed what?”

Des’s eyes flick across the room. “The wings.”

I turn my attention to the fairies around us.

He’s right. Just like in Somnia, there are several individuals with their wings out. Not many, but definitely more than last night, and back then the fairies were toasted.

It’s nearly an hour after we enter the ballroom before Mara makes her appearance, a group of men around her, none of them the Green Man.

The sight is unsettling, and I can’t quite put my finger on why until, a few seconds later, she cups the chin of one of the men and kisses him.

My eyebrows hike up.

“The queen’s harem,” Des explains.

So fae queens have harems too.

“But she has a mate,” I say, my eyes riveted to her.

Today, her dress is a vibrant scarlet, her bodice cinched with gold ribbon. Her lips are bloodred, and they look particularly savage when she smiles.

“She does.” Des grabs two flutes of champagne from a passing waiter before handing me one.

Distractedly, I take it. “But I assumed…”

I had assumed soul mates couldn’t sleep with other people, but what had I been doing all those years Des and I were apart? Just because my heart couldn’t move on didn’t mean I avoided dating other men—or being intimate with them.

Des is gracious enough not to mention this. Instead, the two of us spend several more seconds staring at Mara.

“What does the Green Man think of this?” I ask.

Des lifts a shoulder. “I imagine he’s not too keen about sharing his mate. But she’s the queen, and he’s a coward.”

Ouch.

Before either of us can continue, we hear rhythmic stomping just outside the hall, coming from the staircase leading down here.

Ever so slowly, the room quiets, hundreds of gazes going to the huge double doors that lead into the ballroom.

The echoing footfalls quiet, and the doors to the ballroom are thrown open. Two rows of fae soldiers wearing uniforms of gleaming gold file into the room, their movements choreographed and precise.

Eventually, they stop and pivot, creating a makeshift aisle of sorts. Another uniformed fairy heads down the aisle, pausing at the end of it.

“It is my eminent honor to present, from the radiant heavens above, His Majesty Janus Soleil—the King of Day!” he announces.

I cover my eyes against the brightness that flares at the entrance of the ballroom as someone strides down the aisle before coming to a full stop in front of the soldiers. It takes several seconds for the glare to die away.

When it does…