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The Bargainers eyes sweep over the room. “So this is your kingdom now?” A surprised little chuckle escapes him.

King Henbane tightens his grip on his armrests.

“Forgive me,” Des says, “but this is the first I’ve heard of anyonewantingthis shithole.”

Henbane rises to his feet again, his face flushing with anger. At his back, angular, iridescent wings begin to form.

Awww, did my boyfriend piss someone off?

The king motions to someone in the crowd, and in response, a fairy steps away from the gathered masses, a pair of thick iron shackles in his gloved hands. Several of the soldiers in our entourage now hesitantly grab Des. They might not want to get in another skirmish with the King of Night, but they also don’t want to betray their loyalties.

They move my mate’s hands in front of him, and Des just lets them. I make a move to intercede, but two of our escorts cut me off, holding me in place.

The King of the Night flashes me a look, and unlike all his playful words, the expression is serious, though I’m not sure what unspoken message he’s trying to beam at me.

The fairy with the iron manacles steps up to the Bargainer. I don’t care that Des is powerful and unyielding as the fairy moves them to his wrists; I struggle at the sight of them. During my time as Karnon’s prisoner, I saw exactly what iron did to the fae.

With an ominous clink, the soldier cuffs Des. They’re only on his wrists for an instant before the iron shackles slide uselessly off, landing on the dirt floor in front of Des.

The Bargainer raises his eyebrows. “That was not supposed to happen, I take it?” he asks.

Up on the throne, the king fists one of his hands, but otherwise continues to watch impassively.

Frowning, the fairy picks up the iron manacles with a gloved hand and again tries to cuff Des.

And again the shackles slip off him, falling once more to the ground. This time, when the guard stoops to grab them, the Bargainer kicks them away.

“Whoops.”

Typhus settles into his seat, his sharp green eyes flicking over me. “Since our lord king won’t cooperate, put a pair on the bitch he’s with.”

In response, the room gets a hint darker.

Once more, the fairy bends down and picks up the shackles. Only, as soon as he touches them, the cuffs clamp themselves on his wrist. His gloves slide off, exposing his bare skin to the iron. It only takes a few seconds for his screams to start up.

And that right there is proof that this whole kingdom is nothing but fool’s gold. I was imprisoned next to enough real soldiers to know that no matter how badly iron burned them, they wouldn’t give their captors the benefit of their screams. Badassery at its finest.

That was how hardened those soldiers were. These fairies are nothing but boys and girls role-playing at being soldiers.

Des takes several steps forward, his magic thickening in the air. “You really shouldn’t have said that.”

That’s all the warning he gives. In the next instant, power explodes out of him, tearing through the room. It blasts back the crowd of fairies, knocking them down like bowling pins. Even Typhus is thrown back against his seat, the stone trembling under the force of Des’s magic.

The king looks utterly shell-shocked for a moment, and I can’t decide whether he’s blown away by Des’s power or his audacity.

When he recovers, magic begins to form in his fist, bending the light as it takes the shape of a spear. He throws the bolt like a javelin, aiming straight for Des.

The Bargainer doesn’t move, though he has time to sidestep the throw. Instead, he takes the full brunt of it as it slams into his chest.

He grunts at the impact, then touches his chest with mild interest. “Iamimpressed. How many of your subjects have you drained to amass this sort of power? Hundreds? Thousands? You must be cobound to damn near everyone to wield this level of magic.”

Another spear begins to form in Typhus’s hand. “They’ve bequeathed their power willingly,”—uh huh. And cake has no calories—“so I could defend them from men like you.”

Des waves a hand, and King Henbane is thrown back in his seat, his magic disintegrating in an instant.

“Enough.” The King of the Night says it with such finality that the room full of hardened criminals now stills.

Des steps forward. “I was told you could give me answers, and I will have them, one way or another.”