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He staggers back, a sharp smile on his face. “Do you know what,wife? It’s been far too long since anyone has truly challenged me. I think I was starting to miss it.”

Magic rushes into me from the earth, and I charge at him, but this time, he’s ready and moves for me with a shocking speed.

He grabs my wrist, twisting my arm sharply behind my back, then shoves my chest against the tree. Every nerve in my body is alight. My face presses against the rough bark, and I catch my breath.

Leaning close, he whispers, his breath warming the side of my face. “You’ve been playing me all along, little liar. And here I thought you needed to be saved…”

“Blocking you out of my head kept me weak,” I say. “But now I’m free.”

I slam my head back into his face, causing him to lose his grip. I spin around and kick him high in the chest, my foot colliding with what feels like pure rock. Even worse, he manages to catch my foot on the way down. With a dark smile, he twists my leg and flips me onto my stomach. I hit the ground hard, grunting from the pain.

I gasp sharply for breath. Rolling over, I kick him hard in the thigh, and he winces. Swift as lightning, he’s on top of me now, his hand around my throat. Not squeezing. Just holding me in place. Dominating. Owning me.

Curiosity flickers in his eyes, a flare of copper in the darkness. “What are you, exactly? How did a demi-Fey become this strong?”

Morgan’s power streams into me again from the earth.Dark-eyed usurper…you need to know your place. You’re not here to be king. You’re here to be consort.

“Do you really want to know who I am?” My words cut through clenched teeth, echoes of ladies long gone laced in my voice. “I’m the real heir to the fucking Fey throne. It’s not yours. It’s mine. I’m the Lady of the Lake.I’mthe heir of Morgan.”

I drive my elbow into his forearm, breaking his grip on my throat as his hand hits the earth beside me. Grabbing a fistful of his hair, I thrust my hips upward sharply, flipping him off me and onto the ground.

Suddenly, I’m straddling him, breathless, and I slam my fist into his face again, pain bleeding into my knuckles as I strike his cheek.

I draw back to hit him again, but this time, he’s not taking any more. His fingers lock around my wrist, his grip unyielding, brutal. No restraint now. He’s giving me everything he has.

Blood drips from his beautiful lips.

“You’re the heir to Morgan?” A dark, challenging smile. “Please don’t tell me you’re my sister. I can’t even begin to contemplate the incestuous depths of depravity my mind has reached if that’s the case.”

His free hand slides slowly up my back, his caress so sensual and at odds with the brutality of our fight that I’m thrown off guard. His touch leaves a trail of heat in its wake. Over the silky material, his hand sears me.

I lean in closer. I shouldn’t want this. I shouldn’t want him. Especially notnow.

His fingers tighten in my hair, pulling me closer. “If you are my sister, the things I have imagined doing to you, Nia, would need to be burned from my brain.”

A deep breath. A heartbeat. My lips are only inches from his, and his muscled body lies caged beneath me.

“I’m not your sister, nor your aunt,” I whisper, “but I am your queen.”

“That,” he whispers, “might just be the sexiest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

The corner of his mouth curves upward, and he cups the side of my face. He brushes his thumb over my lower lip, and for a moment, I’m sure he’s going to kiss me or kill me. Both, maybe.

This time, he yanksmyhair, flipping me onto my back. My head slams painfully on the ground. I struggle, but the power is draining quickly from my body. He twists my arm behind me again. Before I can fully react, I’m face down on the muddy snow. My body is turning to ice as the snow soaks through the thin layer of silk, and my teeth chatter wildly.

“But as sexy as you are, I’m afraid I don’t trust a fucking thing you say,” he murmurs.

He wrenches my arms painfully behind my back until my shoulders ache. And as much as that hurts, it’s the finality of his voice that kills me.

There is no coming back from this. I thought, somehow, this would end with us on the same side.

How wrong I was.

Somewhere in the distance, Tarasque’s cry rends the air, and my heart skips a beat.

Talan is tying up my wrists with vines.

Time’s up.