Page 148
Story: Throne of Air and Darkness
Taliya snarled, a terrifying, high-pitched sound. She might be tiny, but I could see the damage she’d inflict with those long fangs and needle-sharp claws. She would try to tear apart my mate—try and fail.
Then we’d have a dead faerie leader and a whole other host of problems.
“We don’t want anything from you,” I said, stepping up beside Veyka.
I didn’t try to take her dagger—I didn’t feel like testing Isolde’s healing prowess—but I did loosen my hold upon my beast. I let him growl softly, let him rub up against Veyka’s consciousness through the mating bond.
Ironic, that the growl that had made so many fae warriors piss themselves with fear seemed to calm and soothe my mate.
Fitting, really.
I lifted my gaze to Taliya—not an experience I relished. “Show us a way out and we’ll take it.”
“Not until Lyrena is healed,” Veyka said.
I didn’t break Taliya’s gaze, but I lifted my chin an inch.
Her pale blue eyes were similar in color to Veyka’s—even to her mother, Igraine. But they felt wholly different. Maybe it was all the blue around them—skin, hair, brows, even her eyelashes were a pale milky blue.
“You’d like to rejoin yourfriendsabove?” Taliya hissed.
She knew.
The faerie knew what we’d escaped above ground, even though I hadn’t seen anyone give her a report.
“You’ve encountered the nightwalkers.”
“We are familiar with their kind, Majesty. For seven thousand years, the Faeries of the Fen have lived in these tunnels, growing a mighty jungle overhead to protect us. Since your precious Ancestors cast us out, along with all the others—witches, priestesses. We have been preparing for the return of the succubus.”
65
VEYKA
“Seven thousand years of building our fortress, and you’ve led the succubus right to us. The fae bring nothing but darkness and death to the faeries,” Taliya snarled.
She was a vicious little thing. I wanted to squash her beneath my boot.
But she was the leader of the faeries, despite what Isolde said. I’d seen the way the others in the atrium watched our interaction—watched her. The children who’d dropped the torch had bowed their heads in respect before running off. She was the leader of her people, even if some of them believed in an ancient allegiance.
That didn’t mean I couldn’t subvert her insecurities.
Or find out who, exactly, among the faeries believed that Arran and I had a claim to them.
But none of that mattered. It was all happening in the back of my mind; calculations and posturing that seemed to be part of the elemental fae blood that ran in my veins.
Only one word echoed in my consciousness—
Succubus.
“You mean the nightwalkers,” I said.
A feral toss of her head. “A human name—from humans who do not remember their own history. They are so short lived, it is no wonder. But the fae—what excuse do beings who live a thousand years have for forgetting the name of their greatest enemy?”
“There have been other threats,” Arran said. He was thinking of Arthur’s murder. The battles he’d led the terrestrial armies into over the centuries—disputes and conquests with far away continents.
“You fight amongst yourselves, positioning for power. That is all the elementals and terrestrials have ever cared about.” Taliya’s wings slowed. Was she tired already? I was certain Arran noted the change as she lowered herself to the earthen floor. Farther away this time.
Smart female.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148 (Reading here)
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161
- Page 162
- Page 163
- Page 164
- Page 165
- Page 166
- Page 167
- Page 168
- Page 169
- Page 170
- Page 171
- Page 172
- Page 173
- Page 174
- Page 175
- Page 176
- Page 177
- Page 178
- Page 179
- Page 180
- Page 181
- Page 182
- Page 183
- Page 184
- Page 185
- Page 186
- Page 187
- Page 188
- Page 189
- Page 190
- Page 191
- Page 192
- Page 193
- Page 194
- Page 195
- Page 196
- Page 197
- Page 198
- Page 199
- Page 200
- Page 201
- Page 202
- Page 203
- Page 204
- Page 205
- Page 206
- Page 207
- Page 208
- Page 209
- Page 210
- Page 211