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A male stood on the opposite side of the table, pushing his chair back as he glared at Mab. I knew who he must have been just from the things Caldris had said about Mab and where she’d come from.

Rheaghan stepped around the side of the table. “Why would you need to torment a human mate in such a way?” he asked, stopping beside his sister. He reached up to touch the iron, as if he needed the confirmation that it truly was made of iron and not a deception.

“Who said anything about her being human?” Mab asked, grasping her brother by the wrist. She pulled his hand away as he studied her in anger.

“She’s afraid to play with me when she doesn’t have me under control in one way or another,” I said, smirking at him as the hush in the room went entirely still.

Caldris shifted behind me, trying to wedge himself between us as Mab lashed out with a clawed hand. Her hand bounced off his armor as he shielded me, tucking me behind him as Mab met his rage-filled stare with the hollowness of hers.

“Aside, now,” she commanded, sweeping a nail across the front of his throat.

Blood trickled free from the wound as the bond forced him to step back, his chest sagging forward as his legs obeyed against his will.

The moment he was clear, Mab latched a hand around the front of my throat. The sound of her skin sizzling as the bottom of her hand touched the collar was loud in the silent hall. Her nails dug into the side of my neck, breaking through the skin as I grimaced up at her and fought for the breath she kept me from taking.

“You would do well to remember that you are nothing,” she hissed, leaning in to speak the words as venomously as a snake. “I have lived for centuries. I am a Goddess who rules over other Gods. Whatever you are is insignificant compared to that.”

I smiled through the pain burning my lungs, wheezing as I spoke the taunt that would push all the limits. “Then prove me wrong.”

“Estrella,” Caldris barked, the warning in my name nearly making me regret my outburst. I could survive my own suffering and pain, but I didn’t want to him to suffer with me.

Mab stilled, glancing at her brother from the corner of her eye. He watched me, his brow quirking as he studied me for a moment before leveling his sister with an expectant glance.

“The girl does have a point.”

Mab released my neck as suddenly as she’d grasped it, letting air fill my lungs once more. Caldris heaved a sigh of relief when I was freed, his chest moving as if the air being trapped outside of me had affected him as well.

“Remove it then,” Mab said, waving a hand toward Caldris.

I dropped my stare down to the hand that still bore the signs of the iron, the burns that had not yet healed. She healedthe effects of iron at the same rate as Caldris, one more tally in the box of differences between us.

Once, it had seemed unfathomable that I wouldn’t be her daughter with the similarities that existed, but now it seemed like the differences became more and more staggering with every day that passed.

My mate raised his hands, stepping up behind me and glaring at Malachi. Caldris brushed my hair over one shoulder, revealing the locking mechanism on the back of the collar. Malachi moved behind me to assist, the magic within the collar recognizing his touch before he backed away.

Caldris grasped the collar even as he burned, dropping it unceremoniously upon the dining table. Mab glared at it in distaste, as if it was an affront to her table setting.

I closed my eyes as the familiar warmth wrapped me in its embrace, winding its way up my Fae mark until it could settle upon my damaged throat. I opened them to the faint golden glow I’d become accustomed to, staring at Rheaghan where he stood directly in front of me.

He jolted back a step as he met my gaze, the movement barely noticeable to any who weren’t watching him closely. “What in the Gods…” he asked, tilting his head to the side. He took another step closer, glancing at Caldris in question as he stopped and raised a hand. His fingers lingered, hovering just off my skin as he waited for my mate’s permission to touch me.

Caldris studied him for a moment before he nodded, but it was what Rheaghan did in the next moment that made him different from all the other males I’d encountered in my life.

“May I?” he asked me.

The simple question struck me in the chest. I couldn’t remember a time when a man hadn’t just taken what hewanted, touched without thought or permission. I stared up at him in confusion, taking in the way his dark hair hung just past his ears and was as sleek as Mab’s.

His face was twisted with curiosity, but there was no mistaking the arresting beauty in the lines of his face or his piercing, light green eyes.

I nodded my assent, unable to find the words to thank him for taking such care. It was such a simple thing, such an obvious courtesy that should have been afforded at every opportunity. But I stood in the middle of the dining hall as he touched gentle fingers to my throat, fighting back tears that scalded the back of my eyes.

Rheaghan looked at Caldris’s hands as my mate placed one upon my shoulder in silent support, the burns on his skin remaining even though mine were gone. He curled a brow as he drew his fingers back, rounding on his sister, who dropped into her chair as if she were bored with the evening already.

“You’ve been keeping secrets, sister.”

“I often do,” she said, grasping her goblet of wine and swirling it as she leaned back into her chair.

Rheaghan returned to his seat, eyeing the place between him and Mab that remained empty. “Are we waiting for another secret? I’d heard a rumor that my niece had finally returned to Alfheimr. Where is she?” he asked.