Page 137 of Hell Fae King

I almost didn’t take the paper from her, aware that she’d probably enchanted the text. But when I saw the date on top, I snatched it out of the air.

Because I recognized that day.

Camillia’s birthday.

My gaze flickered to Nos—the one who hadsignedthis deal—before returning my focus to the agreement. My eyebrow arched, the terms almost laughable. “You betrayed me in exchange for a queen?” I looked at him. “A queen who could never properly survive in this realm?”

My Source was very particular about whom it empowered. Bringing someone here who didn’t belong was a death sentence for most fae. Not because I would kill the intruder—or the being responsible for said intruder—but because my Source wouldn’t allow them to prosper.

Faedoms and the fae inside them all required energy to survive.

That was how our worlds worked.

“My gates exist for protection, Nos. They keep unwanted visitors out but also ensure that only those my Source can properly nurture are allowed in,” I went on. “And your failure to understand that has earned you a death sentence.”

Which officially explained the Rot in his territory.

My Source had stopped feeding him life, hence his need to steal the souls of everyone else around him. Including the female I assumed he’d claimed as queen—the one lying dead at his feet.

Or maybe she was another casualty.

Regardless, it didn’t matter.

He’d betrayed me.

And it seemed the date he’d chosen to do so also held vast significance.

Because it was Camillia’s birth date—the exact day she’d been created.

That was obviously not a coincidence.

But now I wondered if Camillia had merely been a decoy and if Vivaxia’s true intentions rested in this kingdom.

On Nos’s throne, I thought, noting the way her hand had ventured right back to the conduit, as though she needed it to remain stable inside my gates.

It was also entirely possible that everything served a purpose, that Camillia wasn’t a decoy so much as a layer in Vivaxia’s plans.

She always operated several steps ahead, a fact that used to enchant me many eons ago. But I’d learned her tricks, mastered them for myself, and fully intended to use them now to unravel her current play.

Except, something was nagging at me.

A lagging thought.

A…I frowned.A buried memory.

Something about striking deals at the right time in the right place.

Why is that important?I wondered.And why can’t I grasp the full intention of that thought?

“What is it, Ty?” Vivaxia asked, her use of Melek’s nickname for me grating on my nerves. “Struggling to understand my gift? Need some help to decipher it?”

The condescending undertone of her questions had me wanting to growl. It was like she was in my head, dancing right along with me as I tried to untangle her motives.

I’d always despised that sensation, and she was one of the few who had ever made me feel this way.

Yet it seemed worse somehow. Which was impossible. I’d spent thousands of years away from her. She had no idea what I was capable of now.

“I have to say,” she went on, “I’m not surprised. You really have stretched your powers to the brink of self-destruction.” She sounded sad, as though she actually cared. But I caught the glimmer of malice in her cruel gray eyes. However, she chased it away as she glanced down at Nos. “I mean, he hasn’t even noticed that you’ve failed to reply at all. Isn’t that just so typical?”