Page 19 of Hot Vampire Next Door: Season Five

I let my eyes bleed to gold as a final warning.

He tips his head in acknowledgment.

“Shall we leave now?” he asks. “We’ve no more time to waste.”

Jimmy stays back to watch over Duval House with the witch by her side. Damien and I follow Baspin to the fae gate.

It’s been a very long time since I’ve been to the field where the gate stands. There was never a point with it being sealed.

The door is now ajar with a trickle of light spilling out. Being that it’s another realm, time moves differently there than it does here, and sometimes night is day and day is night in the fae realm. Luckily for vampires, sunlight in the fae realm doesn’t have the same potency as the mortal.

When we walk through the doorway, however, it’s immediately clear that something is different.

The air is thick and hot, almost insufferable, and the light is too. Baspin pauses on the other side of the threshold, a deep frown on his face.

“It’s as I expected,” he tells me over his shoulder. “With the Winter Court gone, the seasons are out of balance and Summer has taken over. They were always just too pompous to admit they needed the Unseelie, and the Winter.”

Damien pulls a fern from the ground, examining the roots. Dirt cakes his fingers. He takes in a deep breath of the dark brown root system. “It’s rotting.” He tosses it aside. “And how do you suppose the Summer Court feels about it now?”

Baspin doesn’t speculate. Instead he says, “We should hurry. Before the night grows older.”

I can remember from past visits that fae palaces are always buzzing with activity. But when we approach the Summer Palace, it’s exterior grounds are noticeably quiet. All sound can be traced to the interior, to the heart of the palace.

There are whispers between fae.

That’s the Winter Princess.

The daughter of the traitor.

Shorter than I expected.

Prettier than I expected.

What an ugly princess. Rounded ears!

Why has the Summer Prince brought the likes of her here?

She should be put to death.

That last one has me pushing past Baspin down the domed hallway of the palace.

She’s close. My little mouse is close and I won’t stop until she’s back in my arms and?—

There is a crowd gathered in the throne room. And over the assembled, I can just make out Jessie on a dais, a woman in front of her and another fae…on a knee?

The crowd is thicker the closer I get to the dais and I shove them back, knocking many to their asses, panic driving heat through my veins.

“Bran, wait!” Damien calls.

But I’m already through. I’m already at the steps up to the dais where Jessie is standing, stunned, with the fae on one knee and his words tumbling out with excitement and glee. “Jessie MacMahon, Princess of the Winter Court, will you take my hand in marriage and be my wife?”

The fuck?

I take the stairs two at a time and yank the dagger Damien retrieved for me from the hidden sheath at my hip.

The dagger is made of iron and it will kill any fae.

And I plan to kill this one. No questions asked.