Page 5 of Temptation Unleashed (Talaenian Fae #3)

Thaddeus arched his brow higher, indicating his wearing patience.

He was of half a mind to turn heel and be gone, figuring out Grison’s puzzle on his own.

He wanted to find something palatable to eat, in a place that didn’t hold an underlying aroma of wet earth and musk that not even the food could counter.

He wanted to soak in a spring somewhere and cleanse his body of days of grime and blood, loosen his tense muscles, and figure out a path to move forward.

“My scouts are concerned due to information about your brother.”

For a brief moment, his mind refuted Grison’s words. The malicious glimmer in the beast’s eyes sparked into flames of delight. Thaddeus straightened his back a bit more, tipped his chin upward a hairsbreadth higher. His brows dropped into a furrow as his eyes narrowed.

“What concern do they have about my brother?”

“He’s been frolicking in the mortal world, engaging in forbidden lifestyles.

Human women.” Grison sighed, a condescending sound.

He lifted his fork and began to dig another piece of chicken from the bone.

His gaze flicked up to Thaddeus. A ghostly grin edged along the corners of his mouth.

He motioned to the plate in front of Thaddeus.

Thaddeus shoved it aside in finality of refusing the invitation.

Grison’s council members shared concerned glances among themselves.

“Daeanna’s dream of pureblooded realms would have started with the eradication of any threat to our pure bloodlines. ”

Thaddeus hadn’t realized he clenched his teeth until he opened his mouth to speak. Keep calm. Keep control. Relaxing his jaw, he asked, “Are you trying to convince me that Daeanna was planning genocide?”

“’Tis not genocide, Thaddeus. ’Tis preservation.

Does one consider ridding one’s self of an ailment the genocide of said ailment?

” He snickered, stabbing his torn chicken with his fork.

“Nay. ’Tis preservation of one’s health and power.

And anything which interferes must be eliminated.

” Grison lifted his gaze and grinned darkly.

“You stood by her side on the battlefield, thirsting for blood, if I recall. Did you believe cutting down those Talaenian wastes is a form of this genocide you speak?”

Thaddeus’s mind whirled. ’Twas exactly what Daeanna planned. The culling of a thorn in the side of the Seelie race. The complete annihilation of the Talaenian people. But, if he were completely honest, one man would have been spared.

His childhood friend. His longtime foe. The one male Daeanna wanted above all others .

“There are always causalities of war for as long as life has breathed in these realms. The battle on Talaenian soil was no different.” He refused to give Grison the satisfaction of believing his argument correct, for ’twas steeped in truth.

He himself had danced with death and nearly became one of those casualties.

“Needless murder at first offense is not a tactic Daeanna took when approaching the issues of bloodline contamination.”

“It takes but one mistake to contaminate a bloodline, Thaddeus. You know this. All you must do is see the abomination born of Shaye’s seed and his mortal mate.”

If he recalled correctly, the mortal woman was no longer mortal, having been gifted the power of a Fae potion. And the child she birthed possessed more Fae resemblance than human.

“Do you doubt our beloved princess’s plan? Do you defy her will, even in death, to remove any threat to our pureblooded race? The very princess who took you beneath her wing when all others dismissed your powers and abilities?’

The struggle within his chest tightened, as did the fingers he knotted behind his back, beneath the edges of the rough linen shirt. He maintained the cool expression over his face, his eyes not moving from Grison’s.

“Did you not pledge your undying loyalty to her?”

“Aye. As did you.”

“Aye,” Grison concurred. “And my loyalty to her cause remains my priority. Her cause, Thaddeus, of ridding these worlds of all threats to our Seelie race by any means.”

Grison lowered his fork to the edge of his plate and dabbed the sleeve of his robe at his temple, a gesture Thaddeus had witnessed many a time as a signal of the man’s false sincerity.

A weight began to press down in Thaddeus’s gut.

He had a feeling he wasn’t going to like what the bloody bastard was about to say.

“We have become complacent, wasting time on passive strategies. ’Tis what brought the death of our princess, our martyr.

She took to the offense far too late. We shall not make that mistake twice.

” Slowly, Grison pushed up from his chair, rolled back his shoulders, and curled his lips in a snarl.

“Any pureblood who wishes to tread the fine line of threatening our race shall meet a swift end. Any .”

“You wish to discuss my brother’s execution, is that it?

” Thaddeus’s muscles hardened beneath the implication he caught flash across Grison’s eyes.

The High Fae lacked the strict control of his emotions that Thaddeus had honed, his magic flickering like tiny shards of glass over his skin.

“Has Cael brought a babe into the world?”

“His actions with his current mortal woman pose such a threat.”

Thaddeus cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. “And you wish for me to…?”

“I believed you smarter than this.”

“I’m sure you didn’t save my life solely for me to hunt and kill my brother.

’Twould have saved you the grievance of being associated with this sniveling bed-pet scum”—Thaddeus cast a frigid glance toward the two men from the corridor and chuckled to himself when they turned white as snow before he languidly returned his icy gaze to Grison—“but then again, I’m not one to prod into another’s mind. ”

Ahh, the satisfaction of seeing Grison’s body stiffening and a bolt of fright in his gaze was enough to bring a deadly grin to Thaddeus’s mouth.

“Aye, I’ll gladly hunt my brother, and should I deem his actions punishable by death, you shall receive his pretty head upon our next meeting. ”

Thaddeus pivoted on his heel and began to retreat, his steps unhurried, absorbing the dozens of different levels of energy and emotions throbbing in the air.

Fear took the forwardmost spot. Fear of him.

Fear of his power. Fear of his ruthlessness.

These people feared him, and for good reason.

’Twas Daeanna who cultivated his powers, showed him his true potential, nurtured and molded him into this creature who made the shadows his home while standing in the midst of a sunlit court.

He had become a weapon, her weapon, her greatest-kept secret.

And only recently had his full potential been seen, felt, discovered by many of the Seelie realms. ’Twas an unfortunate slip of his foot and a lucky twin shot by a bloody Talaenian that landed him in his current state.

Halfway to the dilapidated stairs, Thaddeus paused.

The weight of anticipation lifted his grin, stirring the satisfaction in his mind.

For a long moment, he stared at the door ahead, listening to the utter silence at his back.

Such deafening silence that the crackle of the ill-formed candles echoed in the hall.

Breaths bated, gazes locked on him, he lazily twisted back to his audience.

Back to Grison.

The creature had enough sense to lean back, if only a fraction, but enough for Thaddeus to catch the sign of submission.

“Do not take me for a fool, Grison. I know your plan is far more convoluted than having me off my only surviving blood relative. A fool, may I remind you, believes himself smarter than those around him. A fool believes himself all-powerful and is overconfident.” His grin lowered into a malicious line.

He tipped his head and bored his gaze into the standing Fae. “A fool, Grison, always falls.”

The air in the room quivered. The ripples teased his chest and arms, caressed his face, the Fae around him cowed by his quietly spoken threat. The corner of his mouth curled up in a smile once more as he took his leave.

Fools always fell.

’Twould be only a matter of time before Grison’s foolish ploys brought him to his knees.