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CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

SAM

“ THEY’RE SOULMATES ?”

I stopped short just outside Sweyn’s throne room, my hand sliding down the white marble wall. Oh no. They know. Knots twisted in my stomach. I bit my bottom lip and tried to think if I needed to warn Everest they’d learned their secret.

“Fascinating, isn’t it, Sister?” The Unseelie Prince drawled, his voice moving as he spoke as if he was walking. “As equally fascinating as you somehow missing yet another detail?—”

“ How dare you ? —”

“Or what, Sister? Whatever do you suspect you hold over me? What fear can you strike within me?”

Sweyn growled. “Lilith?—”

“I do wonder what she thinks of your failures.” The Prince chuckled and it sent a chill down my spine as it echoed between the marble walls. “You missed the evidence of his loyalty to Heaven. Despite drinking from his vein, you missed the taste of Seelie in his blood. You never even checked if he could withstand sunlight in the last thousand years . . . and then his own little witchling of a soulmate stood right before your very throne and you missed it. ”

“You weren’t here?—”

“And yet I sensed their connection the moment I arrived,” he snapped back.

I slid to the edge of the door frame and peeked through the crack between the door and the hinges. Sweyn was perched on her throne, gripping the armrests so hard little chunks of crystal crumbled between her fingers. The Unseelie Prince sauntered a path along the floor-to-ceiling windows with his hands clasped behind his back. I glanced around, surprised to find the two of them alone. Sweyn always loved an audience yet tonight there was none.

“Everest has apparently strung you along his game of treachery for a thousand years and you missed every crumb. It is obvious he’s been making all of your plans because you’ve failed everyone you’ve attempted since he betrayed you. I wonder what else you’ve missed. Or maybe—” the Prince flew across the room to stop right in front of her throne, his back to me “—maybe you’re as loyal to Heaven as Everest is?”

“ WHAT?” Sweyn screeched.

The Prince crossed his arms over his chest and cocked his head to the side. “Perhaps that is why you missed the signs because you were equally involved in them?”

Sweyn stood, her arms trembling with rage as intense as the red glow of her eyes. “How dare you?—”

“The entire Coven was trapped within your walls here in October and yet every single one of them escaped?—”

“ I trusted Everest! ” Sweyn screamed. She lunged forward, stopping right in front of the Prince’s face with her upper lip snarled and her fangs elongating. “How dare you blame me for his betrayal. Your grievances are misplaced, Brother.”

The Prince shrugged but did not step back or even flinch. “Mark my words, Sister, one way or another . . . you will be the reason you fail. Either because you’re planning your betrayal as well or because you’re too stupid to call a leader.”

The doors on the other side of the throne room flew open. Sweyn’s sentinels stomped inside. Sweyn snarled in their direction. The moment she took her eyes off the Prince, he spun and marched for the door — right next to me. I cursed and pressed my back to the wall even though he couldn’t see me and prayed it stayed that way.

My prayers were ignored.

The moment the Prince stormed through the doorway and feet hit the marble of the hall, his yellow gaze snapped right in my direction. Those cat-like vertical pupils widened, and his nostrils flared for a second before he recaptured his composure. I pressed my hands to the marble behind me for support yet the sweat on my palms caused them to slip. He narrowed his eyes on me. I pushed my shoulders back into the cold wall and held my chin high, meeting his eyes with what I hoped was courage and confidence.

“ Tsk . . . tsk . . . tsk. ” He pursed his lips and shook his head as he stepped forward, stopping only when the toes of his boots hit mine. The heat of his skin washed over me, carrying the subtle scent of cinnamon. Everest. He’d been attacked by my uncle, which explained his outrage. He leaned forward, resting one hand on the wall above my head then dipped his head down to meet my eyes. “Was our resident daughter of darkness spying ?”

I swallowed my rattled nerves and held his stare. I could not let him sniff out my weakness or my allegiance. “What a poor spy I would be if this was the extent of my trickery?” I gestured to the open doorway a foot from my face.

He leaned down until there was merely an inch between our faces. “And yet you listened.”

“And yet you left the door wide open.” I licked my lips and his gaze tracked the movement. My pulse quickened. I liked his attention on my body a little too much for my liking. “Poor planning on your part does not require action on mine.”

He chuckled softly, his breath sweeping over my face, it smelled like a honey glazed doughnut and made my mouth water. “And what does the daughter of darkness think of what she heard? Does it bother you to hear me speak so poorly of your former betrothed and your Queen?”

I stared at his mouth. I told myself it was to taunt him and his obvious attraction to me but a little part in the back of my brain waved that red warning flag that I liked it too. We both knew what he was doing the question was . . . was it working or was I playing the same game back? The Unseelie Prince was not the alien his knights were. Ever since his trip to Seelie where he came back with a tan, cat-like yellow eyes, and hair the color of the deepest ocean he’d felt so much more alive. And terrifying. There was still a huge, massive part of me that was utterly terrified of this male in front of me . . . and yet when he dipped his head and pressed his nose to my temple my body turned volcanic. He inhaled through his nose then slowly let it out, his breath almost caressing that soft spot behind my ear. To my horror, I let out a deep sigh with the slightest little moan. His teeth grazed my earlobe.

He pulled back quickly, the tip of his nose touching mine.

I pressed my hands to his chest. “Perhaps I’m hoping you two will kill each other and leave the victory for me.” I pushed my magic through my hands and into his chest. Green lightning zapped him hard and fast, throwing him to the other side of the wall so hard he slammed into the marble. I arched one eyebrow.

He gasped but it morphed into a gnarly growl. He dove for me, his large hand wrapping around my throat in the blink of an eye. He lifted me off my feet then shoved me back into the wall. It should have hurt yet all I wanted was him to kiss me. Alarm bells were ringing in my head. His lips came down, gently brushing over mine?—

“ brOTHER! ” Sweyn screamed for him, her voice much closer than it had been before. Her stiletto heels clacking against the marble.

He hissed and dropped me like I’d burned him but not before Sweyn sped around the doorframe.

Her red gaze slid up and down our bodies, soaking in every detail of how close we stood. She arched one eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. “I was not done with you, Brother?—”

“I do not answer to you, and you cannot command me to.” His upper lip snarled in disgust then he turned and stormed off down the hall.

Sweyn was snarling and growling like a rabid dog. She watched him flee until he was out of sight then she turned those vicious eyes on me. “Sam, I have a task for you.”

I bowed my head. “Yes, my Queen? What can I do for you?”

“To know an Unseelie’s name gives you power over them. For that reason, my brother’s name has never been said aloud.” Sweyn’s gaze glanced to the hall then back to me. She smirked and gestured to my body and the wall he’d just pinned me against. “Do whatever you must but get his name out of him.”