Hell Fae Prince (Hell Fae #4)

16. Melek

CHAPTER 16

MELEK

U nease wound through me as I stepped through the library’s double doors. I paused once inside, allowing the cooler air from the cathedral-like ceiling to drift down.

The lower temperatures were from the figments. They giggled and whispered but didn’t speak directly to me.

Perhaps they sensed my mood—or maybe they sensed Camillia .

Whatever the reason, they were wisely keeping their distance.

I wasn’t in a playful mood. A rare occasion for me. But nothing about today had been normal.

Feathers, the last week had been atrocious. Having access to Camillia’s mind just to be barred from her thoughts had to be one of the worst punishments a man could endure.

And I wasn’t even sure why she felt the need to block me.

Everything I’d done had been to help her, not hurt her. Yet she’d made it very clear that she didn’t trust me. Hell, I wasn’t even sure she liked me.

Which was an annoying little concern.

Everyone liked me.

I was lovable. Kind. Good-looking. Fun. Confident.

Or I used to be, anyway.

Camillia had made me question myself in more ways than one, which probably explained why I was questioning myself even now.

Because I could feel her here. Yet deep down, I didn’t trust my instincts.

Maybe my insecurities had something to do with watching Lucifer fall for a second time.

Talk about triggering.

But this time, he accepted my hand…

An eon ago, the situation had been much more dire. Much less trusting .

But tonight, we were united, his power literally oozing off of him and permeating the entire realm.

It was so different from the first time he’d fallen. This time was more like a power explosion from above, my king having teleported himself almost all the way to the Hell Fae Realm before losing control and tumbling from the cloudless sky.

His fall from the Virtuous Fae Realm had been from a much greater distance. And the damage that incident had caused had been far more catastrophic. Yet it had also symbolized rebirth, his beautiful power stretching far and wide in an effort to rebuild.

Tonight, he hadn’t exuded the same broken stature as before, but the vision of him on his knees had been magnificent. Empowering. The rise of the Hell Fae King.

He seemed to be even more powerful than I remembered, as if Camillia had done so much more than return his Source. It was as though she’d healed that ancient divide that had always tormented us.

Or, at least, started the healing process that I hadn’t even realized we still needed.

I owed Camillia a debt of gratitude, one I’d repay once I found her. Are you even here? I wondered, wandering the library, searching for my little angel.

Ajax had felt her in the Barren Lands.

Azazel had flitted off back to the Midnight Fae Realm.

Yet I was sure she’d been here. At least until I’d arrived. Because now… now I was almost certain she wasn’t here at all.

“Prince Melek?” a female voice chimed.

I startled as I looked down at the seated female I hadn’t even noticed was there in the center of the room. Another sat across from her and stared at me with wide eyes.

Their uniforms marked them as Hell Fae Bride candidates, but neither of them was the one I was looking for.

“Candidate Twenty-Two.” I acknowledged the female with silver hair bound in a ponytail, one that revealed her pointed ears. She had a regal posture that reminded me of Camillia’s spirit, but that was where the similarities ended.

“Feyre of the House of Iron,” she corrected me, but I expected it was less of a correction and more of a hopeful introduction to the Hell Fae Prince.

The bride trials had been halted while the Marsh Lands were rebuilding. The mysterious portal opening near the Naga cavern had not been a coincidence. It’d happened right before the Naga trial, so any trials we planned next would likely become a target.

Meaning the trials were on an indefinite hold until we knew who was behind this, a fact that had upset many of the Hell Fae and Nightmare Fae. But our lieutenants understood and agreed with Ty’s decision.

We would find the culprit, and soon.

Because I suspected whoever had opened that portal in the Marsh Lands—the one that had led to the deaths of Nightmare Fae and at least six Hell Fae Brides—was also the villain responsible for whatever had just happened with Camillia, too.

It was all connected.

I have to find her.

“And I’m—” the other female began, but I cut her off with a short bow.

“Apologies, ladies, but I am on an urgent errand. Please, continue your studies and prepare for the next trial.”

“But when?—”

A figment tugged at Feyre’s ponytail, sending her words into a sharp curse as I took my opportunity to leave.

Thank you, I thought at the giggling figments, appreciating them even more.

I had no desire to offend any of the Hell Fae Bride candidates, especially ones who had made it this far. But until I found Camillia, I would not have answers for them.

My lingering sense of unease amplified when I reached a corridor lined with various books that I’d perused once before. A strange realization, as I didn’t often frequent the deeper levels of this library. I had a library of my own within the palace, making my visit here moot.

But once upon a time, I’d been drawn to this very aisle, and to the beauty seated at a desk toward the end.

“This is where I first saw you,” I whispered as I lightly traced the table’s edge.

A female with dirty-blonde hair reading Vita—a book only Ty himself should be able to decipher—was an imprint I would not soon forget.

What have you found, little prince? Ty asked in my mind. I just felt a jolt of intense longing from you. Is Camillia there? Did you learn something?

Instead of answering him, I transported myself back to the palace. The Hell Fae King’s Warden and Commander were already with him, standing on the wide balcony that overlooked his kingdom.

Ajax’s jaw clenched, and Azazel’s eyes were a turmoil of purple and black. Both of them were unsettled and now looking at me for answers.

Unfortunately, I had a sinking realization of what this all actually meant.

I looked at my king as I delivered the news. I was the one who had been pulling all the strings, who had been there when each one of us had fallen for Camillia De la Croix.

“I know why we sensed her in different places,” I said. “I felt her at the library because that is where I first met her.”

Ajax frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“That’s where I first fell for Camillia,” I explained, meeting his gaze.

His frown deepened. “But I was drawn to the Barren Lands. Camillia and I have never been there together.”

“True,” I agreed. “But what happened to you when Camillia was there? When you thought she died?”

His cheeks lost some of their color, his eyes rounding. “I was broken.”

“Because you’d fallen for her,” Ty said slowly, following my train of thought. “You were all drawn to places that hold emotional value.”

I nodded.

Ajax glanced at Azazel. “You felt her in the Midnight Fae Kingdom. That’s where…?”

“Where I stopped fighting my Phoenix,” the Commander said solemnly.

Typhos frowned and looked back at his palace toward the statue and the steaming crater next to it.

I didn’t have to ask him what that meant.

He’d finally accepted her.

Here.

Earlier tonight.

For the very first time.

And it terrified me that I had finally won, that I had finally convinced Ty of Camillia’s place at our side when she was?—

“It’s the mate-bond we are sensing,” Ty interjected before I could finish my thought.

“Yes. Our initial link to Camillia De la Croix.” I wasn’t sure if that’d been set up by nefarious magic or just our souls trying to find our missing mate.

Ty’s jaw ticked before he glanced back at his kingdom. “Then where is she?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know…”