Chapter 12 #2
Valance was exposed and as vulnerable as me. No blade on him, nothing to indicate one was hidden. It didn’t mean there wasn’t a surprise lurking somewhere on his body.
“Have a seat,” he said, swilling red wine in a goblet.
I sat at the white dresser beside me. Even the cushioned seat was bliss on my ass.
“Why the bath?” I asked.
“That’s your first question? Not why you’re alive?” Valance shrugged. “You smelled bad. I’d grown tired of you smelling bad.”
I may as well be naked in the silk gown. I’d rather be stinking in my armor than here with him, with nothing but red silk between my flesh and nudity. The last thing I wanted was for him to see me naked—one of many last things.
“What do you want with me if you didn’t feed me to those orchids?” I asked.
He sat on the bed. Crossed his legs, sipped his wine. Part of his gown slid off his leg, exposing a lot of smooth thigh. Gods, his skin was lusciously alabaster, pure moonlight on a body. Tempting and ripe for the touch, if it belonged to another man. Not this Sidhe fae. Not this prince.
He caught me looking. Fury and shame heated my cheeks.
“Do you like what you see?” he purred.
“Fuck you, Valance. Whatever games you’re playing, you can shove them up your ass like you’ve done with most of your kingdom.”
The rim of his glass paused at his pale, pink lips. Full lips. “Is that supposed to insult me?”
“I don’t care.”
“It doesn’t. I’m proud of all my conquests. Plenty of sex and reading is good for the mind, body, and soul.”
I chuffed. “Soul? You? Some places are too dark for anything to grow.”
“Not true. There are plenty of flowers that grow without the sun.”
I flashed back, once again, to Preston and the orchids. “Why?”
“What?”
“Why kill Preston that way? Why draw it out?”
Valance sipped his wine and got to his feet. He headed over to the open balcony windows, gazing out at the night, his body framed by the flapping drapes.
“Tell me you wouldn’t do the same to me or any other seelie,” he said.
Annoyingly, the bastard hit the nail on the head. Dad always liked to say that, too.
“Nothing you don’t deserve,” I countered.
“Likewise,” he returned. “I don’t understand you humans who follow the unseelie agenda. Why align yourself with that dark court and live a hard life? You can have it easier under seelie protection. It makes no sense. They are dark. We are the light.”
Somewhere that’d got twisted. The two courts weren’t places but concepts.
The unseelie were said to be children of the night while seelie the children of the day.
Gods only knew why. The origins were murky.
But the whole thing had been a basis for a never-ending war.
Both courts had different principles. The unseelie the better ones, definitely the ‘lighter’ and more progressive.
The Tuatha were the children of winter, another group. The worst of the fae. Taken down a long time ago by both courts. Once, the courts had actually got along.
“Does shit always fall out of your mouth?” I asked.
He turned from the window. “I’m sorry?”
“Seelie don’t want to protect humans. We’re cattle to you. Handy slaves and servants so you don’t have to get your manicured hands dirty.”
He lifted his hands, showed me his fingers. “They’re flawless, aren’t they?”
I grunted with disgust. “Soft living.”
He waved a hand at me. “I’m not interested in your opinions. Every one of them is meaningless with your choices.”
“I chose something better.”
“Are you telling me there are no unseelie slaves?”
“We’re free humans.”
“That is a terrible lie sold by a terrible leader,” he said. “She acts as if slaves have terrible lives here. They do not. They have a better life than you.”
I sat forward, contemplating rushing him. But he’d want that. I’d move, and I’d be dead.
“Only the end of the seelie court gives them a better life,” I retorted.
He rolled his eyes. “If you weren’t so full of Lasair’s self-importance, you’d see things clearly. There is no escape, Kormac. You can’t get out of this palace unless you’re a corpse. Even then, I’m not willing to bet you’ll be free of suffering.”
I growled. Fuck it. One rush…
No!
Damn!
“You’ll be far better off being my slave,” he said.
Disgusting thought. “What kind of slave?”
“Are you considering it already?”
“Never.”
“A better fate.”
“I’d rather be dead.”
“I can arrange that.”
I got to my feet. “Then do it.”
He didn’t flinch, didn’t seem bothered by my aggressive gesture.
“I should do it.” He sat on his bed again, eyes downcast. “You’re nothing but a criminal. A rebel. It is the seelie who first took humans in after their pilgrimage from the human realms. Gave you shelter and food and work. Lives.”
“Made us slaves.”
“I don’t see it that way. I just see lots of ungrateful rebels who fall for lies.
I’m making excuses. You should know better.
You understand Faerie history, the pains of the world.
Humans have the capacity to think and make choices.
You made yours. Therefore, you are scum as much as those you run with. ”
“Fuck—”
“Mind your tongue, Kormac. My patience is long but not unending. I want to give you a chance to redeem yourself, to make better choices.”
“Why?”
“Why not?”
“That’s not an answer.”
He stood up, his dressing gown loosening. It parted, exposing a flat stomach and a hint of silver pubic hair. “I answer as I wish. I am a prince. Heir to the throne, ruler of Faerie.”
“Not all of it.”
“Most of it,” he countered. “Soon, all of it.”
“Even Winter?”
He chuckled. “Don’t be ridiculous. Not even my family’s ambitions stretch to that sort of madness.”
Family’s? Not his?
“Go on, go to the frozen north,” I said.
“You’d love that, wouldn’t you?”
“I can’t deny the truth.”
I played a dangerous game with my mouth. If I wasn’t careful, that patience this fucker had mentioned would break, and so would my face.
But the royal prick appeared more amused than offended.
“You’re not afraid of me,” he said.
“Everyone’s afraid of you.”
“Yet you don’t cower before me. Not like most. Even in my garden, you were more resolute than bigger men and women before you.”
My stomach roiled. “I have to…”
“Have to what?”
“To be strong.”
“Admirable.”
Could I really kill him now if I moved fast enough? How high were we? Could I make a run for it out of that window?
“How to kill me and run,” he said.
“What?”
“I can tell what you’re thinking.”
The prince looked so proud of himself. “So you’re telepathic.”
“Don’t be absurd.”
Only goblins read minds. It was how they hunted their prey out in the wild before the fancy dinners.
“Of course, I want you dead,” I said. “Why wouldn’t I? You’ve… Your family…” I rubbed at my newly smooth chin. “I can’t keep repeating myself. You know how much you’re hated.”
“And the same applies to you, doesn’t it?” he responded. “Rebels and Fomorian leaders and unseelie nonsense.” His fingers laced through the tie of his gown. If he wasn’t careful, it’d slip completely free and show me the prize at the end of the thicket of pubic hair.
“With ramshackle plans,” he added. “Or have you already succeeded in getting inside the palace? Am I missing something?” He laughed and knocked back the last of his wine.
Placing the glass on his bedside table, he climbed onto the sheets. He stretched like a cat, a lean specimen, amazingly, not revealing his cock.
“Tell me,” he said, leaning back onto his pillows, “where are you from?”
None of your business. “You know the answer.”
“Not really.”
“The north of Autumn.”
“Outside of my reach. What village? What city?”
“Away from you and Lord Dach. The dirty traitor.”
Valance pulled on his dressing gown, letting one side slip down his shoulder. A nice shoulder, as well put together as the rest of him.
I shuffled in my seat, pulses of annoying heat rushing between my legs. That same heat flushed my cheeks, slithered up to my chest.
Damn.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. “Why are you blushing?”
Prick! I kept my eyes downcast as much as I could, but the fucker was too tempting to not look at.
Vulnerable on the bed, almost naked. A dirty thought, but sexy.
Really fucking sexy. Ready to be taken, ready for me to tear that gown off and flip him over.
Fuck the royal soul out of him. Make him scream my name, pull on that luscious hair, bury my cock so fucking deep into his ass.
His mouth first. Make him gag and choke on me and then give it to him.
Kill him. Not fuck him.
I crossed my legs to hide myself.
Once again, he noticed. This time, though, he didn’t say anything about it.
“When you say the north of Autumn,” he tried again, “where do you mean? I want specifics.”
“Out of your reach,” I answered.
His expression darkened. Shadows danced in his obsidian eyes. “Indeed. One day things will change. If only things had turned out better for him…”
“When your brother came.” When he failed.
I liked the pain in his face he couldn’t hide, even though I saw he tried his best too. Good. I hoped and prayed to whoever listened that it broke his heart.
Your disgusting brother. Now dead. Rotting in the seven hells, pecked at every day and night by ravens sent to torment him. A nice thought.
“Riverleaf,” Valance said. “Is that where you’re from? It must be if you mentioned Daire.”
He didn’t give me a chance to answer.
“My brother never passed beyond the village. He died there.” The prince slid off the bed.
“Murdered in cold blood. Tossed into the river in the dead of night, along with his guards. Ambushed by the scum of that place. Scum like you. Were you… Were you there when they did it? Did you have a hand in his death?”
Again, he didn’t let me speak.