Chapter 24 – Billie
Twenty-Four
BILLIE
The rest of the day passes in a haze of Corvinus-shaped interruptions.
He's in my Fae History class, sitting in the back row and asking questions about the war against the Unseelie that make the professor stammer. Questions he absolutely knows the answers to at that.
He's in Courtly Etiquette, demonstrating proper form with a grace that makes Madame Renardier practically weep with joy.
He's fucking everywhere, and each time I see him, that smile gets a little wider, a little more knowing.
By the time I escape to the courtyard after my last class, I'm ready to commit actual murder with my bare hands.
The gardens are quieter this time of day, most students either in class or holed up studying. I find a bench tucked between two flowering bushes that smell like vanilla and let myself collapse onto it.
My feet throb from racing between buildings, trying to stay one step ahead of a prince who apparently has nothing better to do than stalk me like a particularly persistent predator.
This is not how this mission was supposed to go. I was supposed to infiltrate, seduce Corvinus, and kill him. Clean and simple. The Shepherd's plan laid out in careful detail.
Except I can't seduce someone I want to disembowel. And I definitely can't strike when he's surrounded me with so many witnesses that a mouse couldn't sneeze near me without someone reporting it to campus security.
I'm fucked.
Completely, utterly fucked.
"There you are."
Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding. I turn around to find Corvinus striding toward me, but before he can reach the bench, something I can only describe as a translucent pigeon appears out of thin air and blocks his path.
What the…
"A herald," Corvinus says through his teeth, snatching the shimmering, transparent parchment the see-through bird has between its talons. The moment it touches his hand, the parchment is solid and the color of bleached hide.
The magical pigeon disappears in a flash of light because he's clearly got better places to be.
That makes two of us.
"So you people really don't believe in phones, do you?" I ask flatly. It's a bit hypocritical, considering my hunter clan shuns most modern technology at the compound, but I think it's less a matter of security for the Fae and more about aesthetics.
"Phones have no style," Corvinus says, confirming my theory.
I roll my eyes.
Corvinus unfurls the scroll and his expression falls as his eyes scan the paper. He mutters some curse in a tongue too ancient for my understanding. It's not even the common Fae language.
"Problem?" I call across the walkway.
"Just a summons from the palace," he says ruefully. "I'm afraid it requires an immediate response, but not to worry. It won't take long to deal with."
"You say that like I wouldn't commit high crimes for five minutes of peace without you."
"You wound me," he says, a hand pressed to his chest, but he's already backing up, the parchment still in hand. A pair of massive, pearly white wings appear out of nowhere and beat the air, lifting him easily a few feet off the ground.
The transformation is so sudden I gasp, staggering back a step.
Corvinus's permanent smirk widens. "I won't leave you to your own devices for long, pet. Try to behave."
"No need to hurry," I say in a tone that could curdle milk, but apparently not his interest.
Corvinus just gives me a wink that would probably make Isabella's posse cream their panties, and takes off into the sky. Majestic motherfucker, I'll give him that.
It's going to make him even more satisfying to kill. Might mount those wings on my wall as a trophy when I get back to the compound.
"You look like you're contemplating murder."
I don't even flinch. I've gotten used to Caelyx's habit of materializing out of shadows like some kind of crimson-eyed nightmare. I'll take it over Corvinus's incessant guardian angel routine any day. "Good guess."
He drops onto the bench beside me, close enough that I can smell his cologne and the alpha aroma underneath it. Professor Wyngrave's words linger in my mind, along with the unwelcome curiosity of wondering what Caelyx might smell like to his scent match.
No. Bad omega brain. Sit down and shut the hell up before I put an ice pick in you.
"Let me narrow it down. My brother, specifically?"
"Among others."
"How flattering. I didn't even make the top of your list." He stretches his legs out.
"What makes you so sure?"
He grins. "I have to say, watching you navigate today has been quite entertaining."
"You've been watching me?"
"I watch everything." He says it like it's the most normal thing in the world. "It's how I stay alive in a court that would love to see me dead."
Right. Because he's half Unseelie, half Seelie, and apparently neither court knows what to do with him.
I should probably feel sympathy, as a fellow outcast. But sympathy requires caring, and I'm fresh out of fucks to give.
"Your brother is driving me insane," I say, because if Caelyx already knows what I'm planning, there's no point in pretending.
"He's moved me into all his classes, and now he's in one of mine.
Asking questions he clearly knows the answers to.
Making everyone think we're—" I can't even finish the sentence.
"Courting?" Caelyx supplies helpfully. "Yes, I noticed. Subtle as a brick through a window, that one."
I turn to look at him properly. "You hate him."
"Whatever gave you that impression?" His sarcasm could strip paint.
It's the bitterness in his voice catches me off guard, though. I'd assumed their relationship was complicated, but this clearly goes beyond that. He knows I want to kill Corvinus and he still hasn't ratted me out for some reason.
Interesting.
"So when you saved my ass at the shimmer," I say slowly, pieces clicking together, "That was about not giving Corvinus what he wants."
"Oh, it was definitely about not giving Corvinus what he wants." He grins. "Though I'll admit, watching you nearly collapse a pocket dimension on his head was the most fun I've had in decades."
"The summons," I say carefully. "That was you, wasn't it?"
His smile is all teeth now. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Bullshit. And here I thought Fae weren't supposed to lie."
"Seelie can't lie," he corrects. "I'm only half, which means I can be deliberately vague. It's an art form, really."
He stands, offering me his hand. I ignore it, pushing myself up on my own.
"How?" I demand, falling into step beside him as he starts walking deeper into the gardens, away from the main paths where students might overhear. "How did you summon him to the palace?"
"Our father has particular stationery. Very official-looking. Practically dripping with royal authority." He pulls something from his pocket, a piece of parchment that hums with magic. "I may have liberated a few sheets during my last visit home."
I stare at the parchment in his hand like it might suddenly sprout teeth and bite me. "You forged royal correspondence just to give me five minutes of peace?"
"Among other reasons." He tucks the paper away, that sharp smile never wavering. "You know, if you think rejecting Corvinus is going to make him any less obsessed with you, you're sorely mistaken. I hope you know that by now."
"So I've gathered," I mutter. "The question is why? He could have any other omega in this place."
"My dear brother is a spoiled prince who's never heard the word 'no' in his entire pampered existence." Caelyx starts walking again, and I fall into step beside him because what else am I going to do? "Until you. Congratulations. You've just become his new favorite fixation."
"Fantastic," I say, kicking at a pebble. "So I made it worse."
"Oh, infinitely worse." He sounds almost gleeful about it. "But that doesn't mean you can't use it to your advantage."
I stop walking, forcing him to turn back to face me. The gardens are empty here, tucked between buildings older than the rest of campus. There are no witnesses or eavesdroppers. Just me and a prince who somehow knows exactly what I'm planning.
"Why haven't you told anyone?" The question bursts out of me before I can stop it. "You clearly know what I am. What I'm here for. One word to campus security and I'm done."
He tilts his head, those crimson eyes studying me with unnerving intensity. "What, I have to have an ulterior motive? I can't just hate my brother?"
"Bullshit." I cross my arms. "Nobody helps someone for free. Especially not Fae princes."
We stare at each other, the silence stretching. Then he laughs, short and bitter.
"Fine. You want the truth?" He steps closer, close enough that I have to tilt my head back to maintain eye contact. "Here's a little bit of Seelie court trivia for you. I'm actually Corvinus's older brother."
The world tilts sideways.
"You're… what? But you said you're the—"
"I lie. We've been over this," he sneers.
"So you're the firstborn," I murmur.
"Inconvenient, isn't it?" he asks in a knowing tone. "The mongrel half-breed son arriving before the perfect Seelie prince."
"Then why aren't you…" I can't even finish the sentence, my brain struggling to process this information.
"In line for the throne?" He chuckles. "Isn't it obvious?"
I stare at him. His bloody red eyes. His jet black hair. In a sea of silver, cold, and pastel, he stands out like a poison rose, darkly beautiful and dangerous.
Different.
And I know what it's like to be different. To be something your own family can't bear to look at.
"I'm an abomination," he says, and there's no emotion in his voice.
As if he's just stating a fact. "A hybrid.
Half Seelie, half Unseelie, and completely unacceptable.
They'd never let me take the throne as long as there's a perfectly good full-blood Seelie son of appropriate breeding to fill the role. "