Evermore Academy (Evermore Academy #3) - Audrey Grey Page 0,39
them.
Eclipsa gives a grim nod.
“Good.” I turn to Hellebore. “Once she’s completely healed, I will meet you back here.”
Now that he knows he’s won, Hellebore is in no rush. He gestures loosely with his fingers. “Take your time. I want her face fully restored. My wife will not be ugly.” He peers at Summer with morbid interest. “Fascinating how fragile they are. Their flesh breaks open like rotted fruit at the slightest touch.” He turns his back to me, something he would have never dared do before. “Don’t forget to return.”
“No.” Summer’s voice is raspy but firm. Her eyelids flicker open, those hazel eyes I adore more green than brown beneath the afternoon sun. “I won’t let you hurt him.”
“Summer—”
“Let her speak,” Hellebore interrupts. His eyes alight with curiosity as he prowls closer. I glare at the bastard, every part of me aching for the pleasure that will come with killing him. “Or would you talk for your mate?”
“Bargain,” she whispers, and something splits open inside my chest. I flick a desperate glance at Eclipsa. The portal flickers to life beneath her expert fingers, but it’s not ready yet.
The asshole has the balls to laugh. “I already have everything I want from you, pet.”
Summer, don’t, I silently order, hoping she can hear me. I’m a big boy. I can handle him.
Straining to keep her eyes open, she glares at Hellebore while completely ignoring me. “Not everything.” She grins through the pain, holding his stare. “Not me.”
“Debatable,” Hellebore says conversationally. “And after you graduate I will own you, wholly and completely.”
“No,” she continues, measuring her words carefully before continuing. “You will have a piece of paper that says you own my body, but you will never have anything beyond that.”
Where is she going with this?
Hellebore doesn’t give a damn about her heart, and yet . . . he can’t hide the bitterness behind his smirk. It must eat at him that no amount of power can give him the one thing I will always have: Summer’s love.
Hellebore has gone still, a viper about to strike. “What is it, exactly, that you’re proposing?”
“Fight me for it.” Her eyes close for a breath, as if she’s steeling herself for a decision. The next words cement my worst fear. “I declare a Nocturus. If you win, after we marry you will have me completely, my heart, mind, and soul. I will give up loving the Winter Prince the moment our vows are spoken forever.”
“And we move up the wedding to, say, spring.”
She doesn’t even hesitate before agreeing.
“And if the Fae hells freeze over and you win?” Hellebore probes, his curiosity transformed into a lethal focus as he prepares to create the bargain.
“When I win,” she amends, “you give my friends the full antidote. All of them. The Winter Prince, Eclipsa, and Asher.”
His jaw flexes. “Why would I give up my position of power over them?”
“Because then you will finally have the one thing the Winter Prince cherishes above everything else.”
Don’t do it, dickwad. “Without this poison running through my veins,” I remind him, “you’re as good as dead.”
He laughs. “Once, maybe. Now your position is weak, your court unstable, and besides. Look at her. A trip nearly killed her. Do you really believe she stands a chance in the Nocturus?”
Shit. He’s really considering it. This isn’t happening. I don’t know who I’m angrier at right now. Summer or the douchebag in front of me.
Said douchebag regards my mate for what feels like a fucking eternity.
Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t—
“Done.”
No. A snarl erupts up my throat. “The bargain was made under duress!”
“We both know that does not matter. Perhaps she could try and plead that in the Fae courts—if she were still just a mortal. But the Summer Queen made sure to trumpet her Faerie nature to the entire world. The bargain is ironclad and you know it.”
“It’s . . . okay,” she promises, closing her eyes again. “I’m going to kick his ass.”
Your head wound is making you cocky, I growl into her mind, hoping she can feel my frustration.
Her lips curl. “Kettle meet pot.”
I have no idea what that means but it’s adorable, which is interesting since right this moment I want to throttle her.
Oberon’s shadow, I want to berate her and kiss her and lock her up until I kill everyone who would harm her. I want to take her to bed until there is no question who she belongs to.