the neck—was all it took to kill him.
He collapsed, dead before his body hit the ground.
I found the cellphone—it had slipped from his grasp and skittered a foot away.
The foreign—and unwanted—sensation continued to roam around my chest as I picked up the cellphone.
“I say, Drust—what happened?” a stuffy voice demanded through the phone line.
“Drust is indisposed,” I said. “Permanently.”
The caller wheezed and released a gurgle of fear.
Good. He knows who I am.
“Listen very carefully.” I glanced up at the sky. The moon was starting to rise, lightening the sky from fathomless black to a deep blue. “Leave the Night Queen and her Court alone, or I’ll come for you.”
“Apologies, Lord Rigel,” the unseelie fae babbled. “This was my subject’s plan! I have no wish—I would never—”
In his fear, the fae couldn’t spit out a reply that would be a truth that wouldn’t get him killed.
“This is your only chance,” I said. “Inform the other unseelie and seelie Courts, or I’ll wipe you out.”
I tossed the phone on the ground then stabbed it through with one of my daggers. It sliced through the phone—killing it instantly—but the twinge in my chest was still bothering me. “Aer.” I activated the dagger, and it sparked with magic, frying the phone until it sputtered with fire and was little more than twisted metal and melting plastics.
I pulled the dagger free of the wreckage and frowned.
The twinge was mostly gone, thankfully, but I still wasn’t pleased.
It was uncomfortable—both the sensation itself and the knowledge that I had experienced something that made me break my iron control.
I had acted—killing the unseelie fae on instinct alone—after hearing the threat against Leila.
Why? What about her would drive me to act irrationally?
Frowning, I entered the shadows and used my magic to jump—hopping from shadow to shadow—until I reached my hidden car.
Rather than leave the mess behind me, I remained disturbed on my drive home.
The unseelie Court’s actions didn’t bother me. Frankly, it was predictable. And while I would inform Chase—Leila’s director of security—I was almost certain the lower Courts would take the hint and leave the Night Court alone. They knew better than to face the consequences I would rain down on them.
But that I moved the second they mentioned killing her…
It’s not like the outcome was any different. I was going to kill him regardless.
It was a very thin line of reasoning, but true.
I entered the sprawling lands the Night Court had bought up on the outskirts of northern Magiford, passing apartment buildings, then houses, which grew into mansions until I reached the largest of them all, which was home to Queen Leila, and now my home as well.
I parked my car and entered the mansion through a second story window—I may have been consort, but I was going to move through the mansion undetected. Even Chase had difficulty tracking me. Only Leila’s pet glooms and shades seemed to be able to spot me no matter how I hid myself.
I swapped out some of my weapons in my bedroom then—feelingly slightly bemused—skulked through the mansion, looking for the queen. My wife.
I found her in a meeting room with Chase.
Every monarch—from the lower seelie rulers to the powerful Midwest Winter Queen—received their security reports in a very formal way which typically involved lots of standing, bowing, a throne, and their ever present crown.
Leila received her report from Chase as she and the werewolf ate their way through what looked like a plate of cinnamon rolls and squares of gelatin.
“Finally, regarding the ongoing investigation of your father, Lord Linus.” Chase ripped a chunk off his cinnamon roll and dunked it in his tea.
Leila made a noise that sounded like a cow in distress. “Okay, hit me with it.” She paused and looked down at her feet where a gloom—a large, cat-like predator capable of killing a fae with ease—was sitting on her feet like a kitten.
The gloom twitched its tail and looked at me, standing in the shadows and undetected by even the werewolf’s keen nose.
Leila turned around and peered at the shadows. “Rigel?”
If I want to move about as freely as I wish, I’m going to have to learn how to fool those glooms—and the shades.
I shook my magic off and drifted out of the shadows.
Leila smiled at me. “Hey there! Want a snack? Chase was just about to tell me what a snake Lord Linus is.”
“I’m not much of a dessert person.” I crossed the room and hesitated for a moment before I sat in the chair next