Crown of Shadows (Court of Midnight and Deception #1) - K. M. Shea Page 0,42

was merely marveling at your parenting instincts. I was unaware it was a fae custom to go around offering your children in marriage. But it doesn’t matter, because now isn’t the best time for me.”

I moved to step around him, but Lord Argyos managed to move with me, blocking me from passing as his smile grew an angry twitch to it.

“Really, I must insist. You have failed to socialize with anyone since your arrival several days ago. It might be good for you to meet someone close to your age—it would be good for the future of the Night Court as well,” he said.

I eyed the fae noble, unimpressed.

If life were fair, Mr. Pushy here would look like a woodchuck that fell in a grease vat, but no. He was fae—which meant he had flawless skin, long, flowing hair with not a strand out of place, and the long, lean body models would kill for.

“As I said, now isn’t the best time,” I repeated, my voice hardening. “I haven’t even attended a formal social event yet. I’m not thinking about who I’m going to marry.”

“You just need to meet him. He is charming,” Lord Argyos said in a way that made me certain his son was probably really skilled at love potions—or something similar.

Mental note: stay way far away from this basket case and his kid.

“No thanks. I’m busy—step aside,” I said.

Anger burned in Lord Argyos’s eyes. “But I insist.”

I heard footsteps somewhere behind me, and I moved, intending to put my back at a wall. “I said no.”

“You ought—”

“What’s this, pressuring my darling daughter? I’ll not have that.”

Chapter Ten

Leila

Both Lord Argyos and I turned to face the intruder on our confrontation, who had come up behind me.

A fae noble who appeared to be maybe in his mid-thirties grinned invitingly at both of us. He had the fashionable long hair of the fae, but his was such a dark black color it almost had a hint of blue to it, and he had it pulled back in a ponytail.

His clothes were more of a fashionable human style than the classy, stuffy theme the fae adopted with his black slacks, dress shoes, and light blue dress shirt. He’d casually rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, and a pair of aviator sunglasses perched on top of his head.

All in all he was your typical handsome fae, but there was something about him I just didn’t like on sight.

“What’s this you’re saying, Lord Linus?” Lord Argyos asked.

The new arrival—Lord Linus—slapped Argyos on the shoulder, making the other fae stagger slightly. “I’m saying I’ll meet your strapping young lad first, to see if he’s worthy!”

“And who are you?” I asked as dread made my stomach flop in my gut.

No, it couldn’t be.

Lord Linus grinned broadly at me. “Why, I’m your father, my sweet daughter!”

Unfathomable anger ripped through me, and I struggled for a moment, trying to keep a roar of rage in.

Lord Linus took the opportunity to neatly send Lord Argyos on his way.

“You? The father of our queen?” Lord Argyos snorted. “We really are all doomed if she’s at all like you.”

“I assure you we’re nothing alike,” Lord Linus said. “But I never liked you to begin with, so I’m still wishful that you take yourself and your minions elsewhere—someplace we are not.”

Lord Argyos’s cronies were murmuring between themselves—probably trying to decide if this obviously crazy guy really was my father.

It had to be a lie. He must be using a loophole so he could say it. There was no way he could abandon my mother years ago, only to pop up once he found out I was queen.

“Go on. Shoo!” Lord Linus flapped his hands at Lord Argyos and his cronies. They retreated about halfway down the hallway, stopping frequently to look back at us.

“Now, as for you, my darling daughter…” Lord Linus turned around and flung his arms wide. “Why don’t you greet me, your father who has missed you all these years, with all love and joy—”

For the first time in my entire life, I saw red.

I’d never been this furious before.

I’d always hated my biological father, but in this moment I despised him. How dare he sweep in as if I’d been anxiously waiting for him—as if he wasn’t the reason that I’d never seen him—and, most maddening of all, as if he was my dad, and not Paul.

WHAM!

With instincts I didn’t know I possessed, I grabbed a massive beeswax candle off a wooden stand on a side