Frost Fae (Dark Fae Kings #2) - Meg Xuemei X Page 0,45
take advantage of him.
“You’re welcome to scald further,” he said, a faint, tight smile on his lips. “I’d do anything in my power to keep you.”
Unlike the “gentleman” Winter King, the pompous Summer King was true to me. And in the Winter castle, the Dawn Queen had complained about Rydstrom refusing to bend his knee to her. I could still trust both the Night King and the Summer King.
I’d been unfair toward Baron, and it was unreasonable and stupid to hate the entire Fae race just because one Fae king had wronged me, and one Fae queen tried to kill me.
Deciding not to fall into a victim mentality also meant not allowing the villains to dictate what kind of person you were and would continue to be. I’d not let the Winter King and his bitch shatter my trust in the truly worthy males whom I’d come to accept into my life and my heart. No matter how few there might be, there are good, solid men and women out there, and I couldn’t let anyone take that faith away.
“I’m sorry for doubting you, Baron,” I said, holding his smoldering golden gaze as the hard ice encasing my heart started melting.
“Evie, you never need to apologize to me. You know that,” Baron whispered, shaking a stray claret hair out of his eyes.
The small gesture was so intimate and sexy that my heart stuttered. Even in such a distressed state, I could still appreciate that. Maybe my heart wasn’t as dead as I thought.
The renewed attraction between us crackled the air, electrifying. Heat rose, buzzing on my skin, and raw need alighted in me, tugging me toward the Summer King.
“You and Rydstrom both came for me.” I breathed, a wave of gratitude pushing away the coldness in my bones.
Baron held my hand and pressed it against his pounding heart, and I walked into his open arms, leaning my head against his broad shoulder, inhaling his masculine scent. His summer heat and sunshine, the opposite of the essence of the Winter King, were exactly what I needed now.
More than anything, I wanted to scrub the scent of the Winter King off me. I wanted Baron’s sun power to burn away the last trace of the chilling winter in my veins.
“Always,” Baron murmured above my ears. “You’ll always have me.”
It was time to delve deeper into my heritage. I’d tried to avoid that thorny subject and pretend that I still lived a normal life. With the bounty, deception, and danger following me everywhere, and a powerful king and a queen both wanting me dead, it was time to pull my head out of my ass.
“Who’s the Dawn Queen to me?” I asked, blood pounding in my ears. “Why did she want me dead so badly when I was just a baby? Are she and I actually related?”
“It’s a long story,” Baron said, his fiery eyes never leaving me. “In the beginning, I thought it was but a rumor. The former Dawn Queen, Maeve, never named her heir until Ileana, her youngest daughter and the Morning Star, was born. On Ileana’s naming day, Brigantia, Queen Maeve’s oldest daughter, announced that the baby was stillborn and that her queen mother had died of a birth-related infection. Brigantia took the crown that night.
“A decade later, the Night King informed me that Brigantia was the false queen. Princess Ileana was the true prophesied future queen and the true Fae Queen who would unite all four courts and bind all kings. He promised that Ileana was still alive but lost in the mortal world. Therefore, he set up an outpost in the human realm to wait for Ileana to show up. He said the underground Oracle foretold that the lost princess would stumble into Claws, Fangs, and Fiends before her Turning.”
Baron lowered his head in shame. “I thought the Night King was lying to me until I met you, and recognized what you were to me. I’d been consumed by my hatred toward Rydstrom. I’d sought to revenge my father ever since Rydstrom slew him a century ago.”
“But your father was a monster!” I blurted out.
“He was.” Baron drew a ragged breath. “It took me a long time to accept that.” He grabbed me tighter as if he was afraid of losing me if he ever slipped. “I’ll never be like my father. I had to let go of my blood feud against the Night King. I’ve also learned the Dawn Queen has been working on all courts