Frost Fae (Dark Fae Kings #2) - Meg Xuemei X Page 0,46

to pit us against each other for centuries.”

I spat. “Once a bitch, always a bitch.”

He brushed his fingers across my cheekbone. “Your true name is Ileana.”

“And Brigantia is my sister,” I said darkly, disgust and fury simmering in me.

“Perhaps half-sister. We can’t pinpoint the other half of your bloodline, and no one knows who Brigantia’s real father was, either.”

“I don’t even want the crown. She shouldn’t try so hard to kill me.”

“Fae, especially royal Fae, never think that way,” Baron said darkly. “Power is addictive. It’s everything for Fae. We’re drawn to supreme power and forever crave more. Blessing or curse, it’s in our blood. We can’t change our nature.” He let out a long breath as if he was relieved that he could talk to me this way. I’d scalded him while he opened himself to me. “As long as the legitimate queen—you—are alive, you’re a threat to the usurper queen and her throne. At this point, we all agree that Brigantia must know about your existence. She’ll try everything in her power to eradicate you. The good thing is we found you before she did. But we still need to keep you hidden until your Turning, until you’re powerful enough to take back your throne.”

“The Winter King knew my true identity, too,” I said. “He could have just….”

The distasteful scene in the hall of the Winter castle reeled back.

“I’m the prophesied queen who will bring all four courts together,” the Dawn Queen had confided to the Winter King. “Rydstrom set up an outside court in the mortal world in order to find the imposter and use her to overthrow me.” Her gaze had fallen upon me like the vulture of death. “That new whore still bothers me. There’s something about her, something off, and I wonder what it is.”

Instead of offering me to his lady love, the Winter King had done the unthinkable by turning her attention away from me, even though I was nothing but Fae garbage in his eyes.

He could be playing an even more sinister game, but I didn’t want to think further about his cruel plans for me while I was exhausted. I’d have to pick up all the broken pieces and put them back together tomorrow. Right now, all I wanted was to put the Winter realm and its black-hearted king far behind me.

“Take me home, Baron, please,” I said as I snuggled my face into his warm chest and lost myself in his comforting sunshine and masculine scent.

Chapter 15

The aroma of lemon and honeysuckle whiffed toward me as Baron escorted me to the front yard of my Spanish-style house. I inhaled deeply, glad to return to the human realm—the world I was familiar with. Home.

I paused by the fence, surveying the perimeter. The Fae knights blended into the shadows, but I could spot every single one of them easily with my heightened senses. Only Summer and Night knights were left to guard me, so there was no need to take any action against the Winter Fae. If any of them, especially their king, stepped onto my property again, they’d get the iron bullet treatment.

My bloodline marked me for death, and I wasn’t naïve enough to hope I wouldn’t be thrown into the center of the war. But this time, I’d made up my mind. I wasn’t going to be a leaf blown away by the storm. I’d be the storm. War was coming my way, no matter what I wanted, so I’d grab its bloodlust horn and ram it back to the door of my enemies and dent their world.

With cold certainty, I strode toward my house in a simple scarlet dress, courtesy of the Summer King’s glamour. I paused at the door when I heard laughter, chatter, and arguing from inside. My siblings were home from school.

I turned to Baron. “Thank you for saving me, but tonight I want to spend time alone with my family.”

He nodded, brushed a gentle kiss on my cheek, and departed.

I watched his retreating figure merge between the trees before vanishing into the shadows of the night, a longing ache in my chest. But I wasn’t ready to spend the night with him, not after the worst date I’d ever had. I nearly lost my life for trusting the wrong Fae guy.

I took a deep breath and put on a mask of authority reserved for my siblings. No matter what predicament I was in, no matter how shattered I felt inside, I’d always be the rock