Tears glittered in her eyes as she watched his features harden with … anger? Remorse? It was difficult to tell. “But what matters is your ability to change your mind and do the right thing. Before I knew the truth about you, I saw you as this otherworldly, noble being who made me feel exhilarated and safe at the same time.
“And despite your plans for vengeance, I still see you that way. It’s who you are deep down. You’re just too stubborn to see it.”
As soon as the last word was out of her mouth, Fionn stood and strode out of the room. Without a backward glance.
The tears in Rose’s eyes spilled over with her next blink.
As much as Fionn craved Rose’s company—and craved was the only word for it because his entire being lit up as soon as she ventured into his vicinity—he needed space.
She was prodding at old wounds and picking apart his reasons for going after Aine, muddling his brain as she forced ideas about who he was onto him.
Rose was confused. The mating bond was making her feel nonsense things about him.
If there was a corner of his icy soul that warmed under the glow of her impression of him, Fionn did his best to ignore it.
For all the rooms in the castle, Fionn’s bedroom was his sanctuary. It had a spectacular view of the sea and was filled with his favorite books. Books were one of the best inventions of the modern world. He’d learned to read as quickly as he’d learned English. Then he’d learned French and German and Spanish and Latin, and he’d learned to read in all those languages too. There was much about the world he realized he’d miss when he returned to Faerie. And that astonished him.
Throwing a hand out toward the fireplace, the wood crackled to life with flame.
Slumping down on his large, custom-made bed, Fionn stared at the flames. He should push Rose harder for An Breitheamh. The days were passing them by. And her hold on him was growing more dangerous.
What had been at the start an offering of insight into his mind to manipulate her had morphed into something else.
Fionn told this woman things he’d never spoken to another soul.
Squeezing his eyes closed, Fionn flopped back on the bed and tried to settle his mind. To focus it. To regroup. Instead, slumber seductively whispered an offer of reprieve in his ear.
Fionn slid his legs off the bed, resting his elbows on his knees as he stared unseeingly at the wall. The queen’s palace in Solas, the capital city of Samhradh, the Day Lands, was awe-inspiring. Upon his arrival on Faerie, Fionn did not know what repulsed him more: being brought here as a human slave, or finding beauty in the alien world.
Samhradh Palace was a towering building, with turrets and spires that stretched so far into the sky, they seemed to disappear into it. Moreover, it sparkled like a jewel. All over. The buildings here had window coverings they called gleamings, an opaque material that allowed you to see from the inside out. The palace appeared made entirely of shattered pieces of gleaming, winking and glittering in the sun. The interior walls sparkled beneath the balls of light that floated near the ceilings.
Fire was not required on Faerie as a source of light.
They had their terrible magic for such things.
“You’re brooding.”
Her voice was like the lash of a whip on his back.
“What do you have to brood about?”
Fionn glanced over his shoulder at the naked Fae Queen. Aine was strikingly beautiful. In fact, beautiful seemed too little a word for her. Luminescent. Golden. Golden hair, golden eyes, golden skin, small waist, long, slender legs, rounded hips, and even rounder, lush breasts.
She laid casually sprawled, one knee bent, one leg stretched out in front of her, her upper body raised as she leaned back on her elbows. Her golden eyes stared intensely into his.
Fionn despised her.
With every fiber of his being, he despised Aine, Queen of the Fae.
“Is it because of the girl I killed today? She and her sister tried to escape the noblewoman they belong to. I spared her sister, though. I can be benevolent, Fionn. However, if I want to strike the right balance of fear and respect from my people, I must make difficult decisions.”
Fionn was unable to understand the language on Faerie. It was unintelligible to humans. But the fae picked up human languages quickly and had adopted his people’s language. He