“What if something goes wrong?” I asked as I stared hard at the Night King and the Summer King, my heart pounding, my mouth parched.
In my experience, things always went wrong.
“It won’t,” Baron said with his usual cocky attitude. His eyes held mine, summer light swimming in their amber shades and adoration and protectiveness burning in their depths.
But his broad shoulders remained tense.
Inside the armored Cadillac Escalade limousine, a ray of sunlight spiraled around him, his signature power. The golden sunshine waltzed toward me, caressing my skin with a tease, trying to comfort me.
“How can you be so sure?” I asked, almost accusingly, and waved away the sunshine. “If we fail to kill the Dawn Queen, my brother’s life will be forfeited.” A lump choked my throat at the dark picture, and terrible heartburn shot through my chest.
Brigantia, my sister and the current queen of the Dawn Court, had placed a bounty of ten million dollars on my head. Protected by the Fae kings and their knights, I’d survived several assassination attempts, but my human family had been caught in the crossfire. In the last battle, Brigantia sent an army of demonca to my house, slaughtered the platoon of Summer and Night knights who guarded my family, and took one of my brothers.
She no longer even bothered to cover her trail, and she had left me a message on a patch of human skin. The letter was scripted with my brother Nox’s blood: “Agree to the trial of the Wild Hunt next moon or your brother dies.”
I’d barely slept since Nox was taken.
Rydstrom covered my hand with his large one, the contact soothing the anxiety roaring within me. The Fae kings’ touch always had that effect on me. “We’ll prevent that from ever happening, Eve,” he said, then rose and moved to the cocktail bar behind us.
The king’s limousine was designed to host over two dozen guests. It had a full set of luxury amenities—a stargazing moonroof, the finest surround sound, extremely comfortable seats, and a full bar.
Rydstrom took out a bottle of sparkling water from the ice chest then returned to park himself across from me while Baron lounged beside me with an arm around my shoulders. The Night King twisted the lid open and handed me the water.
“We’ll have to take the risk as we discussed,” he said, starlight shining in his sapphire eyes that often shifted to raven blue.
The Night King was clad in a dark blue dress shirt, his sleeves rolled up, and black pants hugged his long, powerful legs. He carried no weaponry, but then he didn’t need to. The Fae kings could summon their longswords out of thin air, which was unfair to those who couldn’t, including me. It never got old to watch the legendary blades that represented their court power pop into their hands out of the mist.
In the spirit of competition, Baron wore a sangria silk button-down shirt with leather pants. He hadn’t abandoned his flashy, flamboyant playboy look—I doubted he ever would—but he always pulled it off like no one else.
I watched the dancing ray of sunlight streak along his claret hair, which flowed down to his armored shoulders, and took comfort that at least the Summer King was no longer a playboy for real. He was thoroughly committed to me.
Yet I didn’t let my eyes fool me into believing that the Summer King carried only golden sunshine and niceties. He was lethal as hell, and one of his most deadly weapons was his sunbeam. It could blast lesser opponents into a pile of dust in a breath.
My Night King’s starlight was equally formidable. I’d seen it rip the flesh from his enemies’ bones. But when it caressed me, it was beyond gentle.
I guess every coin has two sides.
Baron interlinked his fingers with mine, his other hand stroking my shoulder. A shiver of pleasure slithered up my spine in the wake of his touch.
Dire situation or not, my body forever responded to the Fae kings. I used to have all three of them, but the Winter King had betrayed me and now consorted with my immortal enemy.
I no longer blamed myself for my weakness for them as my eyes roved over Baron’s bedroom eyes, which bore a predator’s power. My pulse picked up further when I shifted my gaze to Rydstrom’s sculpted lips that promised carnal pleasure.
But now wasn’t the time to indulge in imagining or actually climbing onto their laps for a wild ride. They wouldn’t mind, though. My