Night Fae (Dark Fae Kings #3) - Meg Xuemei X. Page 0,4
me from the moment we’d met. He’d posed as a gentleman while Baron displayed his crude side. He’d been incredibly tender, respectful, and protective of me until he’d seduced my body and heart, until I’d offered myself to him without reservation. He’d gotten to me when he opened up about his past shame and pain. But as soon as I gave him my heart, he dumped me.
He’d paraded my evil sister in front of me. The memory of him showering his affection on her, making her purr and giggle, still haunted me.
I hadn’t mistaken the raw need and angst that distorted his heartbreakingly beautiful face for a breath, roaring at me like a searing storm. I almost staggered back at the onslaught of the unbearable pain he carried.
His pain has nothing to do with me. He’s but the past that no longer matters, I told myself quietly, hardening my heart.
Yet his agony tugged at my heart for reasons I couldn’t understand.
After just a few days apart, the Winter King had changed. I could feel glaring bitterness coiling around him like a live wire. Though he held onto his Fae king splendor, every aspect of him was hardened. Even his hair was no longer fairy soft and flowing but spiked like silver metal dusted with frost.
Once he recollected himself after a heartbeat of fleeting lapse, he was the heartless Winter King again, with arrogance resetting every line on his face that had once haunted my dreams dearly.
I held his gaze, unflinching, my eyes colder and more cutting than his ice. I’d passed through the pain. As a girl who had been raised in the human world, I was more resilient than an immortal.
The Winter King swerved his gaze to Baron and Rydstrom, the moment of heat and pining for me spinning into resentment so acid and scathing I wondered what my two kings had done to him to deserve that. I wouldn’t stop them if they decided to remind the cold bastard that he was the villain here and he wasn’t welcomed by any of us.
Baron and Rydstrom stared back at him. If I hadn’t known better, I’d say I glimpsed a fleeting glimmer of sympathy for their rival in their eyes before it turned to nothing but pure power and steel.
On either side of me, their hands grasped mine tighter in their hold. We’d talked about how to handle Rowan, and I’d agreed that our sole target remained Brigantia. We would focus only on terminating her unless the Winter King joined her.
It’d be inconvenient if he fought us, too. So, I’d keep my unflattering opinion of him to myself at the moment and restrain myself from antagonizing him, no matter how much I wanted to jab my fist into that cruel, handsome face.
I tore my attention from Rowan and snagged my gaze on the distinguished, dark-skinned man beside him. Instantly, I knew the mage in the white dress shirt and khaki pants was Jett Northton, the Director of the Silver Circle. He looked around my dad’s age, but I bet he was older. Powerful mage magic rolled off him effortlessly.
I’d learned to discern different power categories and scales. Fae magic originated from nature, and powerful Fae often had the gift of one element. As the mightiest beings in Elfame, their kings possessed more than one elemental magic. The Fae kings’ powers were directly linked to the land and the court they ruled; they could draw their magic from either, but their powers were limited in the mortal realm.
Mages, however, weren’t born magical. They were similar to other magic users, such as warlocks, witches, sorcerers, and enchanters, who practiced and extracted magic from supernatural, occult, or arcane sources. However, mages had more advantages than other practitioners and casters because they were also warriors.
Though we hadn’t been properly introduced, I’d seen the mage director when he came to Claws, Fangs, and Fiends last time, asking for Rydstrom’s help in stopping the killing spree of the demonca in the human world—the realm the Silver Circle had guarded for centuries.
I wasn’t sure if Rydstrom and Northton were friends, but they were allies. Rydstrom was more connected to the mortal world than the other Fae kings. He had an extended court outside faerie when he set up an outpost in North America to search for me.
The director’s intelligent gray eyes found mine, and he smiled warmly, even though the smile carried the world-weary look of a man who had seen too much horror.