Night Fae (Dark Fae Kings #3) - Meg Xuemei X. Page 0,81

her at the same time, but a violent purple wind descended on them and confined them. To my horror, I watched the oily black curse take form and wrap around my kings like a cocoon before sinking into them.

That was a most unforgiving violation.

I roared in red rage, and icy fear for my mates penetrated my soul.

The Summer King and Night King stared at me with blank expressions, no recognition of me in their eyes. In a heartbeat, they turned into the hard, ruthless, and heartless kings they’d been before they met me. Their callous gazes passed through me as if I no longer existed, as if they no longer knew who I was and what I meant to them. Even our mating bond couldn’t rouse them out of the haze of the curse.

While my bonds to the Summer King and the Night King sank like stones to the bottom of an icy lake, another bond that I’d tried to sever pulsed like a tiny spark trying to rise from the ashes. That bond came from the Winter King.

Rowan stood beside the usurper, a flicker of icy fire lurking in his cold blue eyes. His perfect, marble-like face remained cold, distant, and unreadable. While my true mates didn’t recognize me, the Winter King had no issue with that.

His gaze met mine, and our mating bond suddenly flared hot, searing me. I staggered back, stunned, not understanding what had happened. But for a flicker of a heartbeat, I saw intense longing, remorse, rage, and desire burning through the Winter King’s eyes, and then he was an impassive glacier again.

I roughly shoved away the unwanted surge of connection between us. The Winter King didn’t matter.

The only ones who mattered were my Summer and Night mates.

The hollowness in my true mates’ eyes shattered my heart. Nothing was crueler than surviving the Wild Hunt only to lose my beloveds.

“Baron, Rydstrom, know me! See your mate, please!” I screamed their names and cried and pleaded, ramming into the invisible barrier that separated us, ignoring the agony impaling me.

Rydstrom responded first, then Baron. They woke up from the spell, roaring my name in rage and angst. The kings hadn’t forgotten me. They’d come around, knowing I was their mate.

They jabbed their swords into the invisible barrier, but it held them like an unbreakable cage. The curse was already in them, binding them to its dark power.

We met at the edge of the force field, only to be thrown back and separated again.

Brigantia cackled like a crow. “Enjoy it while you can still see the faces of your unlawful lovers, little sister. Soon the curse will eat away every memory they have of you. Have you heard of the phrase ‘you won the battle but lost the war’? Soon, I won’t need to take you down because the Night King and the Summer King will beg to do just that. They might have refused to hunt you in the Wild Hunt, but when they can’t remember who you are, they’ll hunt you to the corners of the universe. Poetic, isn’t it? Do you still think you can have them?” She snorted. “They’re mine. They’ll always be mine. You can no longer steal them from me. After they snuff out your pathetic life, they’ll have their reward and become my consorts. I’ll then unite all four courts and rule the mortal realm as well, as the prophesied queen. Run, Ileana. Run now. But then where can you run to? When my king consorts rip you apart, I’ll be there, relishing every moment of fun.” She huffed out a sadistic breath. “You thought the hunt was over, didn’t you, little sister? But the real hunt has just begun.”

“Believe your own shit all you want, you old hag,” Baron spat. “You stole my mate’s throne and murdered her mother. You’ll never be the prophesied Fae queen. That is my mate’s birthright. And a worthless crone like you will never have me or my brother.”

He’d just called the Night King his brother. The century-old blood feud between them was resolved.

“You’ll change your mind, your heart, and your attitude toward me, my dear Summer King,” the usurper sneered. “And I guarantee you that when the time comes, you’ll crawl at my feet and beg to warm my bed.”

A vein throbbed on Baron’s temple as the Summer King raged, revulsion churning in his fiery golden eyes.

“Don’t rise to her bait, brother,” Rydstrom said. “She’s nothing. Let’s give the rest of our time to