Prologue
LIAM
The office was quiet, but I could hear kids wandering in the halls. Likely, they were headed to the atrium to meet up with their friends. Spring break was almost over, and those students who did have families were coming back after a week off. Others were returning from their college vacations to somewhere warm.
Me? I was drumming the end of my pen on the hardwood surface of my desk.
He was late. That part wasn't surprising. Torian Hunt was always late. What bothered me was that he'd promised he'd come. For a fae, that was a binding commitment, but it was five past the hour, and he was not sitting across from me.
I began to improvise my tune, using my hand to add a little bass to the thrumming of my pen. I would not leave this chair until the hour was up. Oh, and if Torian thought being late would shorten his time with me, he was very wrong.
Seventeen minutes after the hour - according to the clock on my wall - the Summer Prince sauntered his ass into my office and tossed himself into the wooden chair across from me. The boy lifted an ebony brow, his spring-green eyes piercing, but I was far from intimidated.
"So, you promised me an hour," I told him.
"No," he corrected. "Liam, I promised you I'd show up for a session."
And I let my smile show. "A session lasts an hour, Torian, which means you therefore promised me an hour."
He grumbled in the back of his throat as he glanced away, but I caught how the corner of his lip curled higher. Yes, he was impressed. As a human, I shouldn't be this good at twisting my words, but two decades of living with the fae made a man learn fast. Thankfully, they really were a kind people. Hard, intense, and with so much potential to be cruel, but it seemed they leaned to kindness when they could.
When they knew how.
"So," I said, tilting my chair back and kicking my feet onto my desk. "I've talked to everyone else. The girls were more than willing to come. Oddly, it was you and Keir who were hard to get down here. Want to tell me why?" And I gestured, giving him approval to match my pose.
His eyes narrowed, aware of what I was doing. "You know she accepted the position, right?"
"Aspen?" I asked. "Yes, she's officially the Queen of Winter now."
"You know what they'll do to her?"
I scoffed. "If they know, sure. But what do you really think the chances are of anyone finding out she accepted the crown already?"
"But what if they do?" he asked, belligerence coating his tone. Yet it was the honest fear in his eyes that made me understand the real problem. "What if," he demanded, "someone says the wrong thing?"
"Rain?" I offered.
The glare that earned me was the coldest I'd ever seen. "She'd rather die."
"But she's merely human," I reminded him.
"She's not."
"So what is she?"
Finally, the boy leaned back. No, he didn't kick his feet up, but he did spread his arms to rest on either side of the chair. It wasn't much, but he was relaxing, and for Torian, that wasn't easy.
"She'scaradil," he said flatly. Then, almost as an afterthought, he added, "And the Morrigan."
"Yours?" I asked, just to see how he'd respond.
"Ours," he corrected. "And no, I don't mean mine and Aspen's. I mean the fae's. Wildlings, faelings, noble and not." For a moment, his eyes lost focus. "He had her by the neck, you know. The Huntsman was strangling her, and Rain still wouldn't quit."
"She also didn't flinch from Hawke's wings," I pointed out.
"She doesn't flinch from anything!" he snapped. "I pushed her away as hard as I could, and she refused to run. Instead, your daughter stood her ground. Then she pulled my sister in." He paused to glance up, almost as if he realized how much he'd just said.
"This is all confidential," I assured him. "I will only share what you allow me to. This talk? It's so you can get it out. So you can speak to someone who will not judge you. I think you're in a difficult enough position as it is. Worrying about someone else's opinions?" I shrugged. "Which is one of the few times being human helps me." Because humans had no place in the fae courts.
