PROLOGUE
Women.I loved them.
Their softness, their curves, their sighs, and their scents.
I was young by immortal standards when my father, the last Danú ruler, was murdered and left everything to me. Not that “everything” consisted of much when he’d once ruled the entire island.
Still, the lure of power brought out the females in droves, all of them hoping to make a match with me or my brother. With nothing but eternity on the horizon, we did what any man in our position would do and made our way through them as quickly as possible.
To Rían, they were a distraction.
To me, they were an addiction.
Until Fiadh.
Never before had I seen such uncommon beauty. And the witch hadn’t been affected by my false charm or flattery—at least, not at first. Making her an enticing conquest.
My father had warned me against consorting with witches. Like most of the shite he’d told me not to do, I’d done the exact opposite. After all, my mother had been a witch, and the hypocrite had married her. Then he’d gone off with her sister—who was also a witch—and countless others from covens across Airren.
One rule for Prince Midir and one rule for everyone else.
Now that Midir was dead, I made my own rules.
My bastard half-brother Rían had been so convinced I couldn’t get Fiadh to sleep with me that he’d bet his favorite waistcoat. That waistcoat was currently balled up on the floor in Fiadh’s bedroom, beneath the witch’s red gown.
Adjusting the down pillow beneath my head, I smiled up at the thick red canopy above us. When he saw the stains and wrinkles, he would be furious. I couldn’t wait.
“What are you thinking about, my love?” Fiadh asked, dragging a sharp nail down my chest, leaving a pink line. She enjoyed pain as much as she enjoyed pleasure—perhaps more. If it weren’t for my immortal blood, I wouldn’t have survived the first time we’d shared a bed. It had been six months and I still had the scars on my arms.
My mother’s emerald ring glinted from my littlest finger as I reached for a strand of her raven hair. “Nothing of consequence.” If she knew, she’d only get angry. And an angry Fiadh was a terrifying sight to behold.
Like most witches, Fiadh resided outside of Tearmann. They were solitary creatures, preferring to live by their own rules instead of following ours. Her house was located in the middle of a secluded forest, forty minutes’ ride from the coast. Not that any of that mattered. I could evanesce and be there in a blink.
I hadn’t been to the coast in ages. Perhaps I’d visit after I showed Rían his waistcoat.
She caught my hand, twisting the ring. My fingers closed reflexively until she peered at me from beneath the thick curtain of her lashes, her eyes the color of a honeydew melon. “Come now. You know I just want to try it on.”
Why did she insist on doing this every time I came over? Still, I let her remove it, and she slipped the gold band onto her left ring finger. Had she always done that? She usually wore it on her right hand, I was almost sure of it. My heart began to race. She needed to take it off.
“What’s wrong, my love?” The red silk sheet slipped down her slim waist to the swell of her hip, exposing a swath of soft, pale skin. “You look very serious. Is everything well at the castle?”
I’d come here to escape the problems at the castle, not deal with them.
For ages I’d been trying to meet with the Vellanian King in hopes of renegotiating the pittance my father had accepted from the humans before he’d been murdered. There was a rebellion brewing in the east and rumors of retaliation in Kinnock. The integrity of Gaul’s portal had been compromised with the erection of a new cathedral on the city’s edge. We needed to assign new gatekeepers to the portal on the other side of the Forest. Faerie trees were being burned to ash. An entire coven in Buraos had been executed as well.
Thinking of the mountain of work waiting back home gave me a pain in my feckin’ head.
Before I could retrieve my ring, Fiadh’s hand trailed down my stomach, slipping beneath the sheet. Cold fingers closed over me and . . .Shit. I’d get the ring back in a minute.
“You know the answer to that,” I managed to say.
Fiadh clucked her tongue, stroking so slow it left my vision hazy. “Humans.” Her grip tightened to the point of pain. “They’ve forgotten we were here first.”
It didn’t matter who was here first, with treaties signed and new laws written—
Shit.Her hand was squeezing the life out of me.
A knowing smile lifted her red lips as she leaned forward to trace the column of my throat with her pointed tongue. Her grip loosened, and her hand started moving a little quicker. My magic writhed beneath my skin, begging to be unleashed.