“Tell me,” Azul commanded silkily.“What was the plan with your tool?”He gestured at Sunshine, currently sobbing in a pitiful heap at their feet.
“That?It hardly matters.”Lenorae gazed at the minor Citrine fae with something between contempt and puzzlement.“I’d thought to have your pet cleaned up and prepared for you, a nicely wrapped and presented gift, but that was apparently too difficult for this ninny.Do what you will with her.She trespassed on your territory and I have no further use for such incompetency.”
Sunshine wailed and slithered over to Lenorae’s feet, pressing desperate kisses to her stiletto-heeled toes.Lenorae kicked at her, not bothering to temper her strength, clearly, because Sunshine flew back and hit the edge of the dais with a sickeningcrack.
Everyone turned to look.
Lenorae posed, looking as if she’d drawn attention for her beauty and fashion, not her casual violence against a member of the Citrine court.Sunshine might have been literally lower tier, but she was still highly regarded enough to have been a courtier worth petitioning.An uneasy silence fell over the once unbearably noisy room, punctuated only by whispers and Sunshine’s pained whimpers.
Cha was certainly no fan of Sunshine, but this public attack and sudden violence seemed… unseemly.Lenorae was out to prove something, but what?And who was this woman?Azul had implied—not quite a lie—that she was human.Dy’s stripping of her glamour had revealed her to be not human at all, though it wasn’t clear what she actually was.Well, besides some kind of winged demon.Notably, she’d been red.As, Azul was being compelled into this marriage, and had been from the beginning, and the only fae realm more powerful than Amethyst was Ruby, then it followed that Lenorae was fae of the Ruby realm.
But why all of this elaborate circling around each other?Azul had gone back to Lenorae once already.Cha had been right there when she dropped him off into his fiancée’s lap and he told Lenorae that Cha was nobody.Somehow he’d gone from there and to the Citrine court where it appeared that he wasn’t captive at all, but… maybe hiding out from the bride he’d escaped once and voluntarily gone back to, but the actual wedding was not yet accomplished and at the same time still pending.Had Lenorae’s appearance to send Cha after Azul been a ploy to draw him out of hiding for exactly this moment and confrontation?
Cha would bet money that was exactly the case.If so, however, Azul could have saved himself a lot of trouble by dropping a few more hints about what to expect from this court appearance that had been ostensibly to take Sunshine down and had become… whatever this was.If Azul had even known.
Cha well remembered how Azul had initially described Lenorae when he first hitched a ride, fleeing the altar.Elegant.“Perfect manners.Intelligent, very well educated.Witty, excellent conversationalist.Impeccable breeding.And…sweet.Gentle.Accommodating and graceful.He’d apparently believed that—and that woman he’d described was nothing like the preening, vengeful demon-in-disguise currently tormenting him with Cha’s presence.
The question was: how should they play this gig?She felt like she was gambling high stakes in a game of poker where she didn’t know which cards were wild.Dy met Cha’s gaze, her own similarly baffled and frustrated.
Azul leveled one last look at the weeping Sunshine.“Go,” he told her softly.
Sunshine didn’t need to be told twice.She fled without a backward glance at any of them.Azul looked to Lenorae, who simpered prettily at him.“Now that you’ve delivered my pet—such a well-considered gift—we can be going.”
She laughed, like tinkling bells and starlight.“Oh, you wish, Your Highness, but I’m not letting your cold feet delay our wedding any longer.I’m sure even Your Highness is well aware that your human pet and its friend cannot linger much longer in this realm.Unless you want to feed them and keep them here forever.”She gave Cha a falsely sympathetic smile.“You know what fae food and drink does to mortal flesh… or do you?”
“Bad things?”Cha guessed.
Lenorae’s amusement faded.“Humans should be seen and not heard.”
“And fae bitches who have to extort their bridegrooms to the altar don’t really have much of a pedestal to stand on,” Cha snarked back.Yeah, it wasn’t her best retort, but under the stressful circumstances, she’d give herself a little grace.She turned to Azul.“Your Highness, what is your will?”
A flash of Azul’s usual humor came and went in his brooding gaze and she knew he was tempted to quip that she’d never been particularly interested in his so-called will before this.But he also understood what she was asking: how was he getting them out of this?Or, failing that, what could she do?
“We’ll have the ceremony as quickly as possible.Then, after the wedding, you can go home,” he said gently.He patted Lenorae’s hand on his arm.“My bride is correct that you cannot linger in Citrine long.You shouldn’t have come here to begin with.”A hint of his previous annoyance lingered in his voice.
Cha felt even worse about having fallen into Lenorae’s trap at that point.Azul had been successfully avoiding this wedding and now he had no choice but to comply, at the risk of Cha’s life, and Dy’s along with her.Still, they could maybe still get out of this fix.
She just needed a little time to think.That’s all it would take.The strategy would come.
Any second now.
Lenorae positively beamed at Azul, as if she hadn’t forced him into this situation.She kissed him again, possessive hand on the back of his neck, and Cha fought not to visibly seethe.“I’m so happy, my prince,” Lenorae purred at him.“The ceremony will be at midnight tonight and then we’ll dance until dawn, and make love all day.”
“Sounds dreamy,” he replied.
Cha wondered just how long it was until dawn—and how to break Azul out of Citrine before the clock struck and turned her prince into Lenorae’s captive spouse.
~24~
Promises and Lies
“There is nothingyou can do, Arantxa,” Azul said through his teeth, practically shooting purple sparks from his no-longer-lambent eyes.They were back in his apartments, Dy having excused herself to allow them to fight in private, though those hadn’t been her exact words.She’d claimed needing a nap, which came as a surprise to no one.“Even if this were your business, which it’s not, you have no ability to affect this situation.This is fae politics and—”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she broke in, deliberately drawling her disdain, not above needling him a bit.“Far beyond my ken, blah, blah, blah.Don’t mind the human pet here barking in the corner.”
He rounded on her.“I neveronceconsidered you to be my pet.Never once treated you that way.”
She held up her palms.“Granted, Azul.And I know you did your best to keep me out of this, but I am being used to extort your behavior and I’m not going to stand idly by while you are forced into this marriage you don’t want.”