Night Fae by Meg Xuemei X.
Chapter 2
Rowan didn’t avert his intense gaze from me as I thought he would. It was as if he couldn’t tear his eyes from me even if he wanted to. Scorching longing and desire lit the depths of his winter blue eyes, slamming a wave of electricity into my core.
For longer than a heartbeat, I was the only woman he’d ever seen and would ever see and the only thing that ever mattered to him.
But I knew better. I’d experienced firsthand how he’d played 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.
With so many powerful beings in the room, the tension was off the charts, crackling in the air. With my newly awakened magic, I could sense danger, like a tart taste on my tongue, before the usurper queen even showed up.
A rush of adrenaline pumped into my bloodstream. Soon, I’d confront and fight my worst enemy who wanted me dead more than anything.
“Lady Evelina Greene, King Rydstrom, and King Baron, welcome,” Northton greeted us, his voice flowing with power. “The Winter King and I were just getting acquainted.”
My heart fluttered at the mention of Rowan. I’d been purposefully ignoring the betrayer and keeping my expression toward him cold. If I displayed any emotion, including anger, I’d betray that he still had the power to hurt me. I wouldn’t give him the slightest satisfaction. The worst insult to him was to show him that he didn’t matter to me.
“High mage.” Both the Night King and Summer King nodded at the director with respect.
“Thank you for hosting this summit, Director Northton,” Rydstrom said.
“It’s the honor of the Silver Circle, King Rydstrom.” Northton bowed slightly.
I should say something, too. “Uh, it’s nice to meet you, Director Northton,” I offered politely.
“The pleasure is all mine, Lady Evelina,” Northton said, a relieved yet melancholy look flitting across his eyes. “You might not know it, but I valued and trusted your parents highly.”
Blood rushed to my ears at the unexpected reference to my missing parents, and then ice chunks sank into my stomach. A while back, my enemy had used an LAPD detective as a pawn with fake information about my parents to lure me into a trap. Many Fae knights had died to protect me, and my brother had been taken.
Only recently had I found out that my parents were mages. The way Northton talked about my parents, it was as if he’d known them his whole life. So, they must have been members of the Silver Circle, then. Did Northton know that I was the lost princess, the true queen of the Dawn Court?
As far as I knew, only the Fae kings and their tight inner circles knew exactly who I was.
A burning need to ask the Director of the Silver Circle about my parents shot across my head, dazing me a bit, but I stood firm. I knew where my focus should be and what my kings and I needed to achieve today. I wouldn’t allow anyone—not the treacherous Winter King, and not the powerful leader of the mages who claimed to have a tight tie to my parents—to sway or distract me.
“Thank you, Director Northton,” I said, a cool mask in place even though I was shaking inside. “My parents never mentioned any of their associates. I didn’t know they were mages.”
“For a good reason,” Northton said softly and sympathetically. “But things are different now. Everything has changed.”
“We’ll talk about it later, Jett,” Rydstrom cut in, a cautious light flickering in his midnight eyes.
So, they were friends, as they were on a first-name basis.
“What are you looking at, Rowan?” Baron suddenly growled beside me, startling me out of my thoughts. “What are you doing here?” The Summer King always had an explosive temper, and he never bothered to reel it back, no matter the occasion. He was a king after all.
The Winter King was still staring at me like I was a delicious cake he could never have again.
The pounding in my ears had quieted, but now it pinged in my brain again.
“It’s King Rowan to you,” the Winter King seethed. “Forget your manners again, Summer King?”
Baron looked like he wanted to punch his half-brother’s teeth out, and I might not stop him.
“We didn’t invite you,” Baron snarled some more. These two kings could turn snarling and growling into an art. Rydstrom, however, didn’t snarl much. He just went for the kill as soon as he issued a threat, which marked him an impatient man as well. “We didn’t ask your pompous ass here. This matter is between Summer, Night, and Dawn courts. It doesn’t concern you, and you should stay out of it!”
I heard gasps in the room. Baron’s voice had carried, as he was never the discreet type, but I was totally supportive of Baron and his rudeness this time. Who gave a crap about being politically correct when it was all fakery and cowardice?
I’d wanted to go for my ex-lover’s jugular as well and crush him way worse than he’d crushed me, but today, we weren’t here for him. We’d stay on track. I decided to give Baron a nudge before the situation escalated.
“Don’t talk to me that way, brother,” Rowan said, and I was taken aback by the acrimony and venom that laced his fierce voice, “unless you want to risk war between us again. Try and stop me from being at this summit—I have every right to take part in it.” He breathed out frost, ice crystals dusting his eyelashes, and his face grew colder, like a glacier that would never melt. “I won’t be left out of these decisions. Everything that concerns Elfame concerns me, and I’m the Winter King.”
Rydstrom remained silent, watching the harsh exchange between the Winter and Summer kings with an indecipherable expression. Shouldn’t he back up Baron and kick out Rowan already, so at least we would have one less opponent?
I glared at him, but the Night King only folded his arms before his broad chest, remaining unmoved. When it came to the Fae kings, who could really understand how their minds worked? They had a long, complicated history of dealing with each other’s courts.
“My, my, can’t leave you for a second without a fight, my darling kings.” A peal of giggles sounded behind us, so enchanting it drew everyone’s attention.
Brigantia had just arrived.
