Page 23 of The Fallen Fae King

“I am at my weakest on the Blood Moon.” I shift on my knees, my forehead still pounding. My mind is whirring with thoughts. “Was the plan for Daire to tear out my throat, while my magic binds with Freya during the ritual?”

It’s a good plan.

I will be vulnerable. It will be the happiest moment of my life.

And Aurelius wanted to use that against me.

I clench my jaw, remembering the moment that I tore the crown from Daire and the haunted look in his eyes.

I am willingly giving up my crown. But is that the same as having your crown taken from you?

Aurelius has already tried to break Daire. Can I trust that he doesn’t want to do the same to me?

Devil snarls, baring her teeth.

I quirk my brow. “Your belief in the fae is touching. I hold the same belief in my Omega. Why do you think I didn’t retrieve the lodestone from her that she stole? If my soulmates are plotting together, then I trust them. They are a true pack, and with someone as dangerous as King Daire devoted to her, I know that my Omega blood bond will be safer now. For a short while, I at least was able to experience through them what love, touch, and acceptance feel like. In the end, does it truly matter if it was real?”

What is reality?

When I know that the Void Devils wait on another plane of reality, ready to tear through and devour our own, I don’t believe in simple truths, whether it’s love, hate, or prophecies.

Suddenly, one of my favorite rats, Tia, scampers from the shadows. Her slender body flows over the sandstone floor toward me.

Tia’s large ears twitch. Her eyes sparkle like obsidian.

I sit up, and Devil grunts in annoyance as I stop petting her.

I hold out my hand, and Tia climbs on, wrapping her long tail around me to balance. Her claws tickle my skin.

I hold the rat up to my face. “By my Power, you have secrets for me, my noble whiskered friend?”

Unlike Bloods, animals have never let me down.

Tia’s whiskers tremble, testing the air.

Then she squeaks, and with my animalism, I understand her.

Tia knows if the love was real, she replies. Tia and her sisters and brothers have spied on our King’s mates in the sun.

I stiffen.

I almost drop her.

I square my shoulders, preparing to hear how Freya and Daire have mocked me, laughing about how they have played me, and how foolish I have been to fall for their tricks.

I take a calming breath. “Tell me.”

They talk about you. Tia circles on my palm, curling up. Boring, all the time. Their love. Your beauty. The pleasure of feeding you blood and being your bat riders. Friends. They want to create a royal nest. Forever.

My heart is beating too fast.

It can’t be true.

Tia is talking about spying on my nestmates when they believed that they were alone.

Why would they talk about…all that…when Daire is my enemy? When they weren’t trying to trick me?

I can’t stop myself smiling, as desperate hope surges through me. “By my heart, what else?”