Page 88 of The Fallen Fae King

Suddenly, a portal forms.

“She did it!” Lucius sheathes his sword. “I knew that she would.”

I allow myself a smile, as the shadowy portal slowly widens.

They’re here. They fucking did it.

They didn’t abandon me.

I remain as still as a statue on the couch.

“You were saying?” My icy gaze fixes on Maximinus. “The sun is not yet risen, and my mates are returning because they were always working as my spies to capture the Shadow Vampire King. Since you were so insistent that I take the full credit for the failure, then you won’t mind that I take the full credit for the victory.”

Maximinus stalks off the dais. “Prove that it is one first.”

Lucius rests his hand on my shoulder briefly and squeezes.

This is the moment that he has stage managed for me.

I blank my expression.

I must do this. But will this be harder than dying?

I can’t quite mask the flinch when Freya falls through the portal along with Daire and Lanlin.

Daire’s conspiracy of ravens pours through the portal like scorched petals caught in a storm. They fly over the heads of the council members who cuss and duck.

My eyes widen.

Freya looks beautiful in a traditional white and gemstone House of Sin wedding dress. But it is stained red with blood. Daire is wearing nothing but a pleated kilt, which exposes his pale beauty, except he is equally painted in dried blood.

Did Lanlin savage his neck like that?

I will pull out his fucking fangs.

Yet I can’t tear my gaze away from Lanlin himself.

Daire has thrown himself over the vampire, covering him with his outstretched wings, as if he can shield Lanlin from what is about to happen.

Yet I am shocked from the glimpses that I can make out of the Shadow Vampire King who is normally the most powerful person in a room.

Despite being dressed in a matching wedding outfit to Daire, Lanlin’s face is bruised. His chest is black and blue like his ribs are broken. Blood still seeps from deep claw marks in his wrist, staining his arm in scarlet rivulets.

Although his hair is decorated with ribbons and diamonds, it is a tangled mess.

I study the silver shackles around his seared wrists.

I should feel exultant to see my enemy chained and captured with his magic suppressed.

Instead, I don’t know how I feel.

What in the name of the Shadow Gods happened to them?

Finally, the ravens settle on the floor of the dais around me.

The chamber explodes in excited chatter and mocking laughter.

War steps forward, threateningly. “Silence.”