My heart began to race—fear and attraction. I’d always hated fear. But the attraction? That was just an insult. It was some magical connection I didn't want and had no control over.
The king’s eye traveled over me, heat turning to cold. I sneered.
His lips twisted in response, then his gaze flicked to the figure behind me. “Thank you, Erias. You may go.”
His faint footsteps disappeared.
“Erias?” I asked. “That’s a Fae name.”
The king shrugged and turned away, strolling toward the massive, ice-coated throne in the center of the room.
In his hand, a pendant dangled from a chain.
My heart thudded.
Connor’s comms charm.
“That’s my brother’s!” I strode after him.
“It is.” The king sat in the throne, louche and irritatingly sexy. He didn’t seem to notice the ice beneath him. He slouched in the throne, dangling Connor’s pendant in front of him—I hated him.
Hated him. And I hated myself for wanting him.
My gaze riveted to the pendant in his hand. “Where is my brother?”
“Safe. For now.”
“What the hell do you want with us?”
He arched a black brow. “It won’t work. I know who you are, and you know that I know.”
My lips twisted. “Why did you take him?”
“Because you love him most.”
“But you want me. Why not just take me?”
The corner of his lip tugged up in a smile that heated something in my belly. “I did take you. He’s your heart.” He shrugged, as if he didn’t understand the feeling but could at least grasp the concept. “I knew you’d come after him, and you did.”
I hated that he’d planned it this way, but he was right.
Connor was my brother.
I couldn’t have left him to this fate. Anyway, just because I was captured didn’t mean I was at his mercy.
“I’ve been watching you,” the king continued. “You sacrifice for others, not yourself.”
“Whatever.” It was something he wouldn’t understand, that was for sure.
I glared at him, my mind racing. What did I say next? Could I sweet talk my way out of this—something I’d never been any good at—or was fighting the only option?
“You tried to kill me with an ax,” the king mused.
“Yeah. How about I say I’m sorry, and you release my brother. Then we go on our merry way and call it a day.”
He chuckled, but it was an almost bitter sound. “I’m afraid that’s no longer an option.”
My heart thudded. “Killing me. That’s your option, right?”
I wasn’t one to beat around the bush. The prophecy said he would kill me, and he hadn’t yet.
He surged out of the chair and stalked toward me, his movements leonine. He was so big and his expression so serious that it was impossible to miss the threat.
He was in front of me in an instant, crowding me until I backed up against a pillar. The ice was cold against my back, but I pressed myself against it to avoid touching him.
The king loomed over me, tilting his head down to meet my gaze. “It’s not so simple, little lamb.”
I bristled. “Do I look like a little lamb to you?”
“Compared to me, yes.”
He was so much bigger and stronger that I had to agree with him, much as I hated it.
And yet—part of me liked it. I was strong—muscle and strength and death on the wind. Yet he was even stronger.
I liked it as much as I hated him, which really screwed with my head.
His gaze dropped to my shoulders and lower, and I knew what he was seeing. The fighting machine that I’d turned myself into over the years.
“But in truth, you do not.” Heat echoed in his voice, and when I met his gaze again, I saw it reflected in his eyes.
He wanted me.
He liked that I was tall and strong, with more angles than curves.
Cold banked the flames in the blue depths of his eyes as he shoved away the desire.
We had that in common, at least. A deep and abiding need to ignore the sparks between us.
Though he didn’t touch me, my skin heated at the idea of contact.
I tried to force my mind back to the problem at hand. “I’ve heard the stories. You’re fated to kill me.”
Pain flickered in his eyes, but it was gone so fast I thought I’d imagined it. When he spoke, his voice was devoid of emotion. “True enough, but we must be mated first.”
“Well, that’s not going to happen.”
“I’m afraid you don’t have much choice.”
“I always have a choice.”
“Not in this.” His gaze flicked across mine. “We will complete the mating ceremony at the solstice. Once our hearts are entwined, I will sacrifice you to save my people.”
“That’s totally effed up.” I scoffed. “I’m never going to love you. And you’re never going to love me.”
He shrugged, his gaze enigmatic. “The seer says it is so. Therefore it will be.”
Fae believed strongly in seers and fate, but still. This was nuts.
I searched his gaze, seeing duty. Desperation.
Shit.
It didn’t matter if it was nuts.
He was a king desperate to save his people. He’d do anything, sacrifice anyone, to save them. Either he believed in the prophecy and that I would love him, or he was so desperate that he would try it and kill me anyway once the ceremony was complete.
Either way, I was dead in the end.
“How is sacrificing me supposed to save them, anyway?”
He gestured to the room. “We were once the Sea Fae, but the ice grows daily. And as it grows, we become weaker. Soon, we will freeze as well.”
My gaze moved over the throne room, taking in the thousands of pounds of ice. The ice was changing their very nature. Maybe even killing them. It was a compelling motivator—how was I going to convince him to look for another way?
Make him love you.
No. It was impossible. There wasn’t enough time. And the odds against it… They were staggeringly high. There might be a potion that could help me in my bug-out bag, but the guards had taken it. Which meant it was all up to me and my charms. Which was….not great.
But still, I could try to at least win him to my side. Make him care for me. Understand what was at stake for me.
“I’m supposed to save my people from a similar fate,” I said, my voice desperate. “It’s not just my life you’re playing with, but the lives of all of the Fire Fae. A prophecy says that I’m meant to save them from a terrible fire that is fated to tear through our land.”
His gaze flickered, then hardened. “My duty is to my people, not to yours.” His hand hovered at my cheek. “So you see, Caera, why this must be.”
Shock lanced me.
Caera.
“My Fae name,” I whispered, unable to speak any louder. “How do you know it?”
“You are fated to be my mate. Albeit for a short time. But I know much about you. And I plan to learn more.”
“To make me love you.”
He dipped his head toward mine, cheek nearly pressed to cheek, and whispered, “Yes.”
“Not possible.”