Page 17 of Beauty

The Seelie kings turn to each other, a silent conversationhappening in their heads. I know because it happens between me and Shim. Aftera long moment, Beck looks over, his face tense. “How would you bond with awoman you’ve never met?”

“I don’t know what it was like for you two,” I admit. “Ionly know that since I knew what the word love meant, I loved her. Shecame to me and Shim every night.”

“In our dreams.” Shim takes over. “At first we simply playedbecause we were young. We couldn’t hear her. We just felt. She talked. Shetalked a lot, but we simply felt her presence. It calmed us each night, and weknew she was the one.”

I remember those times. Bronwyn was a comfort even then. “Wecould see through her eyes. She’s a strong broadcaster. Sometimes, even duringthe day, Shim can see her. It’s how we figured out who she was and where shelives. When we were young, we would see and feel her when her emotions werestrong. There was a river by her house. Full of fish. She would swim with herbrother, her mother watching on. She would strip down to her shift and throwher body in, a wild cry on her lips. She would look up as she floated on thewater and wonder where her other brother was.”

I’m well aware of what I’m doing. I’m pulling from hermemories. I’m baiting the Seelie kings. But I must prove this truth or they’llside with my father. Bronwyn has to be saved before the war breaks out.

Cian’s body tenses. “Tell me more about her.”

Shim seems to understand what I’m doing. “She’s theloveliest thing in all the planes. Brown hair and brown eyes. A sweet laugh.”He turns to Dante. “You pulled her pigtails and called her a brat.”

Dante’s mouth drops. “No.”

I don’t wait for further denials. “We bonded with her on thenight she died. We felt it. Shim could see it.”

“I saw her run to her mother’s room. She was so scared. Itried to reach out, but she’d taken a knife to her gut.” Shim’s hand drifts tohis side, where he felt the knife sink into our mate. “She thought she wasdead, and then you came, Cian. You held her. You told her you loved her. Andshe died.”

Tears fall from Shim’s eyes. He feels it more deeply becausehe was there with her. I often wish I was there, too, but someone had to groundus all.

Cian shakes his head. “She died. Bron is dead. I couldn’tsave her.”

The words slip easily from my mouth. “But we could.”

The Seelie kings stop, their jaws tensing. Their expressionsare utterly identical, pained and haunted, and beneath all of it, a breath ofhope.

“I don’t believe it.” Cian finally moves, pacing the floor.He runs a hand through his hair. “I felt it. She was dead. I wouldn’t have leftmy sister. I couldn’t. I couldn’t have left her.”

“I don’t understand any of this.” My father looked almost asguilty as the Seelies.

An ember of hope flares. They might finally believe us.“We’ve thought about this a lot. We’ve talked about it, asked some Fae who knowabout bonding, some vampires who understand consorts. They think Bronwyn is anincredibly strong broadcaster. I know that any bondmate could balance us, butthere’s a difference between the bond and a perfect mate. Her mind reached out,even as a child, and she found us. We held to the bond. If Bron is abroadcaster, then Shim is a receptor.”

Beck’s face is a careful blank. “Let’s accept the fact thatBron is alive somehow.”

“She’s alive,” Shim insists.

“How did you save her?” Dante asks.

Shim shakes his head. “I don’t know. It’s all muddled. Iremember feeling her die and grabbing on to Lach.”

I don’t like to think about that night. It’s a nightmare inmy head, a collection of fear and pain. “It was the first time our powersmanifested.”

“The night of the fire,” his father whispers, looking at thescars on my face.

“Yes. We all almost died that night.” I stare at my father.“We lost her for a long time. That was when we started to fade. We couldn’t besure she was alive. And yet the bond was there. It was like bonding over thatdistance broke the connection for a while.”

Shim sighs. “And then one day, I was sleeping and I felt herat the edge of my consciousness. Every night the connection got stronger, andnow I can feel her during the day when I concentrate.”

“That’s why you seem to be fading. That’s why you liearound. You’re seeing her.” Father sits back and seems to have aged twentyyears. “Do you think she knows what happened to my Gilly?”

This is a piece of information we withheld. We thought aboutit, but with our father not believing us, it seemed cruel to tell him.

“Gillian’s alive.”

The room erupts in chaos. The news that the Unseelieprincess is alive and potentially in danger somewhere on the Seelie planelights a fire under the nobles’ asses. My father sits, taking it all in.There’s already talk of a raid, a quiet retrieval mission, even of hiring a hagto contact her. This is another reason we kept quiet. Until we’re ready torescue our bondmate, we can’t risk detection, and we worry our father will bereckless, thus costing both women their lives. Amidst all the discussion, theFinn twins walk away, quietly speaking among themselves.

I look at Shim who nods, understanding what we need to do.