Page 72 of Beauty

He’s quite the master of disguise. He looks like a peasantnow, and not a particularly dangerous one. He can likely make his way on theroads and survive by smiling and looking helpful and proclaiming “long liveKing Torin.”

My memories of the day are vague and fragmented, but Iremember him. He saved me, and then he dumped me when I became troublesome.

He walks down the lane as though he didn’t steal into myhome and take my things. The bastard took my knife. In those last moments whenI could still speak, he asked about the knife and I told him where it was.

“Calm down, wolf.” I put a hand on my new pet. “We shouldget answers out of him before you eat him.”

The wolf stops and stares at me for a moment and then beginsto bounce up and down in apparent glee. Well, at least my new pet is on thesame page. The wolf’s tail thumps against the hard dirt, and she watches herprey with anticipatory joy.

I wish I had a weapon of some kind. Anything, really, but mybrand-new husbands didn’t see fit to arm me. They preferred me without clothes.

The feeling of their skin wrapped around mine assaults me,and for a moment I can feel them. Their panic. It flares to life in my brain,and I can’t breathe until I slam the connection closed. I can’t afford it. Nomatter how nice it is, I’m not going to allow myself to be used to gift theUnseelie royals with my brothers’ throne. Until I see their dead bodies formyself, I’m not going to give up. I made up my mind to stand and be theprincess my people need me to be.

And that starts by having a chat with Niall.

He begins to walk toward the road. I take a step out,showing myself. At the very least I have the wolf by my side. It might make himthink twice. I’m going to have to come up with a suitable name for my pet sinceit seems like the wolf is the only creature on the plane I can trust.

Niall starts and then stops, staring at me. “PrincessBronwyn.”

“Incredible jackass Niall.”

The wolf seems to snort.

Niall’s face flushes. “Your Highness, there was nothing Icould do. I was surrounded by Micha’s men. They would have killed me. I didn’thave an army.”

I think about what happened in the square. It seemed to be anightmare at the time, but now I start to process what I saw and heard.“Neither did the man who saved me. He didn’t have an army. He only had hisbrother.”

Niall looks around as if expecting someone to show up.“Where is he? Who is he? It doesn’t matter, Princess. We need to leave here. Itwas smart of you to get away and come looking for me. Your father is going tobe very proud of you.”

He had an incredible story concerning my father. “Why shouldI believe you about my father?”

“Because it’s true.” He gives me a warm smile and walks fartoo close to me. “Princess Bronwyn, everything I have told you is true. Yourfather trained me to find you. He gave me explicit instructions. I’ve beensearching since I became old enough to be a guard.”

“If my father is truly a sluagh, then why didn’t he searchfor me himself?” It’s impossible to think of my rigidly polite father as aneater of the dead. The sluagh are unshriven dead, dead who refuse to move on tothe after.

“I believe his essence is tied to his brother’s, and he cannotbe free until his brother is dead.” Niall sighs. “I do not expect that you willunderstand any of this, Princess. Simply know that your father trusts me. Askme something only he would know. He spoke of you so often. He made me memorizeeverything about you.”

“What did he call me as a child?” It was a secret betweenthe two of us. Or at least my father had told me so.

“He called you his little pixie because your hair was so bighe thought it looked like pixie wings when your nanny didn’t braid it. He thoughtyour hair was half your body weight when you were a child.”

Tears prick my eyes. Little pixie. It’s a sweetmemory. “All right, let’s say I believe you. What does he want me to do?”

He smiles, a self-satisfied look. “He wants you to followme. He wants you to trust me. I’m going to take care of you. We’ll go to SirGiles’s manse. He’s been looking for a person to rally behind. He’s triedseveral times to get ambassadors off the plane to talk to friendly vampirefamilies. He will give us a safe place, and he has a long history with themilitary.” Niall is silent for a moment and then seems to come to a decision.“And he will see us properly wed.”

The wolf puts her head down and I groan. “I am not marryingyou.”

“’Tis the only way, Princess. We shall marry and I will takecare of the political part of this. You will need only to be your sweet selfand let the people see you. It is all that is required of you.”

My wolf growls and I understand the sentiment. “I want myknife back.”

Niall stares. “There is no need, Princess. I will handleeverything.”

“I don’t want you to handle everything. I want you to giveme my knife back. And I don’t need another husband.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” His face flushes, hisshoulders squaring.

I would swear that wolf rolls her eyes. “It means that Ifind myself wed to the princes of the Unseelie. I doubt they would be happy toshare their wife, though I find myself in a small disagreement with them.”