Page 96 of Beauty

I stand and stare back at the campsite. If it doesn’t work,I will have to, but I fear they’ll be able to find me. Always.

It’s win or lose, but perhaps it’s better to find out oneway or the other. I need to think about it.

“Why don’t you go back to the camp?” I hate the thought thathe’s out here all alone. “Roan has devices to warm you.”

Duffy simply turns away. “No. I think I’ll sit here a whileand watch the stars. Like I said. I don’t feel the cold no more.”

I nod and walk off. I’m not afraid of the cold, but the heatis another matter. I worry the heat of our true bond will burn me, singeingaway all that is Bronwyn Finn and leaving only a consort in my place.

ChapterThirty

Torin, the AbsoluteAsswipe

I look from one hag to the other. “What do you meanshe got away?”

It was a simple fucking plan. Go to the district where thehags themselves promised me Bronwyn resided. Go to the district and kill everywoman who could possibly be Bronwyn. Simple. Easy. All fucked up.

“The Unseelie princes were there.” Glannis doesn’t look upfrom her perch. She stares down at the bones she just threw. She rattled themin an open skull, chanting and spitting and offering up blood. Now she studiesthem. It looks like a nasty mess that some forest creature crapped out, butGlannis apparently sees something in it.

“Why the hell are they here? They’ve stayed out of things.Why do they give a shit?” The last thing I need is trouble with the Unseelieuntil I’m ready to deal with them. The Unseelie king has his own trouble. Hehas idiot sons, the dumbass versions of the Seelie princes. I heard somethingwent desperately wrong with the princes. They were injured in a fire, and thatmeans his line of succession is in question. The Unseelie don’t believe in weakmonarchs. Fergus is trying to deal with his own kingdom. He doesn’t have timeto fight with the Seelie. And I like it that way.

Una cocks a hand on her ridiculously gaunt hip. “Glannisthinks they might be bound to the princess.”

I throw my head back and laugh. The defective princes snuckonto the plane to retrieve Bronwyn? “So why didn’t you kill them?”

Glannis finally looks up, her rheumy eyes serious. “I tried.I failed. And they are not defective. Not in the least. The warrior king hasalready come into his power. He’s a Death Lord.”

A shiver snakes up my spine. I always wondered about thatdamn divination the hags gave me before my ascension. They told me I would winthe day. I would be the king. Only one person could harm me in the end. Ileaned over and prepared to hear the name Beckett Finn.

Bronwyn was a surprise. But if Bronwyn somehow bonded with afucking Death Lord, I might be in trouble. Perhaps that damn prophecy was aboutmy niece’s husband and not my niece.

“Why didn’t you kill him?” Surely the hags can do somethingabout it now that they know what the real problem is.

“I tried, Your Majesty. It would have worked but some filthygnome got in my way,” she admits. “I couldn’t hex him again. The first one tooktoo much energy, and now he’ll be ready for it, so all I got to do was kill adamn gnome. But I’ve come up with something else. His necromancy only works oncreatures, Fae and animals and other somewhat sentient beings. So I intend toattack him with something he can’t take control of. I just need to find him. Ibelieve he’s in the forests. He’s going to move toward Aoibhneas. It’s how hegot in.”

Yes. I don’t understand that, either. “How the fuck did heget in? I have guards on the entryway.”

The two hags share a long look before Una answers. “Thereare always small rips and tears. A smart Fae would be able to get through.”

“I don’t want anyone to be able to get through.”

Una takes a long breath. “Your Majesty, it is impossible totell where these weak spots are unless you happen across one. And that villagewouldn’t have told us. It keeps its secrets.”

Yes. Aoibhneas is the perfect fuck storm. High in themountains with both natural and magical defenses. And the Fae who live thereare rebels by nature. I keep them contained with heavy guards on the roads anda long history of leaving them be, but I will come for them eventually and theyknow it. Aoibhneas is the logical place to launch a rebellion. But it’s smalland so isolated.

What if the Unseelie decide to invade?

“You have to kill the necromancer.”

Glannis throws her hands up. “That is my plan. Now I justneed to find them. I stole back to the village and found what I believe is herhair and his blood. The intellectual half was there. I don’t have anything fromhim, but if those two do anything magical, I can find them.”

I stare down at the shit on my desk. It better do what’sexpected. It better lead me to my niece and her husband.

One way or another someone is going to die. And I’m going towipe that fucking mountain town off the map.

ChapterThirty-One

Lachlan