Page 19 of The Ruthless Fae King
Lucien relaxed. “That old man couldn’t win a fight against me. No, if Barrett wants me dethroned, it will be Prince Haze who fights me. They will team up together, probably also talking your father into it and coming at me together somehow.”
My mouth popped open at his bleak assessment. Prince Haze of Summer Court, who we were on our way to see right now, was the most powerful summer fae in a generation. He could light fires with his hands and send sunrays so bright into your face that they blinded you.
“You’ve thought about this,” I noted.
Lucien looked coolly across the carriage at me. “I’m the most hated man in Thorngate. My enemies are many.” His voice was monotone, but there was an underlying hurt there. Like he didn’t want to be hated.
“My father wouldn’t—” I began to defend him but Lucien held up a hand.
“I’m not accusing. I’m just saying it’s a possibility, especially if Prince Haze threatened to scorch all of his crops.”
I crossed my arms. “Like you have threatened to freeze ours in the past?”
Lucien relaxed easily into the seat, raising his arms above his head and hooking his fingers behind his neck. “Yes, well, I know how to get what I want, don’t I?”
I huffed. He was absolutely incorrigible!Andinsanely attractive. It was infuriating.
I felt at odds with the situation. Did I like the winter king or did he annoy me to no end? Maybe a little of both. And maybe that’s what marriage was. Or at least whatthismarriage was about to be. Part of me wanted to slap Lucien Thorne across the face, and the other part wanted to kiss him.
* * *
The secondwe reached the Summer Court gates, I knew something was wrong. The gates were closed and a line of a dozen guards stood before them.
“What’s going on? Aren’t they expecting us?” I asked. We’d sent word to all the realm of our engagement the moment after we negotiated my dowry.
Lucien’s jaw grit and his nostrils flared. The carriage pulled to a stop and he stepped out. I moved to follow him and he held up a hand. “Stay here. I will handle this.”
I pushed his hand down. “I’m going.”
He cast me an annoyed look but helped me out of the carriage. We walked together past the Winter Soldier on horseback and to the lead Sun Guard at the front of the gates.
“What do you think you are doing barring your king from entering a territory inmylands,” Lucien spat. A gust of a cold wind stirred at our backs.
Okay, not the first thing I would have said to the guard, but I was learning that the rumors of Lucien’s hot temper wereveryreal. Just minus the tongue cutting out.
The lead guard stepped forward and pulled a scroll from his sleeveless vest. The Summer sun insignia on his breastplate glinted in the bright sunlight, and I tried to keep things calm.
“Greetings, I’m Madelynn Windstrong, the princess of Fall,” I told the guard in case he didn’t know who he was dealing with.
“I know who you are,” he said flatly.
Lucien bristled at that. Suddenly a blade of ice shot out from his palm and pressed against the guard’s throat. Every soldier present spurred into action then, pulling out their blade or conjuring sunlight in their palms.
“Youare a lowly guard, so when you address a princess you will call her by her title,” Lucien growled at him.
“Yes, my king,” the guard mumbled, eyes wide.
Lucien pulled the ice blade from the man’s throat and it clattered to the ground, breaking into a dozen pieces.
I was frozen in shock, unable to react by the time it was all over. The other guards didn’t seem to know what to do. Were they really going to attack their king? Their allegiance was to the prince of their court, but above all was the king of our fae realm andthatwas Lucien.
They seemed to remember this in that moment, and one by one put away their blades and defused their sunlight powers.
Lucien glared at them each in turn.
“Tell me what the Hades is going on right now or I’ll turn you all into icicles!” he shouted.
The scroll was still clenched in the guard’s hand, and he gave it to me with trembling fingers.
