Page 4 of The Ruthless Fae King
Hades.
That woman knew me too well. I tried to act calm, like I wasn’t just caught doing something I shouldn’t.
My mother shot me a glare as I approached. “Going off to the local seducer without a chaperone? You wouldn’t be trying to tarnish your reputation, now would you, daughter?”
I huffed. “He wouldn’t have me.”
“Madelynn!” my mother scolded, reaching out to whack me on the back of the head for good measure. “Your father has betrothed you to the winter king, the ruler of all fae. You could do no better.”
My mother and father seemed to have blocked out all of the horror stories of Lucien Thorne.
“You gave me no time to prepare for this,” I growled, suddenly feeling ashamed with what I’d just done. If word got around that I was alone in Maxwell’s house without a chaperone, I would havenomarriage prospects fromanyman.
My mom rested a hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eye. “Because we know you too well.” She eyed Maxwell’s house as if to make a point. “Listen, honey, we raised you to be a leader,” my mother said. “At King Thorne’s side, you can make a difference. As his wife and our queen, you will influence law and carry out rulings. You can give back to your community and even talk him down from war. A woman has an important place beside a king.”
Her words touched me, touched the place inside of me that wanted to sacrifice my happiness for that of my people. I had naïvely assumed I could have both happiness and duty, but now I knew that not to be true.
I sighed in resignation. “If he hurts me, I’ll kill him. Consequences be dammed.”
My mother flinched as if I’d slapped her. “If he hurts you,I’llkill him.”
Her shock at my mention of him being abusive made me wonder if I was being too harsh on the winter king. But the stories I’d heard—that he once dragged a courtier through the town behind a horse—they were all dark and brutal, and told the tale of an unhinged king who I wantednothingto do with.
Tears suddenly filled my vision and a gust of wind passed over us, picking up my hair. “I’m going to miss you.”
I barely got the words out when my mother pulled me into a hug.
* * *
The winter kingwould be here any minute. After we negotiated my dowry, he would parade me around Fall Court like a prized hog. We would announce our engagement publicly and then go on a tour of the four courts, inviting each one to our upcoming wedding. And all of this was before I’d even met the man or agreed to it.
In the end, I relented to my father’s begging and my mother’s tears.
I was the most powerful princess in all the realm, and the king wanted powerful heirs, so it was an obvious pairing.
A part of me sort of always knew this day would come. I’d just hoped he’d marry a woman of royal lineage from his own court and leave me alone.
I didn’t want to leave Fall. Orange leaves, crisp cool air, the scent of change. I’d grown up in my father’s kingdom my entire life. We were one of the most prosperous of Thorngate, growing half the food for the realm, and even selling excess to Embergate.
I sat in my room as my beloved lady-in-waiting, Piper, finished curling my hair, and I gasped at the sudden realization that I would no longer have her company. I was nineteen winters old and she was twenty. We practically grew up together. Her mother served as my mother’s lady-in-waiting and she’d become my best friend.
We’d been quiet since we both heard the news. I wasn’t sure she knew what to think or say to me. Marrying the winter king was more of a curse than a blessing, so congratulations were not in order.
“What’s wrong?” she asked me finally.
Unshed tears filled my eyes as I looked up at her. “I just realized I would be losing you. I could never ask you to leave your family and follow me to the frozen Hades of Winter Court.”
Piper smiled. I loved that smile. She had two crooked teeth in front that pressed onto her bottom lip like fangs.
“Oh, Maddie, I would never leave you to marry that bastard alone. I’ve already asked your father to be dismissed from Fall Court. I’m going to Winter with you.”
Tears lined my eyes and I pulled her in for a hug. “I don’t deserve you,” I told her.
I released her and she nodded, her long brown hair shaking around her shoulders. “That’s true. And I hear the winter king is richer than your father, so maybe I should ask for a raise…”
I grinned, loving that Piper knew how to get me out of my rotten mood.
There was a knock at the door and I stood, squaring my shoulders and tipping my chin high.
