Page 84 of Vicious Kings
"Inconvenient, isn't it?" he asks in a knowing tone. "The mongrel half-breed son arriving before the perfect Seelie prince."
"Then why aren't you…" I can't even finish the sentence, my brain struggling to process this information.
"In line for the throne?" He chuckles. "Isn't it obvious?"
I stare at him. His bloody red eyes. His jet black hair. In a sea of silver, cold, and pastel, he stands out like a poison rose, darkly beautiful and dangerous.
Different.
And I know what it's like to be different. To be something your own family can't bear to look at.
"I'm an abomination," he says, and there's no emotion in his voice. As if he's just stating a fact. "A hybrid. Half Seelie, half Unseelie, andcompletelyunacceptable. They'd never let me take the throne as long as there's a perfectly good full-blood Seelie son of appropriate breeding to fill the role."
Something sits in my stomach, sour and heavy, and I hate it. Hate that I'm feeling anything other than smug satisfaction at the fact that the Fae royals are just as fucked up as I always suspected.
"So it's as simple as you wanting the throne," I say, and I can't quite hide the disappointment in my voice.
Why the fuck am I disappointed?
He's Fae. They're all the same. Selfish, power-hungry bastards who'd step over corpses to get what they want. Seelie and Unseelie may be a distinction to them, but those words mean nothing to me.
Caelyx laughs. "You should never get your hopes up, little hunter. Especially not about me."
The words shouldn't sting, but they do. I shove the feeling down, burying it under layers of anger and self-preservation.
He's right. What was I expecting? That he'd be different somehow? That I might actually have an ally in this place who kept my secret for something other than an ulterior motive?
I'm not different.
He's fae. I'm a hunter, through and through.
"We can help each other," he says, his voice sounding almost businesslike. "I have a proposition."
I scoff, folding my arms. "Of course you do."
"I'll help you get close to Corvinus." He starts walking again, and I follow because my curiosity is stronger than my disdain. "And when the time is right, I'll tell you how you can actually kill him."
I freeze mid-step. "What?"
"If you want a spoiler," he continues, glancing back at me with those unsettling red eyes, "it isn't by beheading him. That's not how you kill a Fae prince. Not one like Corvinus, anyway."
The ground seems to shift beneath my feet. "That's impossible. Beheading works on all Fae. It's?—"
"What your mother thought?" His voice goes soft, almost gentle. "And it got her killed."
The rage that floods through me is so intense I see stars. "What the fuck do you know about my mother?"
"More than you, apparently." He stops beneath a tree whose leaves shimmer between silver and gold. "But I'll tell you eventually.Ifwe have a deal."
Every instinct screams at me to tell him to fuck off. To refuse whatever twisted bargain he's offering. But if he really knows how my mother died, if he knows how to actually kill Corvinus…
"What do you want in return?"
"I want you to do as you're told." He says it simply, like it's the most reasonable request in the world.
My hands ball into fists. "I don't take orders. Not anymore."
"Then you'll die trying to kill my brother the same way your mother did." He shrugs. "Your choice."
