Page 76 of Demon's Beauty

“Father,” I say flatly.

How he even had the opportunity to find out, I have no idea.

Soleil and I took our time getting back here, but we didn’t take that long. So either he hunted down someone from the expedition to interrogate them as soon as they returned, or he has someone on the inside feeding him information.

Either option is equally likely, and neither makes me anything other than exhausted.

My father is relentless in his need to know, to control, to always have one up on everyone else.

“My relationship with Soleil is not grist for your political mill.”

He snorts. “Of course it is. You’re a Nightfall. What you do and who you are mated to reflects on us all.”

He stands from his desk and circles around it so he can stand right in front of me, hands resting on my shoulders.

“Have you bonded her?”

I can’t help myself; I laugh. Short and rough and disbelieving.

“We only met a week ago.” I shrug out of his grip and head for the door.

“That’s more than enough time to seal a mate bond. What have you been doing that you haven’t convinced her to—”

“I have been respecting her feelings and her boundaries. A strange concept to you, I’m sure.”

He lets out a huff of annoyance and opens his mouth to say something else, but I’m already moving.

Going where? I don’t know.

But being anywhere else in this damned court must be better than standing here and listening to my father talk aboutmy mate and my relationship with her in such cold, calculating terms.

“Finn,” my father calls after my retreating form, and though I hate myself for it, I pause in his office door.

I don’t turn around, though.

A small act of defiance, pathetic though it may be.

“If you’d like to keep your place here at court, the lifestyle I’ve been funding, I would remind you to remember who you are and what you owe this family. You may think you’re exempt, but you are not, and you’d do well to keep that in mind.”

Ah, it would seem I have indeed found the end of my father’s goodwill.

An opportunity like this—a family tie to a witch who, even if she’s not direct kin to the queen, is at least of her kind—is a boon great enough to threaten his own son with expulsion from the family.

Unsurprising, but always good to be reminded where I stand with him.

I don’t dignify his threat with an answer, don’t wait a single second longer before I stride from the room and leave him to his very important business.

23

Soleil

“Alright,” Vayla says late in the afternoon, wiping sweat from her brow. “I think we’ve done all we can for now. The final brew will need to happen right before the doses are administered.”

“Really?” I lean over the cauldron she’s been working on, filled with bright lavender liquid from the blooms. “It’s that temperamental?”

Vayla nods. “Ideally we’d administer doses to patients straight from the final brew, but it can last in vials for an hour.”

“Damn,” I murmur. “Sounds like a challenge.”