CHAPTER 4
Malachi
I knew two things to be true:
One. Someone was attempting to murder Jade tonight.
Two. I was going to rip the head off anyone who tried.
I knew both of those two things to be true the first time I laid eyes on her.
Besides, I was sick of people touching my things.
We just had to make it through this party. And then I could protect her. But here, with hundreds of fae around us…
It would be nearly impossible.
There were dozens of reasons for numerous different people to want her dead.
Correction–they wanted me to be an unmarried, desperate, brooding bastard. They didn’t give a damn about whether Jade lived or died. I didn’t trust a single one of those snakes.
Jade’s grip on my hand tightened as we walked through the sea of drunk, dancing guests. She had never seen fae before. Not that she realized, anyway. Surely this was overwhelming for her.
I don’t know why I cared. I didn’t care. But we were going to survive the night. That is what I cared about.
Not her. I wasn’t stupid enough to let myself care about a human.
Not again. Never again.
I pulled her toward the front of the room, nodding at my brothers who sat at the end of the massive stone table.
And no–I didn’t trust them either.
But they knew better than to even look in our direction as Jade sat down awkwardly in the seat beside me.
Her eyes were massive, darting around the room at every movement. Her face was stone, but those eyes gave everything away. She may not have been afraid, but she was alert.
Good girl.
I let go of her hand but draped my arm around the back of her chair. “As soon as everyone’s drunk, we can leave,” I whispered to her. “Shouldn’t take long.”
She stiffened, and I knew it was at the feel of my breath against her ear.
Jade hated me. Like all humans, she hated fae, and anyone who had to do with the fae. She likely hated me even more because she recognized me as the man from the forest last night.
But I couldn’t tell her why I had come to see her in the forest.
Especially with all the annoyingly large, fae ears lingering around.
“Your fourth wedding,” Lucien, one of my brothers, announced from the end of the table. A certain stillness filled the air, but I could tell by the boldness alone that Lucien was drunk.
Absolutely plastered.
“You’re a lucky man,” he continued, “to have not one, not two, not even three… but four parties thrown in your favor. Truly, what an honor, Prince of Shadows.”
“Watch it,” I growled casually. Lucien’s only warning, and he knew it.
The other brothers’ relationship didn’t bother me. When I was younger, I had been jealous. Of course, I had been. But I was stupid and arrogant back then.
I didn’t understand why they hated me. I didn’t understand why they were desperate to get ahead every step of the way.
But now, I understood. After learning that I was the one and only true heir to the fae throne, I understood.
My mother had been the true Queen to Rewyth. She still was. But after my father remarried and had four sons, things got complicated.
They would never stand a chance. All four of them.
So, they hated me for it. For decades, they had taunted me and envied me. But I never really cared. Not after those first initial years, after I had learned what type of people they really were.
What type of men they really were.
I was never going to be anything like them, and they hated me because of it.
“What?” I blinked at Jade, realizing she had asked me a question.
“Are you going to eat?” she repeated, clearly pleased by my level of distraction.
“You’re hungry?” I asked. Idiot. She was obviously starving, likely hadn’t eaten a single thing since we dragged her from her home, and I had dragged her in here through the crowd of food without offering her anything.
She had been starving herself so her sister could have food. I knew that. I had seen it firsthand.
“Stay here,” I admitted, forcing down the wave of anger that rushed forward at the single thought of Jade providing for her ungrateful family. “I’ll grab you some food. Don’t move.”
She nodded in acceptance. I did my best not to stare at the exposed skin on her chest as I stood from the chair and walked toward the crowd of guests.
It didn’t take more than a few seconds before Kara approached me in the sea, wrapping her skinny arm around my own.
“If you want a real party,” she purred, flicking her tongue across her red lipstick, “you know where I’ll be.”