Wicked Prince: Book Two in the Territorial Mates Series

by Twomey, Mary E.

  When I turn to Lexi, there’s a tenderness in his gaze. “You’re fae,” he comments, as if it’s some revelation.

  “I’ve always been fae.”

  “But the dress. You look like us. Like the woman I’m going to marry.” Lexi’s shoulders roll back, and a calm smile lifts the corners of his mouth. “They’re waiting for us, Lily-girl. This is the meet-the-parents part where I tell them I’m in love with you, and they greet the daughter they’ve always wanted.”

  I run my hand down the front of my dress. “They won’t know it’s me, thank goodness.”

  “Maybe they should.”

  I quirk an eyebrow at Lexi. “They definitely should not. It’ll be shocking enough when they learn about my marriage to Des. If the General learns that I’m still alive? That the woman marrying the fae prince is his daughter who’s supposed to be dead? It’ll be trouble, Lexi.”

  There’s a challenge to my logic in Lexi’s eyes but he smooths it over. “Whatever you like.”

  I’m dubious about the seamlessness of it all, but I don’t argue aloud. “One problem before we go. I don’t have a place to strap my dagger. Can’t exactly conceal a weapon in this dress.”

  Salem’s lips pucker into a frown. “Ye don’t need to fight if I’m around. What trouble do ye imagine will fall on ye at a fae dinner?”

  I want to tell him that fae are capable of just as much treachery; they just don’t like to get their hands dirty with it. But I decide to trust Salem, since I have no other option. I drop Des’ finger and take Lexi’s proffered arm, walking with him through the hallways and down the staircase.

  I’m seeing more of the palace now, taking in the details I breezed by when Salem carried me up to hide out in Lexi’s room. So many things are totally new, yet key details call out to me as if I never left them behind.

  “We tied ropes just here,” I say to Lexi, stopping to loop my finger around one of the spokes in the banister along the too many stairs. The wealthier fae like tall ceilings, so what could be a five-story palace really has only two levels with ridiculously high ceilings. It makes going up and down the stairs a real chore when your legs are too short to accomplish much.

  Lexi tilts his head at me. “What’s that?”

  I crouch down, probably wrinkling my dress, and Lexi mimics my body language while the guys stand behind us. “We tied ropes here and climbed down the walls. Thought it would be faster than all these steps. But it took us twice as long to pull ourselves up. We got in so much trouble when the General saw us.”

  Lexi’s smile is genuine. Why would anyone ever call him a tricky fae? “That’s right. You were supposed to be in elocution lessons while I was supposed to be studying. Father sent me to bed without dessert that night.”

  My eyes fix on the ivorum banister, seeing it not as it is now, but as it was so many years ago. “The General took a switch to me. Then he cut the head off one of my dolls and set the body on fire. Told me if I ever skipped my lessons again, he’d do that to the rest of them.”

  Lexi’s mouth pulls in a grimace. “Please tell me you’re joking. That’s sick.”

  I lean into Lexi’s body, breathing while my ribs will still allow movement. I know well the feeling of suffocation when all the life and love are sucked out of a room by the subtle needling of fae politics. “No one beats me now,” I say like a promise to myself. “No one burns my treasures. You’re my treasures, you know,” I tell the guys.

  Lexi’s arm bands around me as he kisses me behind my ear. “And you’re mine. My very own.” His lips tickle my skin with a whisper. “One day, this palace will be ours. If you see something that offends you or brings back painful recollections, I’ll have it removed. Only the bad memories will be the things that burn before your eyes, not your treasures. I will make this place good for you, Lily-girl. I love you.”

  The angle is awkward when I turn my chin to kiss him, but it’s worth it. His lips are soft, given to smiling often, and promising me beautiful things. I can’t not kiss him. My fingers brush against the softness of his shaved cheek, coaxing a luscious noise of contentment that vibrates from deep in his chest.

  “I love you, too,” I remind him when I rest my forehead to his.

  “I’ll take care of this. Trust me to make this place good for you.”

  I don’t see how that’s possible, but I nod anyway, because I trust that Lexi will do all he can to make this work. He helps me up, brushes a crease out of my thin-strapped dress, and kisses my bare shoulder before escorting me the rest of the way.

  Salem’s back to giving me enough space to fit an elephant between us, which I know means my hug absolutely ruined everything.

  I’m not allowed in the receiving room. That’s for important grown-up talk when foreign officials visit. My spine angles away, but the rest of me follows where Lexi leads.

  King Fairbucks is standing by the window, peering out the side of the closed curtains. Though it’s been sixteen years, not much has changed about him, except that he’s collected a few extra crinkles around the corners of his eyes, and his belly’s gone a bit soft. He’s got perfectly-trimmed white-blond hair, just like Lexi’s, but his is veering more towards white than blond. The king is wearing his white suit jacket over a spotless shirt and matching pants. He’s so bright, he almost looks like he’s glowing.

  Queen Kloe Fairbucks sits in her ivorum chair, one leg crossed over the other, martini in hand. Her silk dress is tight and long, her blonde curls pinned around her ears to showcase her swan-like neck. She smiles in our direction, and a million memories flood my mind of her looking exactly like this—sexy white dress, martini in hand, and a welcoming smile that stays brightly lit even when everyone around her is saying nasty things.

  They don’t know me. I don’t know them. I’m some random fae chick Lexi happened to meet when…

  We don’t have a story. We don’t have any believable lie we’ve agreed upon to conjure up for the parents. Panic wells up in me through my forced smile, making my nails dig deeper into Lexi’s forearm as I curtsy, dipping my head in respect of the throne before uttering anything that might come out in a pathetic bleat.

  King Fairbucks beams at us. “Ah! Finally, we meet the girl we’ve heard so much about. So much and so little, really. Alexavier’s told us all about his love for you, how amazing you are, how beautiful, but hardly anything about who you are. Come sit. You must tell us everything.”

  King Fairbucks motions to the chaise lounge while Queen Kloe smiles with her mouth but not her eyes. “Yes, you’ll have to take some of the mystery out of the equation for us. Just who are you? Alexavier wouldn’t even give us your name.”

  I open my mouth as I sit next to Lexi on the expertly upholstered ivorum chaise lounge, but the fae prince answers for me while Des and Salem flank our seat like guards. “Actually mother, you already know her.”

  My spine stiffens and my head jerks toward Lexi.

  Without a pause, without a stutter, and without my consent, Lexi says, “This is Lilya Klein, General Klein’s deceased daughter.”

  7

  Meeting the Parents

  Alexavier

  Lily never would’ve gone along with my parents knowing who she is, but Father’s too cunning not to sniff out a secret and dig until he hits the bottom. I want to be the one controlling her story, not him. Watching her cling to Salem sealed it for me. I can’t stomach her being afraid in her homeland, in my house. She’s used to having no power, to being told where to go and how to be. She doesn’t know how much sway she holds now with my title in her grasp.

  She’s white as a sheet, horror twisting her previously plastered-on smile no one was buying as sincere. I don’t know what the big deal is; it’s not like she did anything wrong to earn the General’s monstrous behavior. This must come out, and this way, we control the narrative.

  “Close the doors,” Father orders, snapping his fingers at Salem. It’s a game they play, where he orders Salem around like a dog, and Salem doesn’t obey.
I don’t know what they both get out of it, but it’s been going on for as long as I can remember.

  “No,” I rule. “Everyone will hear of it soon enough. No sense in keeping it a secret now. General Klein took his daughter and dropped her in shifter territory to get rid of her, hoping the wild animals would kill her off. She escaped, barely eight years old, and wandered into Neutral Territory, where she’s been living ever since.”

  Mother’s glass clatters sloppily on the stand beside her, her horrified expression sincere. I’ve been reading lies on that woman my whole life, so I know she had nothing to do with Lily’s almost-death. “That’s not true! General Klein would never do something so cruel!”

  Father pinches the bridge of his nose. “Stop squawking, Kloe. I can barely think.”

  My mother snaps her mouth shut, and I hate the sight of the immediate obedience.

  Father takes Lily’s hand, not quite jerking her up, but his hold is forceful enough that she complies, stumbling where he leads. “Stand back, Destino. I need better light.” Though we’re the only territory with electricity, due to the magic fae naturally give off, the bulbs are often a point of pride and not nearly as efficient as natural light. Father flings open the curtain furthest away, but Salem still moves to block Des from the light that’ll never stretch far enough to touch him. In the sunbeams that filter in through the window, Lily seems to shine like she’s made of pure light.

  Father’s neck muscles are tensed, the vein in his forehead throbbing as it always does when something happens outside of his control. “Is this true?” he asks her.

  I throw my hands up. “Of course it’s true! You can see it’s her. Picture our Lily-girl running around in pigtails and lacy dresses, then add sixteen years. It’s her!”

  “Silence!” Father shouts, his authoritarian voice filling the room so much that Lily jumps.

  She’s trembling, and when she steps out of the near-blinding light, my chest tightens when I catch the sight of tears streaming down her cheeks. In all of the many changes, I don’t think she’s cried. She’s moved, left her maternal guardian, been hated by an entire people, and been attacked multiple times, but I haven’t seen her cry about any of it yet.

  “Is it true, girl?” When Father’s hands grip her biceps so hard a squeak belts out of her, I shout for him to let her go.

  Salem pushes Des down behind the white lounger and beelines for the two. “No one puts their hands on her, not even kings who should know better.” He rips Lily from my father, shielding her with his massive form.

  Father stiffens. “I needed to see her in the light and she was trying to scurry away. Lies are easier away from the sun, and this is no time for trickery.”

  “I gave ye a warning because you’re Alex’s da. Next time ye grab her, my knife comes out.”

  Salem’s never threatened my family before. Then again, he’s never been in love before Lily came along.

  Father takes note of the change and nods once. “If she’s telling the truth, I won’t harm her. If she’s lying, twisting my son’s mind with poison against my most trusted official, she will pay most dearly, and not even your blade can stop that.”

  I get the feeling that even if somehow Lily wasn’t telling the truth, Salem would still fight to the death in her honor.

  “Girl, come into the light. Shadows are unbefitting a moment like this.” Father snaps his fingers at her, and I cringe. My wife shouldn’t be beckoned like an animal.

  Still, she obeys, if only to keep Salem from spilling my father’s blood on the white carpeting. The two stand with the window framing them, lighting them in a glow that looks otherworldly. This room is a place that tolerates a myriad of lies, but now demands nothing but the absolute truth.

  “Tell me who you are and why I should believe you.”

  Her tears glisten as if each one has glimmers of pure silver in it, lighting from the sun’s rays off her creamy skin. She’s shaking like a leaf, and it’s then I truly see how much fear she’s been holding inside.

  Maybe I shouldn’t have told my parents without warning her I’d be doing so. She wanted to keep her past secret from them, play a game that could never hold water in the long run.

  Does she not know that I love her? Does she not understand that we’ll be married forever? She cannot be Hannah in one territory and Lilya in another.

  The decision that seemed so very clear minutes ago now is muddled with murky clouds, making me wonder if telling them who she is was the right move. Judging by the tremble in her voice when she finally opens her mouth, perhaps I went wrong somewhere.

  “I’m Lilya Klein. Lexi’s telling the truth. I’m the General’s daughter.”

  Father steps backward, his mouth open but no sound spilling out.

  Mother stands on wobbling legs, tripping on her way to the window. She peers into Lily’s eyes, seeking out lies I can tell she’s praying are there. “A fae in Neutral Territory? It’s not possible! Only filth lives there.”

  Lily’s mostly bare back touches the window, literally cornered as she runs out of space to put between herself and my parents.

  This is temporary. She charmed King Ronin so easily that those two count each other as being one of their few treasured people.

  But these are actually her people. This is a rough patch, a necessary bump down the road to an infinitely smoother life. Someday soon, Father will call her his daughter, and Mother will greet her with a kiss. It’s not as if any of this is Lily’s fault.

  I don’t understand what I’m looking at when Mother grabs Lily by the head, forcing a shriek out of my fiancée when Mother bends Lily in half so she can leaf through the lavender tresses.

  “I warned ye!” Salem rips Mother away from Lily and flings the Queen of Faveda toward the furthest wall. Des cusses loudly from his crouched position, having inched along the side of the lounger so he can watch the mayhem without going near the sun.

  It’s a tribute to how scandalized my parents are at Lily’s unveiling that neither of them addresses Salem manhandling the matriarch. Honestly, I’m not sure Father cares, except for appearance’s sake.

  Mother points her finger in accusation at Lily. “Lilya Klein had a pink heart-shaped birthmark on the back of her head! Find it for me, and I’ll believe it’s really her. I need proof, more than just words. Fae lies are hardest to spot.”

  Salem gives Lily his arm to hold onto, since it looks like she might need something solid to steady herself. The sight of her leaning on him in my parents’ home snaps me to action. I cross the room and grab her up in a bear hug meant to shield just as much as it’s meant to comfort. But instead of melting into my body, as she usual does, my Lily-girl goes rigid, remaining in my arms but not savoring my touch. Then she makes a clear statement by gently but firmly pushing me away.

  Des stands, motioning for her to go to him and escape my family.

  Me. To escape me.

  Salem shuts the curtain, dimming the room that’s now lit only by two bulbed ivorum lamps. Lily runs to Des. Actually runs. She throws her arms around his neck and holds him so tight, his eyes bulge. His hands graze up and down her naked spine, calming her as I meant to have done. Another man is comforting my wife in my home. I’m not indignant or slighted; I’m ashamed.

  Des presses his cheek to hers. “Can Salem look through your hair and find the birthmark? Would that be alright? No one’s going to put their hands on you without your say-so.”

  She nods, her face buried in his shoulder.

  Des motions Salem forward. His thick fingers fumble through her hair before he pulls aside enough so show the rest of the room what’s been clear to me for quite some time: Lilya Klein is still very much alive.

  “Get away from the vampire, dear,” Father scolds her in a taut, strangled voice, clicking his fingers through his shock.

  Lily doesn’t obey, and that small victory gives me hope that she can stand in this world where people are going to constantly be telling her where to go and who she should be.
Instead she clings tighter to Des, her left hand finding its way to his chest, as if he’s her tether to truth.

  “You died,” Mother says, her words lingering in the center of the room. There’s a clear divide now—my biological family on one side, and my true family clear across on the other. And I’m standing on the wrong side. “We scattered your ashes in the ocean behind the palace.”

  “Enough, Kloe,” Father chastises with a bite in his voice. “No one needs to hear you mutter about this.”

  My mother goes silent, though it’s clear she has questions brimming behind her painted lips.

  Father takes over, as he often does. “You were one of the children who perished in the attack on the primary schools when the vampires wanted more blood than we agreed to.”

  Des’ eyes go cold as he glares at my parents over Lily’s shoulder. “The lie you were sold by General Klein cost my country a great many soldiers when you launched a counterattack to an assault we didn’t do! That’s the battle that started it all, and you still won’t admit that you had no right to attack us! We would never target children.”

  “That’s neither here nor there at this point.” Father runs his hand over his face.

  Des doesn’t release Lily from his protective embrace. “While we’re on the subject of Drexdenberg, it seems a few shipments of blood our people paid for have gone missing.”

  Father sighs and rolls his eyes. “Oh?”

  He knows. I showed him as much, and when he required yet more proof and more, I dug it up for him, scouring the logs and standing beside him while he read the proof. It’s then I realize that even though he knows all about it, he was counting on the vampires not wanting to interact with the fae, and skating over the issue.

  “Des is being generous,” I announce, my tongue sliding over my top row of teeth. “The fae are seventy-nine cases short of what we owe Drexdenberg. I can’t imagine how such a mistake was made. I’ll give the order to send over all we owe them, so we’re up to date on the trade deal.” When Father opens his mouth to protest, I hold up my hand, cutting him off as he’s done to Mother for as long as I can remember. “Not to worry, Father. Happy to help.”