The King

by Jennifer Armentrout

  My eyes drifted shut as heat filled my blood. Part of me hated how my body responded to him, how my heart swelled and raced whenever he was near. All of me wanted him, though, and I loathed that most of all.

  “I too am capable of just about anything,” he said, voice thick and low. “And I will not let you get yourself killed.”

  My eyes flew open, but the King was already gone.

  * * * *

  “Bri?” Ivy waved a hand in my face.

  I blinked, focusing on her. “What?”

  Her pretty visage broke into a smile. “You haven’t been listening at all, have you?”

  Glancing around one of the meeting rooms tucked away on the first floor of Hotel Good Fae, I saw that Ren was still poking around the box of doughnuts. The impromptu late Monday morning meeting hadn’t kicked off yet.

  “Sorry.” I looked over to where she and Faye, one of the Summer Court who’d helped Ivy escape captivity a few years back, sat across from me. “What were you all saying?”

  “Nothing of importance,” Ivy replied, grinning. Her mass of red curls was down today, framing her face. There was a sort of elfin quality about her, but there was nothing delicate about her strength. “You just looked like you wanted to punch someone over there.”

  “My resting bitch face is strong today.” I picked at the hem of my pale pink skirt. I was dressed as if I worked in an office, while Ivy wore the more standard Order attire of cargo pants, a cotton T-shirt, and the kind of boots you could kick ass with. Miles, the head of the Order, had me on the bench. Well, I’d always been benched, regulated to research, which wasn’t bad. I mean, I loved learning things and tracking down info, either from scouring the internet or flipping through pages of books that smelled old. At least, I’d loved it up until recently.

  Until I had to hide the fact that I was hunting, even from Ivy and Ren. All they knew was that I had been working with the King to find the younglings. They didn’t know I was patrolling, just like they were.

  And when the shit hit the fan, no one called me…unless they needed to know a location or needed someone to pick them up.

  Now, I was feeling, well, not all that useful.

  “No one’s RBF is as good as Faye’s.” Ivy leaned back, hooking one leg over the other.

  The dark-haired fae slid Ivy a long look, and…yeah, that was a really strong RBF. “Pot, meet kettle.”

  Ivy grinned. “Tink’s leaving today, right?”

  “This evening. I’m going to miss him,” I admitted. “Don’t tell him that, though. He probably won’t go if you do.”

  “I’m glad he’s going. It’s about time he gets out there and sees something that doesn’t involve the Amazon website.”

  I laughed.

  “The community in Florida is excited to meet Tink,” Faye commented. “None of them have ever seen a brownie. It’s a big deal to them.”

  “They can keep him,” Ren chimed in from sifting through the doughnuts.

  “Whatever.” Ivy rolled her eyes. “You’d be sad if he didn’t come back.”

  Ren didn’t respond to that, and I thought about how quiet my house was going to be tomorrow. No Tink. No Dixon.

  “So, what’s going on?” Ren returned, half a powdered doughnut consumed. How his shirt didn’t end up looking as if he’d shoved his face in a pile of cocaine was beyond me. “Why the meeting?”

  “I honestly don’t know.” Faye twisted the long strands of her hair. “Kalen texted this morning saying we needed to meet.”

  No sooner had she finished that sentence than the door opened. Tanner, who was like the head honcho of the day-to-day goings on at Hotel Good Fae entered first. I saw the way he presented himself to humans for only a few seconds before the glamour faded away. The only thing that didn’t change was his hair. It was salt and pepper, proving that he was aging like a normal person would. There seemed to be more white each time I saw him. He hadn’t fed in a very long time.

  He wasn’t alone. Kalen followed him, dressed very similarly to Ivy and Ren in dark cargo pants and a plain shirt. Fair-haired, he looked to be around Faye’s age—in his mid-twenties, maybe a little older. Both he and Faye were fighters, warriors, and I was pretty confident that neither fed. Besides being highly allergic to iron, they could be taken out in just about any way a human could, even though they were faster and far stronger than we were.

  Tanner smiled as his gaze moved over us, stopping on me. His grin faded a little. I sighed. He was still irritated with me. I started to look away, but then a third individual entered the room, and the air seemed to be sucked right out.

  It was the King.

  I wasn’t surprised to see him here. He was always at these meetings, impromptu or otherwise, but no matter how many times I saw him, it was still a shock to the system.

  Especially when he wore what he did now. There was just something about a loose, white dress shirt rolled up to the elbows that got me hot and all kinds of bothered. I had no idea why.

  My gaze flicked up, and I saw that, like the last few times I had seen him, he wore no crown. I’d only seen it once, when he revealed it. How he made it appear and then disappear, I had no idea.

  I looked away, exhaling long and hard. Today, I would just pretend that he didn’t exist. I wouldn’t interact with him, and I wouldn’t rise to the bait. He could say whatever he wanted, tell me as many terrible stories as possible. It wouldn’t change anything.

  Faye rose, bowing elegantly in the King’s direction.

  “There’s no need for that,” he advised her. “I keep telling you that. All of you.”

  “Habit,” Faye murmured.

  Despite what he had just said, all but Kalen waited until the King sat in one of the upholstered, gray chairs before they took seats themselves. Kalen remained standing just to the left of the King.

  Because I apparently had no self-control, I glanced over to where the King sat. Our gazes immediately connected. Crap. I refocused on Tanner, my heart thrumming.

  “Thank you all for coming.” Tanner leaned back, clasping his hands together. “Unfortunately, Kalen has some distressing news that we felt we needed to share.”

  “Why don’t you guys ever want to meet with us when you have good news?” Ren asked, having finished his sugary treat. I had to wonder the same thing.

  Kalen gave a faint half-grin. “For a while, we had no bad news.”

  “And you never really called,” Ren replied, sitting on the arm of the couch that Ivy sat on. “I’m beginning to think you all don’t like us that much.”

  “Well…” The King drew out the word.

  Ren’s eyes narrowed, and considering that neither Ren nor Ivy had really gotten over the whole being kidnapped by him when he’d been possessed thing, I really couldn’t blame the King for not wanting to be around a pissed-off, constant reminder.

  “You know all of you are always welcome here,” Tanner cut in smoothly, although I doubted he was talking about me. “No matter what is going on.”

  “Anyway,” Kalen said. “Back to why we’re all here. It has to do with Elliot.”

  Oh, no.

  I looked over at the King, who had been the one to stab the young fae. I knew that he’d shared the news with Tanner and crew at some point. He was still looking at me, and I had to wonder if he was aware of how noticeable—and creepy—that was.

  Faye shifted across from me, tensing. Her cousin Benji was also missing, and considering what had happened to Elliot, I knew she feared the worst. “What about him? Something happened to him that made him evil, but he’s gone. Right?”

  The King nodded. “He’s been sent back to our world, but when I spoke to his family, his older brother didn’t want to believe what’d happened.”

  “Which is understandable,” Tanner said. “Everyone responds to grief differently, and denial is so much easier than anger.”

  “I’ve kept an eye on Avel, but apparently, not a close enough eye.” Kalen folded his arms over his chest. “His p
arents just told us last night that he left here on Friday and has not returned since.”

  “We’re concerned that whatever happened to Elliot has befallen his older brother,” Tanner explained.

  I pressed my lips together as the worst-case scenario formed. Damn it. Those poor parents.

  “That’s only a couple of days,” Ivy pointed out. “Are we sure that’s the logical conclusion? Is it possible that he just needed to get away?”

  “It is totally possible, but the entire Court is aware that something happened to change Elliot,” Faye said. “Of course, those of us who have missing family members are…assuming the worst. Even if Avel didn’t want to believe what the King shared with him, he would’ve come to understand it. He is a reasonable man.”

  “If he understood it, then why would he have left?” I asked. “I’m guessing if you all told the Court, it was probably advised that they not leave the hotel.”

  “We haven’t advised that. Not yet,” the King answered.

  Surprised, my brows lifted as my stare met Ivy’s. She wore the same WTF expression as I did. “Something out there is capable of turning happy-go-lucky fae into murderers, and we’re just going to let the younglings go out there?”

  Tanner stiffened.

  The King, however, smiled at me. It wasn’t exactly a warm expression, and nothing about him was like the man who sat in my bedroom a little over twenty-four hours ago, telling me about Aric and coming…so close to kissing me. “Taking away the freedom of others because one has been changed does not seem like an appropriate measure to take at this time.”

  “Except we now have parents who lost one child and are now missing the other,” I challenged.

  “And we have hundreds of fae that come and go here every day without incident,” the King continued. “We advise them to use caution. All of them are aware of the concern, and therefore, would not disappear without telling their family.” That was said to Ivy. “Avel would know that his parents would assume the worst.”

  Their assumptions were probably true.

  I got why the King didn’t want to force all the fae to stay within Hotel Good Fae, but it seemed like a pretty successful preventative measure to me.

  “I know that you two are patrolling, so we wanted to let you know to keep an eye out for Avel,” Kalen said. “I’ll text you guys the most recent photo that his parents provided to us.”

  Ren nodded. “We’ll keep an eye out for him. But, man, the other two haven’t surfaced. Sorry,” he said to Faye. She nodded, her shoulders tensing. “There’ve been Winter fae out there, and none of them are talking about the missing younglings. I fear we’ll hit the same roadblock with Avel.”

  “It doesn’t hurt to be aware, though.” Ivy tipped forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “I’ll talk to Miles, too. Let him know.”

  I snorted, earning strange looks from everyone but the King. “I’m sorry, but good luck with that. I already tried, and the Order are… Well, you can guess.”

  “That’s bullshit,” Faye snapped, rising to her feet. “Sorry for cursing,” she added when Tanner frowned at her. “Bullshit was the least offensive word I could think of. We helped them defeat the Queen. We saved Order members’ lives.”

  But the Order didn’t see it that way.

  I didn’t say that, because I doubted anyone in the room needed to hear it.

  “I will try to talk some sense into Miles. It’s just that right now, we have a lot of new recruits still learning the ropes,” Ivy advised. “Things are a bit chaotic on that front.”

  “But he could learn to multi-task,” the King countered. “If not, I believe the Order needs a new leader.”

  Ivy looked at him dead-on. “I’ll let Miles know you said that.”

  “Please do.” His tight smile returned. “Perhaps it will motivate him.”

  Ren coughed out a laugh. “Hopefully, it motivates him to do what you intend.”

  The King lifted a shoulder that said he wasn’t worried. Not even remotely.

  Kalen turned to me. “The King told us you found something in your mother’s research about Devil’s Breath. Some kind of substance mixed with nightshade that changes those who drank it, correct?”

  I nodded. “Actually, I found it in Harris’s old journals. He said my mother had discovered it, but it sounded an awful lot like what happened with Elliot. I didn’t see any rapid degeneration with his body that was mentioned in the text, but Harris wrote that it caused violent aggression.”

  “Degeneration? Like falling apart?” Ren asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Like a zombie degenerates?” he added.

  “Well,” I said, my brow pinching. “I don’t know if there’s that much degeneration.”

  “I hope not.” Ivy shuddered. “I really do not want to face down zombie fae.”

  Those were two words I’d never thought to hear combined.

  “I was hoping that you could check to see if there was anything else written about it,” Kalen asked. “How it’s made or being used. Anything.”

  “I’ve looked through all of Harris’s journals. There were a few pages torn out, which yes, is suspicious, but there’s a lot of my mom’s stuff. I haven’t gone through all of it yet, and it’s possible there could be something there. I will check.” With all eyes on me, I felt a little nervous flutter in the pit of my stomach. “But I’m glad you brought that up because I’ve been thinking about it. The best thing I think we can do is somehow get a sample of Devil’s Breath so we can test it. Even if my mother or Harris wrote more about it and I can find those notes, we still need it to see what it truly is.”

  “And how do you suggest doing that?” the King asked.

  I remained focused on Kalen. “We know that what is being done to the younglings is related to Neal, who owns Thieves. And Aric. Now, we know that bars like Thieves cater to the fae. They have a ton of nightshade on hand. It’s possible that this Devil’s Breath could be there, too. We just need to get inside.”

  “We have thought of that,” the King replied. “And we’ve been inside.”

  Surprise whirled through me as I twisted toward him. “You have?”

  He nodded. “Over a week ago. We raided the place and took possession of the nightshade. The drinks were tested, and they came back clean. As did the entire bar.”

  “Well, first off, knowing that would’ve been helpful,” I said, piqued. “And that’s why Neal has disappeared. People tend to do that after they get raided.”

  “It was necessary.”

  “Was it? Really?” I shook my head. “For a several-hundred-year-old King, I’m surprised by your lack of stealth.”

  “Brighton,” Tanner said under his breath.

  “What would you have done?” the King asked.

  “Glad you asked now,” I said. “I would’ve snuck in and obtained samples of the nightshade while searching for what probably resembles bags of coke.”

  “Sounds like that would’ve been a good plan,” Ren commented.

  “And how would you have snuck in?” The King hadn’t taken his eyes off me for one second. “I’m curious.”

  I doubted he was all that curious, but I’d tell him just to prove how dumb raiding the place was. “I would’ve—”

  “Wait. Let me guess. Dressed up in a costume? Slipped past them and gotten behind the bar?”

  Stiffening, my gaze met his. No one in this room other than he knew that I did that.

  “Do you think that no one would notice that?” he continued.

  “Not if I hid really well. I know how to blend in and not draw attention until I need a distraction.” My fingers curled in my lap. “But that isn’t a job I would do alone. I’d go with someone that could make enough of a scene so I could get behind the bar undetected.”

  “I doubt one could make that large of a scene.”

  “Okay, then the place could’ve been searched when it was closed.”

  The King smirked. “You think they don’t have s
ecurity?”

  “Actually, we do need to search the place when it’s closed,” Kalen said.

  “Security shouldn’t be an issue.” I smiled tightly at the King, aware that everyone was watching our exchange like a tennis match. “And it sounds like it wasn’t to you.”

  “No, it wasn’t, because we’re trained fighters.” The King’s gaze flickered over me, and I sucked in a sharp breath. “By the way, you look much better than the last time I saw you out.”

  I looked better than the last time he saw me? The last time he saw me, I was in my pajamas in bed. The time before that, I’d looked like a vampy hooker. He’d said “out.” My lips thinned. He wouldn’t. Oh my God, he wouldn’t.

  “What?” Ren glanced between us. “How so? She looks the same to—” His words ended in a cough, and I suspected that Ivy’s elbow had something to do with it. “I don’t know what I’m saying. Ignore me while I get another doughnut.” He rose.

  “I saw Brighton at Flux,” the King announced, and my mouth dropped open. “This past Saturday night.”

  “What?” Ivy exclaimed.

  Ren stopped halfway to the doughnuts and faced us.

  “That isn’t the first time I’ve found her there,” the King continued. “She’s been hunting.”

  I couldn’t believe it.

  The asshole had just outed me.

  Chapter 4

  I shot out of the chair like a rocket had been attached to my ass. Suddenly, his words from Sunday morning came back to me. He’d said that he’d do anything to stop me. He hadn’t been lying. “You son of a—”

  “Ms. Jussier,” warned Tanner. “He may not be your King, but you will respect him while you’re here.”

  Respect him? I’d respect him when I had a reason to, which was not right now. “And when I’m not here? Can I disrespect him then?”

  Kalen covered his mouth with his hand as he looked at the floor, seeming to find the hardwood fascinating as Tanner sputtered.

  “Hunting what?” Ivy demanded, coming to her feet.