by Lexi Blake
Beck’s face was a mask of pain. It was mirrored by his brother’s own face. “That’s what we’re afraid of, love. We can’t lose you.”
“Well, man up. This is war, and I won’t be left behind.” Meg let go, her hands shaking.
His father stepped in. “None of you can stay. The Council voted twenty minutes ago. The Vampire plane has aligned with Torin. I have guards at every access point, but by morning they will have warrants to extradite you both to the Seelie plane. We don’t have much time to get you out of here.”
Beck shook his head. “You can’t get us out. They’ll be on us the minute we leave the Dellacourt building. You can’t save us, Uncle Don. It’s fate that we came back here just as this happened.”
Cian’s mouth turned down. “Save Meg. Beck and I will find a way. Torin will wait to kill us. He’ll want to make it public.”
Dante’s mother stood and grasped his father’s hand. “Please, Don. You have to help them. We can’t turn them over. They’re all I have left of my sister.”
His father looked down at his mother, love shining in his eyes. Gods, he loved his parents. Dante turned to Kaja and sent out his own love. His parents had taught him how to love. He’d always thought their wealth and position was the greatest gift they had given him, but now he could see. His parents’ passion had informed his own. Kaja was a song in his soul.
“I would never turn them over, wife. They’re my blood, too. Dante and I have been talking to Mr. Taggart. We’ve come up with a plan.” Donald waved to the servants.
The door opened and Taggart escorted a petite female inside. Vampire Meg walked in, and all eyes shifted her way.
“I found our brat and she’s agreed to help us,” Taggart announced.
“Holy shit, that’s me.” Meg stepped up and looked at the mirrorlike version of herself.
“That’s so cool,” they both said in unison.
“There are two of them,” Cian breathed as he and Beck stepped up. “Will you look at that, brother? Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Beck slapped at his brother’s chest. “No. I know what you’re thinking. And you’re crazy if you think she’s going to do that. I’m thinking that’s twice the trouble.”
Real Meg turned, her face in a perfectly outraged mask. “Cian Finn. That is not happening.”
Vampire Meg smiled at the brothers. “I don’t know. That might be fun.”
Meg’s eyes narrowed.
Vampire Meg paled. “Or not.”
“And they call you the smart one,” Beck huffed under his breath.
Taggart nodded Dante’s way. “I’ve got the other two in a hovercar on their way here and Roan is in place. We’re ready when you are.”
Kaja had come to Dante’s side, and she slipped her hand into his. Just touching her brought him a feeling of peace. He kissed her hair and prayed he never ran into her twin. One Kaja was all he could handle. “Vampire Meg has agreed to pose as the queen. We found a set of vampire twins with the proper coloring. In thirty minutes, they are going to flee the building. Shortly after that, Beck, Cian, and Meg will leave quietly from the ground. We have a hovercar and a group of soldiers waiting to take us to the west door. It will be guarded, but William Roan assures me he’ll kill anyone who tries to stop us.”
Beck turned to him. “It sounds dangerous.”
“Everything is dangerous from here on out, cos. You know the way this will go.” Dante squeezed Kaja’s hand.
Cian put a hand on his wife’s shoulder. “Yes. There is no other path, brother. I know you wanted to live peacefully, but Torin won’t allow it. And you know what he’s doing. If he has his way, he’ll purge the Seelie plane of undesirables, and then he will go after the other planes. We can’t duck this fight anymore. It’s time to stand. It’s time to claim what is ours.”
Beck seemed to grow taller. He took his place at Meg’s side, the three connected in ways Dante knew most people couldn’t dream of. “Then we’ll go. We’ll meet with Fergus and see what happens.”
His mother hugged all three of them. “We’ll work from here. We’ll do everything we can.”
Cian shook his head. “You have to be careful, Aunt Alana. You can’t let them know you’re helping. If it comes to it, you have to renounce us.”
His father took his mother’s hand and pulled her into a comforting embrace. Susan and Colin stood.
“It won’t come to that,” Susan said. “We have power, Ci. Once the Council realizes what our sunscreen can do, they will back off. We won’t be able to openly defy them, but we’ll have their balls in our hands, if you know what I mean.”
That was his sister, a ballbuster to the end.
He was going to miss her.
“We need to move out soon. I want to be on our way the minute the decoys leave.” Dante had a bag packed for both him and Kaja, but they wouldn’t be taking much. He would have to learn to travel light.
The room erupted into chaos as his parents and sister began to argue. Dante listened to all the reasons he shouldn’t go with a patient ear. This was why he hadn’t mentioned this part of the plan until now. Meg started in on how it was too dangerous, and Cian told him to stay behind as well.
“Stop!” Beck’s command had everyone taking a step back. The room quieted. The warrior king of the Seelie Fae looked at Dante. “You know what you’re giving up, cos?”
Everything. And nothing. He was giving up everything he knew—money, power, luxury. It was nothing compared to what he gained. A cause worth fighting for. A real place for Kaja.
“I know.”
Kaja’s hand found his chest, and those brilliant blue eyes stared up at him. “Dante, you cannot leave your home. I know why you’re doing this. Please. I will fit in. I will adjust.”
He didn’t want her to adjust. He wanted his wolf. And she was wholly mistaken. “This is what I need. I didn’t understand it before. I’m a warrior. I’m a beast, and this is my cause. Come with me. Fight with me. And this isn’t my home, Kaja. You are my home.”
She wrapped her arms around him, her answer rolling across his brain.
Yes.
Beck nodded. “You’re more than welcome, cos. You are needed.”
Dante was surrounded by his family. They formed a tight circle.
“I love you, brother,” Susan said. “You come home to us someday.”
“My baby.” His mother wept unashamedly. “I’m so proud of you.”
They walked away one by one, each doing his or her part to get ready. Dante’s father looked at him.
“Do you understand what you’re doing?”
“I’m fighting for what’s right.” He waited for his father’s lecture on how naïve he was being.
His father’s strong jaw trembled. “I raised you well, son. I always knew it. You make me proud. Anything you need, you call your family. And Kaja, thank you. You’re my daughter. Dante’s told me a bit about your plane. Forget them. This is your pack. You are always welcome here, daughter.”
Kaja held on to Dante, her chest shaking with emotion. He felt her great love for his family, but he was doing the right thing. She would never belong here, and he would never be happy without her.
Four hours later, Roan proved true to his word. The guards lay unconscious, and the door to the Refugee plane opened before them.
“Your Highnesses.” Roan gestured to the doorway. “It will be a day’s journey to the Unseelie plane. The decoys have not been caught yet. We will be safe. It is my great honor to serve you.”
Beck thanked him, his face grim. He showed his wife and brother through the door.
They were on the run. They would win their throne or be buried beneath it.
Kaja smiled at Dante as she walked through the door.
He followed. He left his plane behind because his whole world was wrapped in one small woman. She held his heart, his future.
He would have it no other way.
The door closed behind Dante, and he faced his destiny.
Epilogue
The Seelie plane
The sun warmed her face, and Bronwyn Finn looked out over the meadow. The fields were filled with wheat. Tall stalks swayed in the wind, and dust blew up from the tiny dirt road that led to her tower. Her hands already ached from the thought of harvesting all that wheat. She put that reality aside. It was weeks before she would spend every day in the field. She could remember a time when she’d been a pampered princess.
Now all she had was this tower. From her vantage, it felt like she could see the whole world. Well, hers at least.
“Bron, it’s time for supper.” Gillian’s voice drifted up from the bottom of the tower.
Bronwyn had to smile. Gillian still thought of her as the child she’d saved that terrible day in the White Palace. That day when she’d lost her mother and father, Bronwyn had found Gillian McIver. The Unseelie princess had become her healer, her savior, her surrogate mother. When she was younger, she would never have believed it. Unseelie and Seelie living together, dependant on each other. Loving each other as family. But Gillian had been her world for a very long time.
And Gillian was a slight pain in her ass. Bronwyn was twenty-seven years old and still being called to supper.
“I’m coming,” Bronwyn called back, but she let her head drift to her hands as she stared out over the peaceful field where she’d spent the last thirteen years of her life.
She’d had the dream again last night. It was the same thing every night. When she closed her eyes, she tried to envision her brothers, alive and whole, but every night when conscious thought fled, they came to her.
The Dark Ones.
She’d dreamed of them for as long as she could remember. It was as though they had grown up with her. She’d lived a whole second life when she closed her eyes and went to sleep. Sometimes they were so real that she wondered which reality was the dream. She remembered them as children playing through her mind as she slept. As she grew, they did as well. They talked about everything in her dreams. She knew them as well as she’d known herself. And then they were gone for a long time.
The dreams stopped when you died.
So much had stopped when she’d taken that final breath and died in her brother’s arms. She shook off the terrible memory. She’d died, but Gillian’s magic had brought her back. Unseelie magic that would undoubtedly cost Gillian her life if Torin the Pretender ever caught them.
She got up from her perch. The sun was going down. It would be time to go to bed in a couple of hours. It would be time to dream again.
The dreams had only come back in the last few years, and they had taken on a distinctly adult tone.
Four hands caressing her. Two mouths vying for her attention. She didn’t know their names, but she knew how they felt when they moved against her. She knew what it felt like to be between two hard bodies. Beloved. Wanted. Whole.
Bronwyn stood and smoothed out her dress. Sheer fancy. She was alone, and she would remain that way. She was untouched. A virgin at twenty-seven. It was pathetic, but true. Her only real experience was an attempted rape that her brother Cian had halted. She knew only violence. Nothing could change that.
The Dark Ones were merely a figment of her imagination. She’d latched on to her childhood fantasies in order to have a relationship—even one that only happened in her dreams.
But Bronwyn had left dreams behind long ago. She’d stopped believing the day Torin had slaughtered her family.
The Dark Ones weren’t coming for her. No one was. She was alone. If Beckett and Cian were alive, she prayed they had found a safe place to live and some modicum of happiness.
Bronwyn went to the chest where she kept her meager possessions. She opened it and moved aside her second-best dress. She let her hand move under the fabric to wrap around the cold metal hilt of a knife.
It was the knife used to kill her.
It was the knife she intended to kill Torin with.
Bronwyn let the knife be, content that it was there. She closed the drawer and started down the stairs, a weary feeling stealing over her.
It was hours until she could slide into sleep and see them again. They were figments, but they were hers.
Her Dark Ones. Her loves.
If you’re out there—come for me. Please come for me.
Tears blurring her eyes, Bronwyn started down the stairs.
* * * *
Bronwyn and the royals will continue the faery tale with Beauty, coming October 29, 2019. Click here to purchase.
Author’s Note
I’m often asked by generous readers how they can help get the word out about a book they enjoyed. There are so many ways to help an author you like. Leave a review. If your e-reader allows you to lend a book to a friend, please share it. Go to Goodreads and connect with others. Recommend the books you love because stories are meant to be shared. Thank you so much for reading this book and for supporting all the authors you love!
Beauty
A Faery Story, Book 3
By Lexi Blake writing as Sophie Oak
Coming October 29, 2019
Click here to purchase.
The princess in the tower
In one horrifying night, Bronwyn Finn lost her family, her kingdom, and the princes who had haunted her dreams for years. Left alone, years pass as she fights for survival and craves revenge against the uncle who took everything from her. But she’s never forgotten her Dark Ones. Now she hides along with her guardian, but the war rages ever closer.
Two dark princes
A tragedy marred Lach and Shim’s lives. The future kings of the Unseelie Fae are obsessed with finding their promised wife—Bronwyn. Lach and Shim have never stopped believing that Bronwyn is their mate. She is the bond that connects the halves of their shared soul.
A destiny that will change a kingdom
With the blessing of the renegade kings, Beck and Cian Finn, Lach and Shim begin a dangerous quest to find their bride before Torin and his hags take her life.
Across two planes, a war will rage. Lives will be lost. Love will be found. And the Seelie Fae will welcome their true kings home.
About Lexi Blake
Lexi Blake is the author of contemporary and urban fantasy romance. She started publishing in 2011 and has gone on to sell over two million copies of her books. Her books have appeared thirty-three times on the USA Today, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. She lives in North Texas with her husband, kids, and two rescue dogs.
Connect with Lexi online:
Facebook: Lexi Blake
Twitter: authorlexiblake
Website: www.LexiBlake.net
Instagram: www.instagram.com/lexi4714
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Other Books By Lexi Blake
Click to purchase
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
Masters and Mercenaries
The Dom Who Loved Me
The Men With The Golden Cuffs
A Dom is Forever
On Her Master’s Secret Service
Sanctum: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella
Love and Let Die
Unconditional: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella
Dungeon Royale
Dungeon Games: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella
A View to a Thrill
Cherished: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella
You Only Love Twice
Luscious: Masters and Mercenaries~Topped
Adored: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella
Master No
Just One Taste: Masters and Mercenaries~Topped 2
From Sanctum with Love
Devoted: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella
Dominance Never Dies
Submission is Not Enough
Master Bits and Mercenary Bites~The Secret Recipes of Topped
Perfectly Paired: Masters and Mercenaries~Topped 3
For His Eyes Only
Arranged: A Masters and Mercenaries
Novella
Love Another Day
At Your Service: Masters and Mercenaries~Topped 4
Master Bits and Mercenary Bites~Girls Night
Nobody Does It Better
Close Cover
Protected: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella
Enchanted: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella
Masters and Mercenaries: The Forgotten
Lost Hearts (Memento Mori)
Lost and Found
Lost in You
Long Lost, Coming February 4, 2020
Butterfly Bayou
Butterfly Bayou, Coming April 7, 2020
Lawless
Ruthless
Satisfaction
Revenge
Courting Justice
Order of Protection
Evidence of Desire
Masters Of Ménage (by Shayla Black and Lexi Blake)
Their Virgin Captive
Their Virgin’s Secret
Their Virgin Concubine
Their Virgin Princess
Their Virgin Hostage
Their Virgin Secretary
Their Virgin Mistress
The Perfect Gentlemen (by Shayla Black and Lexi Blake)
Scandal Never Sleeps
Seduction in Session
Big Easy Temptation
Smoke and Sin
At the Pleasure of the President
URBAN FANTASY
Thieves
Steal the Light
Steal the Day
Steal the Moon
Steal the Sun
Steal the Night
Ripper
Addict
Sleeper
Outcast
Stealing Summer, Coming soon!
LEXI BLAKE WRITING AS SOPHIE OAK
Small Town Siren
Siren in the City
Away From Me
Three to Ride