My palms began to pulse.
I glanced down to see my hands shimmering with a red glow.
My heart stuttered, and I pulled away from Lucus. “The unicorn blood is back.”
Chapter 22
“What does this mean?” Lucus looked at my palms, but then his eyes shuttered, and he inhaled deeply again, still feeding from my aura. His wings expanded, then tucked in quickly as he pressed his body into mine. His breath warmed my forehead. We were so close that his heart beating felt like my own.
A spark tingled from his body into mine. The strange sensation rushed through me like a cooling wave—all the way to my toes. The wave began again, and I looked down to see emerald light blooming from his chest and leaping into mine.
Lucus's eyes went wide. “You’re taking some of my fae magic. How is this possible?”
“Am I hurting you?” Panic filled me. What if I wasn't helping him to prepare for the duel? What if I was weakening him? My palms pulsed again, and I held them up for Lucus to examine.
“It must be the blood,” he said. “The unicorn blood has made it possible for you to take on fae magic.”
“I don’t get it.”
“I don’t either, but it’s happening in front of our eyes.”
“Am I actually taking your magic from you? Like, lessening your power? Because I want you to have all the power right now. I can get juiced up later. I'm not about to fight a big giant scary queen lady like you are.”
“I don't feel weaker,” Lucus said. “Granted, the curse is slowly dragging me down, but at the moment, I feel better than I have since we arrived, so I don't think you're depleting my power. I think I'm simply making more and giving some of it to you. The power of the unicorn’s blood is strong.”
“So the unicorns of darkness really are on my side. Wow. I mean, how did the unicorn know I was bonded to you and would have access to your magic like this?”
“Perhaps,” Lucus said, “he gave it to you so you could take fae power and overcome Arleigh. Perhaps when he urged you to place your hands in the blood, his motivation had nothing to do with you and me. He wants you to take down the fae queen who has kept him and his kin trapped here.”
“Oh, that makes more sense. Right. Does he expect me to portal him out of here?”
Ruis returned, halting our treasonous convo. “If you are finished, Lord Lucus, I must see you properly outfitted for the duel.” He waved in a female fae who was holding a stack of fabric.
I gave Lucus’s hand a squeeze. “No matter what, we’ll be out there.”
He leaned down and placed his mouth against mine. The kiss began chastely, but Lucus parted his lips and things heated up quickly. He seemed hungry for me in more ways than one. The feeling was mutual.
“Please come with me, Mage Coren,” Ruis said, his words sharp.
Lucus nipped my bottom lip, then drew away, giving me one last glance of longing. “Soon,” he whispered, his thumb brushing across my ribs, just below my breast.
I swallowed. “You bet your ass soon.”
He chuckled as I left with the ticked-off Ruis.
I walked back out to the clearing, and the unseelie flew to the top of the hill to address everyone gathered.
“Welcome to the alpha duel!” Ruis’s words echoed across the mass of winged creatures. Hekla stood in the crowd beside the Binder and Nora, and I longed to be near them. “Now that both of our alphas are prepared, we shall begin. Queen Arleigh?” The unseelie faced the dark shadows of the forest, near the path where I’d gone to see Lucus.
“I am here,” the queen said from the darkness.
“Please name your second.”
“Corliss will be my second.”
Really? She wanted her teenage daughter involved in this? Of course, Corliss might have been like one hundred years old for all I knew, but still. That seemed a distinctly non-motherly thing to do.
I spotted Corliss in the crowd at the base of the hill, not far from Hekla and company. Corliss looked whiter than an Ohio beachgoer during Spring Break. She stared at the shadows where her mother stood.
Arleigh walked into the twilight and cocked her head of spindly antlers. I could just barely see her around the side of the hill. “Afraid, daughter? Surely not. You’re the most vicious of us all.”
“Fighting never proceeds as planned,” Corliss said quietly. “You know this, and yet you name me as your second without even a pause. You would give up my life for your entertainment.” Her voice was flat, her words not a question but a statement. Corliss’s features showed the wide eyes of shock, but the set of her shoulders betrayed the fact that she had always known her mother didn’t love her properly.
Arleigh regarded her daughter, her feigned puzzlement slipping away to show a queen of ice.
Corliss flinched and bowed. “Forget my words, my queen.”
Wow. If I hadn’t already known about Arleigh’s bad side, that little exchange would’ve said it all. Arleigh merely gave Corliss a look, and the girl crumbled like last week’s scones. Poor thing. Geez, I hated the shit out of Arleigh. I had zero tolerance for abusive assholes like her.
The entire court stood motionless, their breaths clouding from their beautiful mouths. Arleigh turned her back on Corliss and began beating her wings. She waved a hand at the spiky-haired fae who seemed to be running the show.
Ruis raised his hands, and everyone looked his way. “And your second, Lord Lucus?”
Though I couldn’t see him at the moment, I had to guess Lucus was looking back at the trail leading to the forest where his brothers had disappeared. Baccio and Aurelio would be his natural choices
