Lilly huffed and sat back down. She mentally grumbled a string of random curse words as she stared at the book for a long moment before finally picking it up. She flipped it open and ran her eyes across the letters. “Bloody high fae, asshat.” She growled as she tossed the book back onto the table. It was written in a language she couldn’t read. How the hell am I supposed to make any sense of this? “One of these days, Perizada,” she muttered and leaned back on the couch. The queen sighed and ran both hands down her face.
What was she supposed to do now? She wasn’t about to call Peri and ask the fae to come read the thing to her like a toddler asking her mom for a bedtime story. She could ask someone in the clan, but that made Lilly feel separated from them, as if she shouldn’t be their queen if she couldn’t read their ancient language. She ground her teeth. Sure, she wasn’t a warlock, and she didn’t know their history. But she’d been mated to their king, and he’d appointed her their leader.
“How can I help, my love?”
Lilly jumped as Cypher’s voice rumbled from behind her. She stood and turned to face him … or rather … his soul. “You’ve got to make some noise when you pop in,” she said, pressing her hand to her racing heart. Then she relaxed and let herself drink him in. Lilly always did when he first appeared because she never knew if it was going to be the last time she was going to see him. The part of her that had been emotionally torn about seeing him had faded. She’d decided she’d rather have her nights with him for as long as possible than not have him at all. That probably wasn’t a healthy mindset, but then signing up to work with a known murderer wasn’t her brightest decision either, so why get all crazy and start making healthy choices now?
She glanced at her phone and noticed it was several hours earlier than when he usually arrived. “What are you doing here?”
“You need me,” he said simply.
She wanted to say, “Duh, I need you all the time,” but then his eyes moved behind her to the book. Lilly grinned. “Can you give me the condensed version? I mean, I realize at some point I should learn how to speak and read the warlock language, but I’m on some pretty severe time constraints at the moment.”
He walked over and picked up the book. His brow furrowed as he flipped it open. “Who brought you this?”
“Perizada.”
Cypher slowly turned to look at her, and she nearly took a step back. The anger in his face was frightening. “Why?” he rumbled.
“One of the clans is going to challenge my place as queen,” Lilly answered slowly. She could practically feel the rage rolling off him.
He stared at her for several heartbeats before carefully setting the book down. His movements were tightly controlled, as if he feared he might instead throw the tome across the room.
“Cypher, what’s wrong?” Lilly reached out and placed her hand on his arm. She nearly snatched it back when she felt the heat on his skin. Until this point, she’d felt no heat from his body. But now, his skin felt as if he was running a very high temperature. “Okay, that’s new. What is wrong?”
“What’s wrong is that I can’t protect you from this,” he said as he turned to her. “Who is it?”
“Lysander,” she answered, observing his reaction to the name. He didn’t disappoint as he cursed in his language and then in English as well. “I take it you know him.”
“He’s a sorry bastard.”
“Yes,” Lilly agreed. “He most definitely showed that at the banquet.”
“I didn’t expect any of them to actually go this far,” Cypher said. “I figured some would have concerns. There’s never been a ruler that wasn’t a warlock, but I believed they would respect my decision.”
His skin was cooling, and Lilly took that as a sign he was calming down. He reached for her and wrapped his powerful arms around her. “I am sorry, my sweet Lilly, that you must face this.”
“I raised a teen girl,” she said, trying to sound not terrified. “I think I can handle an asshat like Lysander.”
“I’ve no doubt you can handle him,” Cypher said. “It’s just something you shouldn’t have to deal with. He is aware of what is at stake and still he’s willing to cause division in the clans when they need to unite. I would skewer him myself if I could.”
Lilly patted his chest and then pulled him down to the couch. “Why don’t you tell me what I need to know, considering I can’t read the damn book? That way he can’t pull the wool over my eyes.”
They sat, and Lilly turned so that one leg was bent and propped up on the cushion so she could face him. He took one of her hands and entwined their fingers, stroking her palm with his thumb. “He’s going to challenge your rule with an ancient right. Basically, the law says that if someone of a new bloodline ascends to the warlock throne, any clan leader has the right to test the new king or queen’s power. If they prove unable to subdue the challenger, then the new ruler must step aside.”
“So it’s not, like, to the death?” Lilly asked.
“It can be, but it doesn’t have to be. The fight is to the death if the loser does not yield,” Cypher explained. “If you’re winning, you may have him at the end of your sword or held powerless by your magic. If he then refuses to submit, you can kill him … and you
