“Perhaps,” he suggested carefully, “you underestimate my brother’s mental fortitude. He is not a simpleton, but a powerful Unseelie king.”
“He is a bastard barbarian,” she spat. “Born of that brute who raped me.”
“You forget something elemental,” Crom said, knowing he was going to enrage her. “Your blood also flows through his veins.”
“Do not talk to me of that…that monster,” she roared. “He is a Dark Fey, an abomination. I need no reminders that he came from my womb.”
“Still, he is your son—with at least half of your powers.”
She blanched. The beautiful, imposing queen of the fey actually paled, and Crom hid his grin. He had finally figured out his mother’s greatest fear—his twin.
She recovered swiftly and resumed her pacing. “The Dark Fey are stupid creatures. They care more for sex than magic and politics. Their court is a cesspool of carnality, not influence or elegance. They’re not capable of unraveling the secret of my spell.”
“Regardless, Niall has discovered that the key to releasing his court from its fate is to breed with the virtues and infuse his dying court with the much-needed—and powerful—pure mortal blood.”
“They are to be ours!” his mother cried, her hand curling into a small fist. “The first seven came to this court a hundred years ago, and now the time is ripe for the next seven to mate with our princes. It’s been arranged. I’ve chosen well, not only for strength, but for a higher purpose for our court. Each Seelie that I’ve chosen will enhance the virtue, their offspring will infuse our court with every desirable quality. Those women are to be ours, gifts to my faithful courtiers. I will not allow it, my…creations to be tainted by the touch of a Dark Fey.”
“Calm yourself, Mother,” Crom drawled. “You forget that to end the curse these virtues must come willingly. Once they are exposed to the sins of the Dark Fey, these innocents will not follow them.”
“You do not know the power of the Dark Fey,” she murmured, wringing her hands. “Their glamour, it is the most beautiful in the world. Their seduction, the sweetest, most heady arousal you have ever felt. Even as your mind hates them, your body—” she trembled, then steeled herself “—your body desires them, craves them. These women, they may not have a chance to protect themselves if they fall prey to a Dark Fey’s glamour.”
An interesting and most informative little lesson. Had his mother forgotten that he was also part Dark Fey? His father had been their king. And although he looked like his golden Seelie mother, there were undeniable characteristics within him that were all Unseelie.
“Mother, you worry over naught. I’ve taken measures to protect the virtues.”
His mother sank onto a velvet chair. She looked fatigued and old, almost as old as her two hundred and fifty years. “Tell me.”
“They are close at hand and are being guarded by some of my men who are posing as footmen.”
His mother brightened. “London?”
Crom smiled. “Indeed. I’ve warded off the Lennox town house. Naught but mortals shall enter their domain—at least until we have decided what is to be done about my brother and his band of cursed princes.”
“I need to speak to Lennox,” his mother demanded.
“Four mornings from now,” he announced. “It’s all arranged. He will meet you at the gates of Richmond Park. I assumed that would be beneficial to you, since the park incorporates your court. You will be safe on your warded ground if the Dark Fey decide to follow Lennox.”
His mother’s smile widened, making her expression beam with loveliness. “You are very much my protégé, are you not?”
Crom inclined his head. “You have been both mother and father to me. Naturally, I have followed in your footsteps.”
“And what do you want, Crom? I sense that this interest in the virtues is not merely to keep your mama happy and the curse against your bastard brother alive.”
Ah, at last they had arrived at the crux of the matter. He needed to be cautious, for his mother was as shrewd as she was beautiful. Every move, every decision was made for the greater good of the Seelie Court. The damn court was all his mother lived for, thrived for. Her vengeance against the Unseelie had never wavered, only grown since she had fled his monster of a father’s court a little more than two hundred years before.
In mortal terms, it was an unfathomable length of time for vengeance to perpetuate. In the world of the fey, it was nothing. But Crom felt as though it was aeons. He was tired of it. Sick of being treated as a youngling by his mother. It was time to take over the helm. The Seelie needed a king, and never more so than now, with the Unseelie coming out of their dark court to wreak retribution upon them.
“Crom?” his mother prompted, her voice full of suspicion.
There was no need to rile her, to make her suspect that he planned to throw her over and build a new Seelie Court. No, he needed to play his hand wisely.
“I would request, Mother, that you consider bestowing one of the virtues to me.”
“To you?” She laughed as she picked up a silver mirror and gazed into it. “Whatever would you do with a virtue?”
It annoyed him, the way she thought of him as an ineffective courtier. Well, what did she know? He had been gathering his little mutinous army beneath her nose for the past three years. With the promise of fairness, and a mating with a virtue to strengthen their Seelie powers, the six fey he had chosen to help usurp his mother’s throne were more than eager to set his plan into place.
His mother had ruled too long. Her only care was for the utter destruction of the Unseelie Court—a vision he shared. But he had many more ideas of making their court thrive, something his mother had long ago abandoned. There were alliances to be made with other fey in other countries. Fortunes to be created, both with fey and mortals alike. The world was advancing, and more and more the mortals who inhabited the earth failed to believe the stories of the Daoine Side the way their ancestors once had. No, times were changing, and if the Seelie were to survive, they must change with it. There were millions of mortals in need of fey gifts, and millions more to use as pawns.
His mother didn’t see that. She only saw the destruction of the court that had turned her into an embittered woman.
There was nothing he would have enjoyed more than informing her that her days of ruling the Seelie were numbered. But one thing he had learned being her son was that one needed to be certain that one had the upper hand—fully. Crom was not quite convinced he had that yet. So, he pretended that his motivation was far more benign.
“I would like a wife, Mother. I believe I am entitled one. And younglings. Wouldn’t you enjoy that, playing the part of doting grandmama to lovely little fey-virtue children?”
She waved her pale hand, dismissing him. “Pick one of my ladies-in-waiting, or a courtier’s daughter.”
“I want a virtue,” he said, grinding his teeth together. His mother arched her brow, replaced the mirror atop the table and glared at him.
“And what would you do with a virtue?”
His mother would not believe it if he told her. For three years he had been fantasizing about Chastity Lennox. Her innocence, her purity would be the perfect symbolism for his new court. As queen, she would emulate everything he was trying to achieve. And in bed…he felt himself grow aroused as the image of the voluptuous Chastity Lennox formed in his mind. In bed he could be as wicked as he wanted to with her. She would belong to him—only him. Oh, he kept his Dark Fey blood well hidden from his mother, but the appetite of a virile Dark Fey was there, simmering deep within him. He wanted to dominate the virtuous Chastity, and hide her away in his bedchamber, corrupting her through the night, and purifying her by day.
“Mother?”
“I suppose I can think on it.” Which meant she wouldn’t give the matter a passing thought.
“After you meet with Lennox?”
“Yes, yes,” she replied absently as she reached for the decanter and poured herself some faery mead.
Crom stood and smoothed his waistcoat with his palm, then he turned and reached for his sword, which was tucked safely away in his scabbard. “Good day, Mother.”
There was silence until he reached the door, then her voice called out to him, engaging and lyrical, sweetening the warning in her words. “Do not think to overrule me, Crom. You will not enjoy the effects of losing to me.”
Closing the door, Crom pressed his back against the carved wood. It was not going to be easy, but he would do it. He would overthrow his mother, and in the end, he and his faithful men would possess a virtue, and thereby form a new Seelie Court.
“Well?”
Crom watched as a tall, blond warrior emerged from the shadows. “As we suspected. She’ll favor her old courtiers with the virtues.”
“And the Dark Fey, how did they discover the women?”
“I don’t know, and that will pose a threat for us and our plans. We must discover how they learned of it while preventing the virtues from falling into their hands. The Unseelie need all seven women to break the curse on their court. We must prevent any of the women falling into their hands.”
“What now, Your Highness?”
“You have ingratiated yourself in Lennox’s household?”
Arawn smiled. “Yes. I told him I was sent by Queen Aine. He believed it. The poor sod is terrified of the queen’s wrath and the subsequent repercussions, should he disagree. He believes that the queen sent me to take his daughter as part of the tithe he owes.”
“Then it is all arranged?”
Arawn nodded. “I am to court Prudence, the virtue of temperance and restraint.”
Crom smiled, satisfied with the progress Arawn had made. “Good. Get me an introduction to Chastity—and be quick about it.”
“Someone has warded off the town house,” Thane spat, his blood boiling with rage.
“That would be my bastard brother, Crom. No doubt acting on orders from the queen,” Niall murmured as he leaned against the trunk of an ancient oak tree in Hyde Park.
“Then they know we’re after the virtues,” Kian replied as he gazed between the trees limbs. It was late afternoon and the sun was moving west, its rays dappling between the leaves. Numerous carriages littered the park, and Thane and his friends took care to appear as though they were naught but gentlemen, out for a ride during the fashionable hour. Amidst the green foliage they blended in. They were fey after all, nature was their home. They were as comfortable in the woods as they were beneath the stars and moon. As Dark Fey, night was more to their liking. With the sun setting, their powers—and their glamour—began to awaken. But with their fey blood stirring, so were their sins.
“Now, with the Seelie following our footsteps,” Kian continued, “it won’t be easy getting them to our court, especially since we cannot just carry them off to ours.”
“Use your glamour,” Niall grumbled, “but only to gain their notice. We must work quickly if we’re to secure them. Our counterparts will have no compunction about using their magic to seduce the women. We must do everything in our power to prevent that.”
“Against the Seelie?” Avery said with a laugh. “Those pious fey won’t even know how to go about a proper seduction. I will have my virtue bedded and enthralled by the time they seek an introduction.”
Niall flashed Avery a wide grin. “Your prowess is legendary, my friend, but remember the curse. They must come willingly to you and to our court. You cannot use magic to sway them.”
“I require only the magic in my hands,” Avery said with a leer.
“Getting them to our court is only half the battle, I think,” the king murmured. “It’s keeping them there. They will be leaving the only life they’ve ever known. Their families, friends—their mortality. It will be a most difficult challenge.”
“What of the other three virtues?” Kian asked. “Lennox daughters are four, chastity, temperance, kind ness and humility. Where are diligence, charity and faith?”
“I am making inquiries,” Niall pronounced as he tracked the path of a bluebird flying from tree to tree. “We cannot be too careful. Who knows how many other fey courts pay allegiance to my mother? There could be others after the women, as well.”
“What do you suggest?” Thane asked, feeling restless and angry. He did not like the idea of Chastity being protected by any other than himself. Most especially a Seelie Fey. If it was indeed Crom who had warded Lennox’s house as Niall suspected, then Thane was all the more enraged. He despised the king’s half brother, and the thought of him taking Chastity made his blood boil. There was no way Thane was going to allow a Seelie to claim his virtue. His…
Unable to stop himself, Thane relived those moments in the maze, and the hunger he had experienced then only felt more gnawing. Nothing assuaged it. He wanted his virtue. He had tried last night to gain entrance into her room. That was when he discovered the town house had been warded off. He had been unable to break the complicated enchantment, and the failure of that only furthered the deepening rage inside him. He wanted Chastity, and he wanted her now.
“Have you tried more traditional methods to gain entry into the home?” Niall asked. “An introduction perhaps or a call?”
Thane glared at his king. Fortunately, they were half brothers, and Niall tolerated far more insolence from him than from others at his court. “What do you think I am? Of course I’ve already seen that I’ve been introduced.” Hell, he had not been able to get the introduction out of his head. He hadn’t meant for it to happen like that, but she had looked so damn good standing there in the maze, and he wanted her, had to struggle with Lust to keep from ravishing her.
“And?” Niall prompted
Thane frowned, remembering how she had run from him. “She will not see me.”
Niall stared at him with a look of amusement. “A bit more of a challenge than you first thought?”
“Yes,” he hissed, “but that wouldn’t be the case if some Seelie infidel hadn’t seen to keeping her from me. I’m certain the servants are Seelie that have been planted in the house specifically to hamper our ability to get to the women. They’re using their glamour. It won’t be easy when our magic is evenly matched.”
“Might I suggest, then, that you find other ways?”
“I’ve tried. The windows are sealed shut by magic. I came as fog and mist, even rain, and could not make my way in.”
“Then try harder,” Niall commanded. “Our court deserves to have your tenacity in this matter.”
Thane heard himself growl. Tenacious he was, but he had lost his way, forgetting that he needed Chastity for the survival of his court, and not just to satisfy the ache in his loins.
The need to feel her once more in his arms outweighed his true purpose here in the mortal realm.
“Avery, what did you find out about Lennox?” Niall asked.
The biggest of the fey, Avery stood well over six feet, with shoulders the width of a giant oak. A true glutton, Avery was the furthest thing from a fat, lazy lord. But his need for more—of everything—fired a compulsion to experience anything that might satiate his senses. Leave it to Niall to exploit Avery’s sin. The fey would stop at nothing until he was satisfied that he had “consumed” all the on dits there were to be had about the Duke of Lennox.
“It seems the duke, while always appearing to be financially respectable, came into a rather large amount of money three years ago. His peers describe him as having the devil’s own luck for investing. A luck, I might add, that was only just average—until three years ago.”
Niall’s eyes flashed. “It appears that Lennox must have found the goose that lays the golden egg.”
Nodding, Avery continued. “Everything he touches turns to gold. He’s become more than rich. He’s powerful, and there isn’t a man about London who would not give his firstborn for the chance to partake in an investment scheme with him.”
“What are his investments?” Kian grumbled. Already Thane saw his twin’s sin color his blu
e eyes green. Envy…a horrid sin to be saddled with.
Shrugging, Avery leaned back against the trunk of a tree. “The usual. Land and properties. A speculation consortium to develop the plot of land behind Grosvenor Square, a factory up north that is building some locomotive engine propelled by steam. His interests and investments are varied. But,” Avery said with a leer, “there’s one venture he keeps silent about.”
“Oh?” Niall asked, his interest piqued.
“The flesh trade,” Avery answered. “I discovered that fact last night while feeding my sin. You know nymphs, they can never keep their mouths shut—a blessing that,” Avery said with a smile.
Thane’s eyes flared wide. “The Nymph and the Satyr?”
Avery nodded. “The bloody bastard is a silent partner. He knows about us. At the very least, he knows the fey exist.”
“It seems the duke is well accustomed to doing business with the fey,” Niall said thoughtfully as he gazed up at the sky.
“The Seelie Fey,” Kian spat. “Lennox is in league with them.”
Niall turned to Thane’s twin and smiled. “Then let us acquaint him with how the Unseelie do business. Meet me two nights from now at the Nymph and the Satyr, and we will see what inducement we can provide to entice His Grace to allow the three of you to call upon his lovely daughters.”
“I cannot wait two nights,” Thane grumbled rather impulsively. Hell, he needed to gain control of himself. What was this madness that was invading his thoughts? She was a woman. A means to end a curse.
“My brother is anxious to get his cock wet.” Kian laughed, but Thane saw the jealousy in his eyes. “And who wouldn’t be with that luscious morsel? I’ll wager there is enough of her to share, brother.”
Control. It was Envy talking, not Kian—not his twin. Rage—and jealousy—suddenly consumed Thane. Was this what Kian had to deal with? Was this truly what his twin’s sin felt like, this all-consuming malevolence? This compulsion to take, to hoarde, regardless of what pain it might cause others?
The thought of sharing Chastity with anyone was enough to make him as violent as his king—who was ruled by the sin of wrath.
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