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The monster who had once been a ly, charred lips, and reached out to touch her ar Fae just didn’t do …

She htened and uncertain she actually was She had to treat this situation as a test, a test she had to score one hundred percent on if she were going to make it out of his fortress and back home alive

She had to bluster She had to puff herself up and appear er him and make him act irrationally and with more fury than skill She had to draw out the ht clearly!

“Why? Why have you allowed yourself to dissolve into … what you are?”

“Do ye kno many centuries I have been here alone?” he asked, but she could see he wasn’t really looking for her answer She kept quiet and went through the planning steps and paces in her mind

He shook his head “’Tis why I spelled the Peckering to bring me the first person that touched her—and now I have ye both”

Royce eyed hiet a powerful Seelie Fae, though, did you?”

“Powerful in many realms, but not so here …”

“You haven’t had enough experience with the Fae to know that I can see you aren’t sure of your words There is no conviction in them”

“If ye were powerful, ye would have already left”

“Do you think so? Think again Obviously you didn’t die Hoere you put here? Had you no contingency for escape? No … you are not infallible, obviously not all-knowing, for you were trapped here So I count myself more powerful than you, for I am not trapped here”

“Are ye not? Why then are ye still here?” He shook his head “My contingency is to usurp your powers, yer ic, combine it with m’own, and escape this hell”

“And how could you even begin to do that?”

“By absorbing ye, Seelie Fae, by absorbing ye and all ye that ye are,” he answered on a sly and confident note

“Fool” Royce sneered Now, she thought, now let’s tickle that monster temper he must surely have Let’s play with his convictions “I ah Do you actually believe I can be overpowered and, what did you say, absorbed?” She snickered at him