These Twisted Bonds (These Hollow Vows, #2)(39)

“Ah,” Misha says, not even trying to hide the delight in his tone. “My guest has joined us.”

“You said the princess was no longer in residence,” Finn says coolly, still not standing to greet me, but not taking his eyes off me. His silver gaze has drifted from my shadows and settled on my face. I wonder what he’s thinking, wonder if he’s angry that I’ve pushed him away when he visited my dreams.

“Did I?” Misha asks with a shrug. “I stand corrected. She’s here.”

Finn’s eyes glitter, and when he turns them on Misha, I almost feel sorry for my new friend.

“We’ve been worried about you,” Pretha says to me, standing and stepping closer.

I arch a brow. “About me or about the power I still carry?”

Pretha straightens. “I care for far more than your magic, Abriella.”

“Is that so?” I cock my head to the side. “Do you plan to kill everyone you care about, or should I feel special?”

She closes her eyes and sighs. “Brie—”

“Don’t. It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me,” Pretha says. “What you think of us, of the decisions we made . . . that matters a great deal to me.”

I swallow hard, thinking of what Finn said in my dream after I’d taken the potion. He said he’d found me in the mortal realm two years ago, and instead of trying to trick me out of my power, he’d worked on finding another way. Not that it made a difference.

“Did you know this would happen?” I ask Finn. “Could Sebastian have known that giving me the Potion of Life would end this way?” I’ve already heard it from Misha, but I want to hear it from Finn.

“We didn’t know,” Finn says. “No one knew anything. It was all speculation. But it makes sense— the potion saved your life, and in doing so bound your life to your magic.” He shrugs, as if this is as inconsequential as who drank the last of the coffee and not a matter tied to the destruction within his own realm.

The empty chair beside Finn backs away from the table on its own. Misha says, “Please join us, Princess. We speak of the future of your court.”

Kane whips around to glare at Misha. “Her court?”

Misha shrugs. “Sorry. Would you rather I call it Prince Ronan’s court?”

“It’s Finn’s court,” Kane says.

Finn props his elbows on the table and steeples his fingers. “It’s no one’s court so long as the crown and the power are divided. Sit, Princess. It seems you’re to join this little planning session, so let’s get started.”

I’m tempted to remain standing just to spite him, but my stubbornness wouldn’t serve anything but my own childish satisfaction, so I take the seat.

Across the table, Tynan meets my eyes and gives me a gentle smile. “It’s good to see you’re well, Abriella.”

I swallow hard. “Thank you. You too, Tynan.” Tynan’s the quietest one of the bunch, and I always liked him. He and Pretha are both Wild Fae, but Pretha married into the Unseelie Court, whereas Tynan had no connections to the shadow court other than his friendship with Finn. Now that I’ve met Misha, I have to wonder if Tynan’s purpose was less about helping Finn and more about being an intermediary between Finn and the Wild Fae king.

Of course, Misha says in my mind. I trust Finn, but I’m not na?ve enough to think he wouldn’t wreck all my plans for the sake of his own court. We all have our priorities, Princess.

I shoot Misha a glare for poking around in my mind, and he winks at me.

Look at how jealous he is. If you’d like to make him absolutely mad with jealousy, I’d be happy to help.

Don’t hold your breath. I give him a pointed look to drive the thought home, and Misha grins.

Beside me, Finn growls and sends a glare of his own in Misha’s direction. “If you two are done, I’d like to return to the subject at hand.”

Misha shifts his smile to Finn, not intimidated in the slightest by the shadow prince. “Perhaps we should bring the princess up to speed.”

Pretha folds her arms on the table and leans forward, looking past Finn to meet my eyes. “We have teams working in the Seelie Court to dismantle the queen’s camps and get the Unseelie refugees to safety, but the last dozen we’ve found were already handled before we reached them.”

Sebastian. I hold back my smile, but the warmth in my chest is real.

“And before you think that the queen dismantled them out of the goodness of her black little heart, we should be clear that they weren’t just disbanded,” Jalek says, narrowing his eyes at me. This one has never trusted me, not completely, though he was certainly nicer after I rescued him from the golden queen’s dungeon. “These camps were brought under siege. Bodies of golden guard members litter the sites.”

“Sounds like someone was trying to help,” I say innocently. “Do you know who?”

You were behind this? Misha asks in my mind. I should’ve known, but look at you, keeping secrets.

“Sebastian, much to our surprise,” Finn says, and shakes his head. “Before he arrived at the Unseelie palace, he managed to assemble a contingent of the Golden Military that pledged their loyalty to him. He’s dismissing anyone who won’t act against the queen’s camps. Rumor has it that he’s sent so many teams to free the prisoners in the Court of the Sun, he’s down to a bare-bones army in the shadow court.”