House of Dragons (Royal Houses 1)

“Hello, Basem. We’ve been tiptoeing around each other the last couple of weeks. It’s time we’re finally introduced properly.”

Basem laughed, a wet coughing sound that grated on her nerves. “You think you deserve to be properly introduced to me, leatha?”

She showed no outward sign of revulsion. “Ah, just as clever as always with your comebacks. Still upset that I beat you?” she asked sweetly.

The two men behind her stilled. She could sense confusion ripple through the crowd of Basem’s men.

“That is hardly what happened,” he said through gritted teeth. “And now, you’ll pay… with your life.”

“We’ll see,” Kerrigan said evenly, forcing a smile. “You seem very bad at killing me.”

“Isa was a mistake. I admit that. She’s accomplished, but it was too impersonal.”

“Ah, want to do it yourself this time?”

“With pleasure.” He grinned, revealing a row of uneven teeth.

She had dubbed him Bruiser when fighting him in the ring all those weeks ago, and it still held truth. He might be in a gentleman’s coat with a distinguished top hat, but he would never be one of the Fae elite that he craved. Not when he still had the stench of the Dregs all over him.

“How did you find out about the party?”

Basem’s cheeks heated at the question. “None of your business.”

Kerrigan realized what must have happened, what she hadn’t even considered in all of their scheming. “They turned you away at the door.”

Basem bared his teeth. “Enough talking. Turn yourself over, and I’ll release your friends.”

She had underestimated him. And just how snobbish her father was. Of course he had turned Basem away. He wouldn’t consort with the likes of him. Now, her friends’ lives were in jeopardy.

“How do I know that you’re going to hold to your word?” Kerrigan asked. “That you’ll release them?”

“I have no issue with them,” Basem said dismissively. “They’re full Fae. They’re citizens of a tribe. One is even part of a royal family.”

Darby huffed, “As if I’m going to speak so highly of you after my kidnapping.”

“This isn’t about you,” Basem said with a blaze of fury. “This is about the leatha bitch. I can’t suffer you to live. You half-Fae and humans infesting the streets, breeding like rabbits. It’s disgusting. You’re taking up all the resources. If it weren’t for you lot, Kinkadia would be pure.”

“And you’d still be on the bottom,” Kerrigan spat at him.

She had heard this same rhetoric before time and time again. As if it were the humans’ and half-Faes’ fault that some Fae were poor and going without. There were so many more humans in poverty that the comparison was laughable at best. Unintelligent and damaging were more like it.

“You’re all criminal lowlives who don’t deserve the space in our city.”

“Hilarious, coming from you,” Hadrian muttered.

Kerrigan grinned at Basem. “Pot, meet kettle.”

“You’re surrounded,” Basem snarled over their jokes. “We have your friends. Turn yourself over to me, and I will release them. This is between me and you, leatha.”

“Fine,” Kerrigan said with a sigh. “Fine. I know when I’m beat.”

Hadrian and Darby looked at her with fear in their eyes.

“Kerrigan, no,” Darby cried.

Hadrian shook his head. “You can’t do this.”

“It’s done,” she said with all the confidence she could muster. “He’s right anyway. You two are better than me. This is… how it has to be.”

They tried to talk over her, but she began to walk toward Basem. Her heart thudded in her chest, and she tried to still her breathing. She needed to keep herself under control if she was going to survive what came next. Darby and Hadrian had to be safely removed from the picture. That was what was most important.

“Where’s your little House of Shadows boyfriend?” Basem taunted. “Decided he couldn’t stand a leatha anymore?”

Kerrigan gritted her teeth. “He decided not to help.”

“Just what you deserve.”

She was nearly to Basem now, where he stood by the edge of the fountain. “Release them,” she commanded.

Basem sneered at her, but he nodded his head at his two men, and they released the two prisoners and shoved them forward into the circle of Basem’s ruffians. They took only two stumbling steps forward when a swirl of black smoke circled their feet. One of Basem’s men cried out as the smoke intensified, coalescing into something solid. Then, suddenly, Darby and Hadrian disappeared, and standing in their place… was Prince Fordham Ollivier.

Encircled by a ring of darkness, he looked every ounce the prince that he was. Despite the absurd powder-blue suit, he was magnificent… and terrifying. His eyes glowed silvery as the smoke dissipated, and he rose to his considerable height.

“Now, Kerrigan?” he asked with all the calculated calm that she had come to rely on.

And as Basem made a grab for her, she blasted him in the face with a torrent of air. She leaped away from Basem and into Fordham’s ring of darkness. They stood back to back, their hands raised, their magic tight to them, prepared for the attack that was surely coming.