"Big surprise," I said with a harsh laugh. I turned my voice into a mocking coo, as if I was talking to my cat after he'd done something remarkably stupid. "Poor scawy Cwown Pwince Dain, can't wisk tarnishing his weputation with compliments."

He snarled, an aggressive animal sound with a rumbling growl behind it, and started stalking towards me. Dain didn't move like a human, either, with a liquid power and an edge of tension to his body that made him look like a dangerous predator. The growl and his walk should have terrified me on a bone-deep lizard brain level, but I guessed the soulmate thing was good for one thing, because instead it was as comfortable and easy to hear and see as my mother's laughter and my cat's saunter. My only fear came only from the knowledge Susan had given me, and the memory of him wanting to leave me to die.

I didn't move as he got close to me, meeting his cold, glittering eyes with the heat of my own. He slammed his hands down on either side of my head and leaned down towards me. It would have been fucking hot if I'd liked the man, but he made my skin crawl. With great deliberation, I yawned in his face. The look of furious outrage as he silently snarled, baring sharp teeth, almost made me laugh at him, the fear and anger mingling into reckless confidence.

"Are you trying to scare me?" I asked, putting on my best Elle Woods voice. "You've really got to work on the presentation. All black is so last year's look for horror movie monsters. The whole uncanny valley thing you had going on with the glamor was way freakier."

He looked like he wanted to spit on my face. "I am excellent with glamors," he ground out. "I'm good enough to trick other fae, even when they know to look for it."

"Pride cometh before the fall," I said pleasantly. "You can't fool me."

Something flickered across his face, too quickly for me to see it. Dain thrust himself off the wall and strode a few steps away, his long tails slicing through the air and his wing-arms tucked tight along his back. He didn't look at me as he said, "Your sharp tongue is likely to get you in trouble one day, mortal girl. I could kill you for your disrespect, and no one would question me."

I snorted. "I sincerely doubt anyone would question you either way, Beast."

He tensed as if I'd struck him, and I felt suddenly guilty. He was shitty and horrible, sure, but using someone's appearance as a weapon was an awful thing to do to anyone. Dain's negative value as a person had nothing to do with the shape of his body and everything to with what he used it for.