Dain's lip lifted and he turned away again, his twin tails lashing. "Soulmates have a year and a day to discover how they fit together, before our lore says that they will drift apart. You are my personal guest, mortal girl, until we find our balance or our time runs out." His words were clipped and angry-sounding, spat out with his spined back to me. The Beast of Phazikai laughed, dark and dangerous. "Of course, no soulmates in any of the records we have lasted that long before falling into place. Enjoy your stay."

He didn't give me a chance to respond. He left without a backwards glance, his wing-arms flexing outwards and curling into dangerous claws, and those plumed tails flowing serpentine behind him.

I stared after him. A year and a day—fairytale rules, indeed. I should have asked him if a year and a day here was the same as in my world, but I hadn't exactly gotten a chance to do so. As long as it wouldn't kill me to set foot back on Earth after I'd been here for a year and a day, I would be able to go home. Dain had given me that without me asking for it. He'd asked what I'd wanted, told me it didn't matter, and then given me a way out. Fae bargain style, it came with an impossible barrier, but it was more than nothing.

I didn't know what to think about that—about him. A little bit of self-hatred and the tiniest veneer of compromise didn't turn a monster into a good man, but they were like loose threads on an otherwise smooth surface. Maybe it was the soulmate bond talking, but I wanted to grab those threads and tug, to see what unraveled.

Well, I'd always been too curious for my own good, and as the crown prince's personal guest for the next year, I suspected I'd have plenty of time to needle him. I wouldn't set aside any chance to escape, because who knew how volatile he was? He'd threatened to kill me and Susan over the span of one conversation, totally casually. I turned the conversation around in my head, poking at the things he'd said, and realized something.

He hadn't said he would return me to my world when our time ran out.

Motherfucker.

7. His Mother, the Queen

Chapter 7

His Mother, the Queen

By tradition, my first introduction to Stag Court would be to the Queen, a meeting which was to take place in the early afternoon. I had approximately zero interest in meeting the Queen after my unwilling encounter with her son, but it wasn't an optional thing. Since I had less interest in being punished by the Queen than I did in meeting her, I figured compliance would be the better call.