I saw Alex’s hair bob with a nod, and the urge to comfort my friend was strong. “I’m sorry, Alex,” I said, knowing it wasn’t enough, but it was all I had.

He leaned out of Teighan’s embrace, his eyes glittering with tears he was clearly refusing to shed. “We may not talk anymore, but he’s still my brother, and since you haven’t taken him, someone has, so we need to find them.”

My mate dipped his head. “Of course.”

Alex’s mom was powerful, dangerous, and no doubt had the means to enact exactly what was in that letter. It was no idle threat.

“This is part of the king’s plan?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“It all makes sense now,” Cair mused. I wasn’t convinced, but he had more experience with his father’s particular brand of crazy, so maybe it had all clicked into place for him. “He thinks burning the bridge between our kinds will ultimately get him what he wants, and the quickest way is by provoking the humans into driving us out of Edenglas.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if my mom has something to do with this,” Alex spat bitterly. “She hates the Fae being in the human world just as much as your father does. All this just seems too fucking convenient to not have her fingerprints all over it.”

“If they are working together, that makes this whole thing even more targeted,” Cair said. “And dangerous.”

The sound in the room was suddenly muffled in my ears, the air heavy and suffocating. A cold finger of regret traced my spine, an anxious storm welling in my belly as my unfocused gaze fell to the floor. This was my fault. Everyone here was distressed because I’d unwittingly taunted the king. “This… is all because of me.”

A large, gentle hand cupped my cheek, tilting my head up. “Do not blame yourself, sweetling,” Cair murmured. “This is all him.”

“Yeah, it’s definitely not you, Lu,” Alex added. “Our father-in-law is a dickbag.”

I laughed faintly.

“Our mating may have pushed him over the edge,” my mate continued. “But there is no fault on either of us for that. He has tolerated our people existing in the human world for centuries, gritted his teeth and borne his disdain because revoking the portal—as your father said—would have caused uproar. For all his harshness and cruelty, he had too much pride and would not have risked being torn from his throne for something so trivial, but now… the stakes have risen.