“You have come along, the first human to march into the Fae realm, bold as brass to take your place there, next to the heir of the throne, and he was powerless to stop you. It unnerved him to the point of irrationality. He has been shown it is possible for our realm to one day host those of human blood, to dilute the pure bloodline, and he can’t have that. He values purity above all else, and he will do anything to ensure it.”

“Even go to war?” I asked.

“Even so, but not outright. This way—” He held up the letter. “He believes he can pretend it is not his fault. If the humans use this excuse to drive us from their lands, my people will need someone to blame for uprooting their lives, and that would land on me. In turn, it may garner the king more support.”

“Or…” Teighan spoke from his position plastered to my friend’s back. “We will all be so distracted fighting a pointless war with the humans that our numbers will be too depleted to overthrow him.”

“Exactly.” Cair lowered his head but didn’t step out of my space, which I appreciated. I needed his warmth. “He must have been planning this since your arrival in the Fae realm,” he carried on, voicing his thoughts out loud. “He has prepared himself for every outcome, it seems. Whether I started the fight because of grief, or the humans did because of a sham kidnapping plot, it doesn’t matter to him as he wouldn’t be the villain.”

“And what? Killing me was just for shits and giggles?”

“He wanted to weaken me, to plant the seed of doubt in the minds of the people.” He reached out again to brush his knuckles down the side of my face, his expression solemn. “I was ready to tear the world apart for you. That would have been their vision of me, and how easy would it be to add abduction charges to a broken male already wreaking havoc?”

I groaned in frustration, my instincts clamoring at the thought of my mate being accused of anything so vile. “That fucker always has to be one step ahead, doesn’t he?”

“Then we just have to be two steps ahead,” Teighan piped up, his arms crossing over his chest in a protective stance. “We already have it in our favor that Luca lived. Our father may still be going ahead with the rest of this lunacy, but even with the threat to their homes, the people will know you well enough to realize you’d never risk losing our place in Edenglas. You’ve spent the last hundred years advocating for them. They won’t forget that so easily.”