She giggled and ran her fingers down my chest. “Yes, that’s the idea. Now, you listen to me, Pierce Fenn. When I turn around, I’m going to give him my attention. You’re going to watch carefully, and the second his back turns, you’re going to run as fast as your little tickling legs will take you. Got it?”

I nodded. “You’re a wicked little thing,” I said with my best flirtatious voice.

“Be a good boy. Go look for that flower over there.” Sam spun on her toes and skipped toward the Prince.

His eyes watched the way her body moved when she ran. She bent over at the waist and whispered in his ear. His eyes closed ever so slightly and only for a moment, but I saw it. He wanted her. I could have sworn his cheeks flushed. When she stood, I definitely didn’t imagine the way his eyes tracked the movement.

I smirked. You go, girl.

Sam took a step back, then without breaking eye contact with him, she untied her white silk wrap dress and let it drop to the ground, revealing her fit form in a white crop top and little shorts that did nothing to cover the curves of her ass. Her arms, neck, and face had been burned by the sun earlier, and while those wounds were gnarly, the rest of her body was absolutely flawless. I’d never been one to openly objectify a woman, yet with Sam I couldn’t stop myself. She was perfection in human form. Dangerously beautiful. Designed to lure a man to his death with a smile on his face.

And then Sam pointed behind him. With a flip of her hair over her shoulder, she walked around him toward a bush with those flowers a feet away. Instantly, like a puppy on a leash, the Unseelie Prince turned to watch her.

So I ran.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

FRANKIE

“No, no, no!” I groaned and smacked the floor again just to do something. “DAMMIT.”

“What happened?”

“Where is everyone?”

“Where’s Everest?” Saber’s voice cut through all of the others. I heard the worry she barely contained. “Where is he?”

I looked up at her and sat back on my heels. “He is okay.”

“That’s not what I asked,” she asked with a growl. “You’re here. He is not. Explain.”

“Did the sun toast him?” Braison glanced back and forth. “Is it not instantaneous like I assumed?”

“It’s instantaneous,” Kenneth answered. He sat at the dinner table, in his usual spot, but this time his silvery eyes were worried and heavy. He rubbed his forehead. “When sunlight hits a vampire, death is almost immediate⁠—”

“Except for Sweyn.” Saber didn’t take her eyes off me. “The sun would need a few moments to finish the job.”

I shuddered as the images of Sam in the sun replayed in my mind. “Like Sam⁠—”