From the moment he’d scooped me up and decided he was going to carry me back to Avolire so he could fly, he’d had his face buried in my hair. I had a lot of questions about this guy. What’s his name? Why does he like to smell my hair? Why is not knowing his name killing me? How does he know where he’s flying with his face in my hair? Why do I get goosebumps every time he sniffs me? Why do I like it? Why did he risk sun exposure to save me? Why is he so cruel to literally everyone except me? Why is he holding me so gentle? Why do I like it? Why do I want him to be rough with me? Why did he let Pierce run away and not even look for him? Why is fighting the urge to snuggle into his chest so difficult?

I cursed my own thoughts. My body reacted to the Unseelie Prince in ways I was not comfortable with, but the discomfort wasn’t because I didn’t like it. The discomfort was due to him being the Unseelie Prince. The Unseelie fae were pure evil. They were cruel monsters. Lilith’s pets. I could understand why he could be drawn to me as Lilith’s granddaughter, but I was not a monster. I’d made my oath to Heaven, and nothing could ever make me betray that oath. And that was why my body’s traitorous reactions to the male in question had me on edge.

What does this say about me?

Am I a little bit evil if I want him? If I intentionally taunt him and try to make him jealous? Because in the Old Lands I enjoyed my little game a bit too much. I adored Pierce, and he honestly had the softest lips I’d ever felt on a guy, but I really, really enjoyed the Prince’s aura going razor-sharp when I kissed Pierce. I liked the way he watched me. It made me want to play with him more. Goddess, maybe I’m more evil than I realized, because that’s exactly what Sweyn does. I wished Everest were around just so I had an anchor in the sea of panic inside of me.

Then again . . . Everest has done questionably evil things in the name of victory.

Perhaps he and I just have to be a little morally gray in order to defeat her. Tegan’s face flashed in my mind. Tegan was definitely morally gray. That girl would do almost anything to defeat our enemies. If my body, and my attraction to the monster holding me, could work to our advantage, then perhaps I needed to embrace that smidge of genetic evil passed through my DNA and see just what I could do with it.