Fortuna Sworn

You trade in edicts and secrets; mine is nightmares and terror. Nothing I see will give me a second’s pause, faerie.”

“Nothing ends, Fortuna Sworn,” he responded airily. He kept his gaze on the humans making their harried arrangements. “There are only continuations and beginnings.”

“They don’t come along often. Those people who truly know you, who’ve seen the beautiful parts of you and the ugly ones, too, and stay anyway. Sometimes it’s a romantic partner, like… like Viessa. Maybe it’s a friend. But usually they come in the form of family. A parent, an aunt, a grandfather.”

“A brother.”

“Sometimes it’s not about being stronger. It’s about being smarter,”

“Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.”

“Noted. Now what do you want?” I asked again, somehow knowing that this time, I would get an answer.

“You.”

His hair rested against the back of his neck in soft, brown curls.

The hands of a faerie lent you their magic.

A shadow passed over his lovely face. He focused on the motions of his hand. “They won’t be returning, actually.”

means that I have killed,” he replied matter-of-factly. “It means that I am constantly torn between civility and ferocity. It means that I do not want you for a wife, but a mate. As to why you should accept me, above all others, consider this. I know exactly what you are... and I think it’s magnificent. Your enemies are my enemies. My power is your power. If nothing else, let that be the reason.”