I knew this already. Tink had told me.
“Our food source is nearly depleted. It will not be much longer before everything is gone.”
When he spoke of the food source, I knew he didn’t mean cheeseburgers and bacon. He was talking about humans. When the fae didn’t feed, they had normal human lifespans, but when they fed from humans, they could almost become immortal. It wasn’t something any of the Order members liked to think about, because there was nothing we could do about the humans that had been snatched from our world long ago, when the fae came and went through the gateways as they pleased. From what we’d learned, they raised humans in their world like cattle.
It was repulsive.
“You’ve done this to yourself,” I said, voice surprisingly calm. “You’ve killed your own world. You’re not going to do the same to ours.”
The prince dipped his chin. “What do you know of my world, little bird? What do you know at all?”
Prickling irritation danced across my skin. “I do know I want to stab you in the eyeball every time you call me ‘little bird.’”
His lips twisted into a cruel smirk. “You do not like me.”
“No shit,” I muttered.
“Perhaps if we met under better circumstances—”
“One where you didn’t beat me within an inch of my life?”
A woman walking past us looked over at us sharply but kept going when the prince nodded. “There is that, but I do recall giving you ample opportunity to leave without injury. You chose not to. You fought me, and yes, I would’ve killed you if I had not realized what you are.”
I choked on a laugh. “Wow.”
He didn’t appear to find anything he’d said amusing. “But now I know how important you are.”
My fingers curled around my knees as a breeze lifted a curl and tossed it across my face. A strange scent surrounded the prince. It wasn’t exactly unpleasant, but it reminded of something. Beaches? No. I frowned.
His gaze flickered over my face. “You will open those gates for me.”
I laughed again. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”
“I figured you would say that,” he replied, casting his gaze back to the street. “Let me impregnate you and you will want for nothing.”
My brows snapped together. “Yeah, that’s probably the most unappealing offer for sex in the history of mankind.”
He stared at me. “You are not afraid of me, are you?” Then he leaned over and inhaled deeply. “No. I smell fear on you, and yet you speak to me as if you have no concern for your well-being.”
“Did . . . did you just smell me again?” I asked, my pulse pounding in my throat. The truth was, I was scared. Terrified, honestly, but I couldn’t show that.
The side of his lips curled up. “You are confident because of your importance to me, or you are foolish. Either way, you will bear my child.”
All I could do was stare at him, because this was by far the most bizarre conversation I’d ever had with anyone or anything, and I’d had a lot of strange convos with Tink.
“You can make this easy and come with me now or—”
“I can make this hard? I know how this works. You can’t force me to have sex with you,” I said, voice low. “And if you threaten the lives of others to get me to go with you, you’re still forcing me.” I met his stare, calling up every ounce of bravery I had. “You can make me sit here and talk to you. You can even expose what I am to the entire world—”
“Why would I out what you are? Your kind, your Order, would kill you before you took your next breath. No one who wishes to not incite my wrath will betray you.”
Well, that was . . . kind of good to know. At least I could mark that one thing to freak out over off the list. “Anyway, you can make me do a lot of things, but you cannot make me do that. Ever.”
His head cocked to the side. “Is it because you’re in love with the human male?”
I blinked, jerking back. He said the word love like he was utterly unfamiliar with the term. “What?”
“The man who rushed to your side when you were injured. The one who has been spending every night at your place.”
Oh no. I started to stand but my legs were weak.
The smile reappeared. “How much do you value his—?”
“Don’t,” I warned, voice barely audible. “Don’t threaten him.”
He chuckled then, and it almost sounded real.
“Loving someone else has nothing to do with it. Even if I were single, I wouldn’t have sex with you.”
“I would,” a man said as he stopped in front of the bench. He grinned at the prince. “Just saying.”
The prince winked in return.
I waited until the other man had roamed off before I continued. I made sure my voice was low. “I am not having your child and ensuring that your kind takes over the world. Sorry. That’s not going to happen.”
“Are you a wagering type, little bird?”
I stared at him a moment. “This is insane. You nearly killed me. You’re a fae that wants to take over the human realm. There is literally nothing you can say or do that will—”
The prince moved fast, too fast for me to track. He was suddenly directly in my space and his cool hand was curved around the nape of my neck, smashing my curls. I tried to pull back, but yep, I was getting nowhere without breaking my own neck.