I thought the same, because that was what the Order had taught us. Plus, I was pretty sure Morgana was completely fictional, a part of the King Arthur tales.

Fabian snickered. “If you believe that, then who are we to correct you?”

God, he was so helpful.

“Their names have been interchangeable throughout the years, replacing one another in various myths.” Tanner sat down, resting one arm on the desk. “But those are myths. The truth is that they are not one and the same. Our politics have never been represented accurately in the legends mortals have spun.”

Ren gave a little shake of his head. “Do you think a Queen is also here?”

“We do not know if any Queen has come to this world,” Faye answered. “Let us hope that one hasn’t. That is a complication that none of us need.”

My head was spinning. “But what if one of them has?”

“Queen Morgana sided with Winter during the war. She became their Queen.” Fabian’s lip curled in disgust. “If she has crossed over to this world, I will personally rip the spine from her back.”

I lifted my brows.

“She killed my brother during the Great War and refused us the honor of burying his body.” The Prince’s eyes burned with unholy light from within. “She is, how do you humans put it? The worst?”

“Sounds about right.” Ren unfolded his arms. “Do we have any evidence that she or any Queen is involved in this?”

“No,” Faye answered. “I’ve been with the Prince. I have not seen Morgana or any other Queen.”

“Would you even know what Morgana looks like?” Fabian twisted in his chair. “She is the queen of many faces and has perfected the art of treachery. It would take a royal to recognize that bitch.” He paused. “Or coincidentally, a brownie. Their ability to see through even the strongest glamour was one of the reasons the Winter Court hunted them down.”

In her human form, a sheen of dullness settled over Faye’s dark skin and she looked down.

“How would we kill her if she were here?” I asked.

“The same way you would kill any of us,” the Summer Prince answered. “Decapitation.”

The line of questioning brought me back to my earlier conversation with Tink. “But she would obviously need to be weakened. The same with Drake.” I ignored the way his lips thinned. “How do we weaken one of you enough to go toe to toe?”

The room quieted as Fabian eyed me from where he sat. “And why would you want to know how to weaken a royal?”

I met his burning gaze. “To kill Drake. Duh.”

“I thought you needed help finding the Crystal?” Fabian leaned forward, placing both feet on the floor. It was then that I realized he wore no shoes. Odd. “Not with killing the Winter Prince.”

“We do need help finding the Crystal.” Tanner’s gaze bounced between us. “Ivy was captured by the Prince at one point. She’s understandably a little . . . murderous when it comes to him.”

“She’s not the only one,” Ren threw out.

“I’m not a little murderous,” I clarified. “I’m a lot murderous.”

“You think I would tell you how to weaken the Winter Prince? Which would mean you’d know how to weaken me?” Fabian chuckled. “You’re foolish.”

Steel dripped into my spine as I stepped forward. “You want us to trust you blindly and yet you will not do the same? We have no reason to use this knowledge against you. I only want to kill the Prince, because I’ll be damned if I spend weeks or months or the rest of my life looking over my shoulder for him, wondering if anyone I know is safe because he’ll use them to get to me.”

Fabian smirked as his icy gaze landed on me. “You silly little girl. You speak as if you’re a special snowflake, unique and one of a kind.”

Ren snorted from where he stood.

I shot Ren a death glare before glaring at Fabian. “You don’t know who Voldemort is, but you know what special snowflake means? I call bullshit on that.”

Fabian cocked his head to the side. “One always knows when they meet a special snowflake.”

“Yeah, and those calling others snowflakes are historically the actual snowflake.”

“Sticks and stones,” Fabian murmured. “Or I am rubber and you are glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.”

My mouth dropped open. Oh my God, it was like having a conversation with a ruder Tink.

Who, by the way, was practically shimmying with excitement as he leaned in, whispering into my ear. “I like this guy. I really like him. Can I keep him?”

The Summer Prince heard him, and interest sparked in his pale blue eyes. “I’ve never been kept by a brownie before, but . . . I’ve heard things. Interesting things.”

I so needed an adult right now, but the adults were all staring at the ceiling, pretending like a live version of Fae Tinder wasn’t going down right in front of us.

Tink straightened. “Do tell.”

Fabian stepped toward us. “Is it true that a brownie’s co—”

“Okay,” Ren stepped in, apparently to Tanner’s relief by the look on his face. “Let’s get back on topic. You were talking about how Ivy isn’t a special snowflake.”

Dear mountain momma, I was two seconds from launching my dagger across the room and stabbing the Summer Prince in his eye, punching Tink, and throwing Ren out the window.

“All right, Fabio,” I snapped. “Can you get past the insulting me part to saying something actually helpful? For once?”

His fair brows knitted. “Are you dense? My name is not Fabio. It’s Fabian.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.” I didn’t have the patience to explain who Fabio was. “Just say what you need to say.”

The Summer Prince’s smirk grew. “The Prince has found another halfling and he’s left New Orleans, taking the Crystal with him.”

Chapter 14

All hell broke loose around me while I just stood there, in the center of the room staring at the Summer Prince. Faye was standing and so was Tanner. Ren had moved forward, asking questions, but I didn’t hear what he was saying. Tink was calm, though. Sort of. He was eyeballing Fabio again, in the way Ren looked at me when he actually liked me.

But I . . . I was just so shocked I couldn’t think past my roiling emotions. One stood out. Relief. It coursed through me in waves, leaving me dizzy.

The Prince wouldn’t be looking for me.

Ren was safe.

So was Tink.

I was safe.

Well, as safe as any of us were, but Drake wasn’t gunning for me anymore.

My throat thickened as tears rushed my eyes.

All of that probably meant something was wrong with me. I mean, Drake was still out there bound and determined to knock up some poor, random halfling, but he wasn’t coming after me.

A laugh bubbled up my throat, but I squelched it before it escaped as I blinked back tears of relief. No one would understand.

I was such a terrible person, but I couldn’t help it. Weight lifted from my shoulders. We still had to deal with Drake, but I . . . I felt free.

“I thought the Elite had killed all the halflings?” Tanner’s voice rose above the noise, drawing my attention.

“The Elite has hunted down every halfling they’ve been able to discover,” Ren answered, and I flinched, knowing that I was one of them. “That doesn’t mean they got all the halflings in the whole world. The Prince is obviously better at finding them than we were.”

“I don’t know if that’s true since you guys probably killed a whole crapton of them,” Tink pointed out.

Ren shot him a dark glare before turning to Fabian. “How do you know this?”

“Just as the Winter Prince has had scouts out looking for possible halflings, we’ve had our own eyes on them.” Fabian yawned, appearing bored with this whole conversation. “He and his consul left two days ago.”

Two days ago? While I was passed out because some fae tried to murder me because they thought the Prince was here? Another near hysterical laugh started deep in my belly.