King of the Isles Read Free

in no mood to listen to his assistant’s inane jabbering.
    As soon as they stepped from the stones into the Mortal realm, Morfessa lifted his gaze to the clear blue skies for some sign of her. He prayed he was not too late. His vision impaired from years of using the caustic potions in his experiments, he launched from the stone circle, dragging Tobias along with him to fly toward the barrier.
    In a frenzied panic the boy wrapped his gangly arms and legs around him. “Master, we’re not angels, we cannot fly. Set us down!”
    “Calm yourself!” Morfessa tried to shake free of Tobias’s strangling hold while searching the skies beneath the barrier. If he didn’t need his assistant as a witness, he would shoot him with a bolt of his magick. When he could find no sign of her, his anger knew no bounds and he did exactly that.
    Tobias, a flurry of arms and legs, rocketed toward the ground. Morfessa scowled when the boy’s terrified screams ended. His broken body splayed at the base of the stones. The fool didn’t even have the sense to use his magick. With a disgusted sigh, Morfessa once more scanned the skies beneath the barrier, then flashed to the stones. He took hold of the boy’s arms and dragged him through the portals, leaving him on the ground in the Fae realm. Someone would find him. And when his assistant recovered, Morfessa would dismiss him. The incompetent fool had delayed him.
    Consumed with rage at his inability to find evidence of her perfidy, he stalked toward his apartments in the building that housed the library of spells. He stopped short. What was he thinking? He could not let her actions go unpunished. Proof or no proof, he must confront her. There were ways to make her confess.
     
     
    The two liveried guardsmen who stood in stony silence at either side of the massive gilded doors didn’t bother to acknowledge Evangeline as she entered the Seelie Court.
    At one time the council had met in the forest, but Rohan had moved the council to his palace for reasons of safety. Creatures of habit, the Fae demanded the ambience of the woods, and Rohan had ceded to their wishes. Evangeline had to admit the branches of white ash trees encircling the room while water spurted from iridescent blue fountains that fed the waterways lining the outer edges of the chambers had a calming effect. King Rohan, seated on his ornately carved wooden throne at the head of the table, stopped midsentence, arching a brow in her direction.
    She dipped her head in acknowledgment of her tardiness. Gliding to his side in a rustle of silk, she averted her gaze from the curious glances of the four men seated with Rohan—the three kings and the wizard Uscias. She tamped down her disappointment that the full council was not in attendance to bear witness to the highlander’s set-down.
    “You’re late, my dear. Is something amiss?” Rohan glanced over his shoulder to where she’d taken her place to stand behind him.
    Heat suffused her cheeks and she damned the telltale flush. “No. I simply forgot the time, Your Highness.” Pleased that unlike her face her speech did not reveal her discomfiture.
    Her gaze collided with Lachlan MacLeod’s, who sat sprawled in the chair to Rohan’s right. She attempted a nonchalant smile, but couldn’t quite pull it off under the intensity of his golden gaze. Her upper lip curled, and a lazy grin quirked his full sensual mouth. Her hands balled at her sides. How she longed to wipe that supercilious smile from his too-handsome face. When she remembered the reason the council was meeting, a genuine smile curved her lips. The inept king was about to receive his comeuppance. If she had anything to say in the matter, he would have no choice but to acquiesce to his uncle’s demands.
    Lachlan blinked, then narrowed his gaze on her. She suppressed the urge to stick her tongue out at him as she’d seen his cousin Rory’s sons, Jamie and Alex, do.
    “She’s here now, Rohan, so can we get on with