Page 105 of Wingless Crow: Part 1

Bile burned Voron’s throat. His hands flexed into fists, ready to punch something. The news of Sparrow spending nights with the king should not affect him so. She belonged to King Tiane. The very purpose of her presence at the palace was to entertain him.

He knew it, but it still wrecked him to learn she went to the royal chambers when he left the palace to save Magnus days ago.

Yesterday, the king had sent him on a mostly useless mission outside of Elaros, to deliver a message from the king to High Lord Morennor—an errand that a cloud owl could’ve accomplished just as successfully. Now, he understood why the king did it.

Voron had put an effort into keeping King Tiane away from his new favorite by organizing activities that didn’t involve her and distracting the king. The king must have finally caught on to that and sent him away from the palace to enjoy her company one-on-one with no interruptions.

And now she was gone.

How the fuck had it happened?

He stormed into the king’s bedroom. The queen might be demanding his presence, but he was the one needing answers.

“What’s going on here?” He kicked the doors close behind him.

Dressed in a pale morning robe, her hair tucked into a colorful turban, Queen Pavline stood in front of the royal bed. The spider silk curtains were drawn close around the bed.

The queen wasn’t alone. The High Priest and the royal hag were sitting in the chairs nearby.

“Ah, Voron. Finally,” the queen huffed as if he’d been absent for his own frivolous reasons and not on the king’s orders. He derived no pleasure in meeting that pompous, pretentious peacock High Lord Morennor.

“What happened here?” he asked again.

The queen threw her hands up in the air. “That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out, High General. It looks like your nasty human protégé tried to kill my husband.”

“Sparrow? Kill?”

It made no sense whatsoever.

“Who else?” the queen hissed, sarcasm dripping from her lips like venom. “Thanks for delivering that little viper to our home, Voron.”

No one objected to Sparrow’s presence in Elaros before. Queen Pavline used to call her “sent by gods.” Whatever happened must be extreme to change her opinion so drastically and literally overnight. But “tried to kill?” Surely, that was an exaggeration. Sparrow wouldn’t hurt a fly, would she?

“You may think of me as a weak little bird. But I am a person, and I am not weak. Sooner or later, I’ll prove it to you.”

The words Sparrow had said to him the day after they met echoed through his brain.

She had been mistaken, though. He never thought her weak. He saw her resilience the very first moment he laid his eyes on her on the road to the Cloud River on that windy, gloomy day. Stolen from her world and incapacitated bycamyte, she never lost awareness and determination in her eyes.

He named her Sparrow as the most underestimated bird of all. Even back then, as she shivered in the wind, he sensed she had strength far beyond her short, gentle statue.

But an attempted murder?

He never expected that from her.Underestimatedproved to be more accurate than even he could’ve predicted.

“What did she do?”

The queen frowned. “Come look for yourself.”

He followed her closer to the royal bed, and she threw the curtains open.

King Tiane lay in the middle of his spacious bed, sinking into the white, silky bedding. His head, adorned with the majestic antlers, rested on a pillow. A luxurious bed spread covered him up to his waist, leaving his bare chest exposed.

A bejeweled handle of a dagger was sticking out from the king’s chest, the blade buried deep in his flesh. A web of hair-thin lines spread from the dagger. These weren’t the typical clear lines of sky fae’s decomposition. They pulsed with a bright yellow glow.

The king’s eyes were closed, but his chest rose and fell evenly with his breathing.

“Can I speak with him?” Voron asked.

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