Page 49 of Fae Champion

But Rush ignored me, bowing his head gracefully to the wild alley cat currently gnashing her teeth at me. “Apologies, Dowager Countess. My charge is under a lot of pressure right now and knows not what she does.”

“Excuse me?” I fumed at the stretch of fine back blocking much of my view. “I know precisely what I’m doing. Just ’cause the bitch doesn’t like to hear the truth about her precious son doesn’t mean?—”

“Please,” Rush interrupted. “Jolanda, Conroy, forgive us and move on. We’ll be in the hall shortly.”

I sputtered while the red-cheeked Conroy imploredhis mother to listen. Finally, she straightened and announced to Rush, “No wonder Her Majesty, in her infinite wisdom, favors you for the role of heir. You’ll make a fine crown prince.”

“Infinite wisdom, my ass,” I muttered under my breath, causing Rush to tense until the alley-cat dowager countess and her son passed the guys and continued onward.

The instant they were far enough away not to hear him, Rush spun on me. “Have you learned nothing in your time at court? You shouldn’t make enemies without need.”

“And haveyoulearned nothing aboutmein all this time?Youshouldn’t presume to speak for me, and you shouldn’t treat me like I don’t know what I’m doing.” Even if I didn’t truly much of the time, still largely out of my depth in a world so different from the one I’d known. “Istuck my tongue outat the mother of the man who tried to murder me. Was I really out of line? It was my tongue, for dragons’ sake, not a sword.” My nostrils flared as I glowered at the man who was too handsome for his own good. I could hardly be angry at him without noting the perfect curvature of his lips, the beautiful line of his jaw…

Rush breathed in, out, in, out. “No, no you weren’t out of line. I just wanted to prevent the situation from escalating.”

“I’m pretty sure the situation’s as bad as it can get already. Now, are we gonna keep dilly-dallying, or are you going to turn me in to the queen already?”

As best I could in the cumbersome heels, I stalked past the guys, who paused to study me. When I left them behind, I heard Ryder ask Rush, “What in dragon’s veins was that about?”

“I have no idea,” Rush said. “I think I’m out of my league with her.”

I snorted a laugh but refused to turn. All the way to the Hall of Mirrors, I didn’t slow or glance over my shoulder, though I heard the men’s footfalls close behind.

If I looked at them again—the men who’d almost become friends, a lover even—I might not have the nerve to follow through with what I had to do.

And they might read the intentions on my face. I wouldn’t condemn everyone I’d met in Embermere to my same fate by my actions.

But I wasn’t at fault here.

I’d do whatever I could to ensure I didn’t cause anyone else to suffer without need?—

…and then I was taking down the queen with me.

If I had to go, then so did she.

The dark queen has to die.

15.THE COLOR OF MURDER, DELIGHTED, AMUSED, AND ENTIRELY WICKED

The thin reed of a man whose job was to announce the arrivals in the Hall of Mirrors, decked out in gray coattails that skimmed his calves and, in place of a bowtie, a pert orange flower with swaying tentacles for petals, crooned, “The Lady Elowyn Ashira of the Forzantos clan.”

I noticed how he’d omitted the “Xiomara” from my name as the crowd’s steady, humming chatter transformed into excited murmuring.

Perhaps it was because most of them hadn’t seen me since the Gladius Probatio, when I’d once more proven females could indeed fight by stabbing Selwin Hewett in the eye and throat. Maybe it was because they already knew I’d escaped the dungeon and morbidly anticipated my punishment. Or they now realized I was high up enough in the royal bloodline for the land’s magic to take note, even if the lie that I was part of the Forzantos clan persisted. Or it could alsohave been that they sensed the queen’s wrath and how it was, more often than not, focused specifically on me.

Whatever the reason for it, the busybodies’ attention made my nerves taut like rubber bands about to snap. All at once, the importance of tonight’s outcome pressed down on me—an unbearable weight.

While Coattails announced the appearance of Rush, Hiroshi, Ryder, and West, with their long titles, I scanned the crowd that milled with drinks in hand for potential weapons I might swipe.

I couldn’t discern the theme of the festivities. Most everything but the people were silver—globes floated everywhere casting silver light. Plates, platters, and goblets were made of the reflective metal, and even the decanters, which had been a clear crystal before, were the same. Even the jewelry the nobles wore was silver, though their otherwise gaudy, colorful dress continued.

Through her hair bun pinned at her nape, a young woman about my age, with astonishingly bright pink hair, sported two sharp-looking sticks made of silver. Not ideal, but a possible weapon. A plump man wore a knife at his side, and his constitution implied he might not notice it missing until he went to remove what amounted to a decorative piece later that night. An ice sculpture of two pairs of crowns, their tips spiky and painted silver—an icicle had worked to murder the Lady Aleeza, and if necessary I’d make it work again. Evidently, the queen had no true intentions of making her court a safer place. Besides her lack of follow-through at banning ice sculptures, I’dheard no recent mention of the person among us murdering her guests.

Tonight, gray-furred sneakles and quasi-foxes—calledfeethlesin reference to their spindly, sharp teeth, I’d learned—wove amongst the revelers, rubbing against their legs. The sneakles and feethles were changelings, and I couldn’t help but wonder what purpose they had for cavorting with this crowd. Were the changelings part of the aristos or something else? Another question to add to my ever-expanding list of them.

Once more, dozens of snakes, some as thick as my arm, slithered beneath a transparent floor. It didn’t matter that the glass kept the undulating serpents at bay; their purpose must have been to cause unease—an effective measure. To match the evening’s decor, their scales varied only in tones of silver—except for a single viper, the thickest and longest of them all: a black so saturated as to conjure up the finality of death. Their relative uniformity made them appear more ethereal, more magical, and infinitely more dangerous.

I’d made it scarcely thirty feet into the vast room and already I desperately wanted to put it far behind me.

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