Page 51 of Fae Crown

She studied him, her objectively beautiful features arranged in ugly disapproval. Azariah visibly shrank away from her disdain while not actually moving a single hair of his mane.

“Is the magic of the Fae Heir Trials still active?” she asked.

“Yes, Highness.”

“You told me none of us, and that includes me … and that includesElowyn”—she paused seemingly to appreciate her distaste for the female I was liking more by the second—“you told me we couldn’t so much as leave the palace until the trials are concluded.”

“That’s c-correct, Highness.”

“And now you’re telling me the magic is still active.”

“Aye, Your Majesty-yyy-yyy.” His reply ended in an accidental bray he covered up with another clearing of his throat.

“Then how is it”—she spun in her throne to fully face him—“that Elowyn isgone?”

Her fingers clutching the armrests, her shoulders arched forward and her collarbones jutted out, sharp as fighting batons.

“I-I don’t know how that’s possible, Your Majesty.”

“You don’t know.”

“No, I-I don’t.”

“Then what use are you to me?”

By dragonfire, if she tried to kill a pegicorn, I’d have to intervene. Every sacrifice I’d made, every plan I’d made with my brothers, would all be for naught. But I wouldn’t stand by and watch her slaughter Azariah…

I leaned in the pegicorn’s direction and felt the presence of my throwing knives concealed beneath the waistband of my breeches.

Azariah, bless him, actually looked confused by the question. “I alone can sense forms of magic others can’t.”

She waved a careless hand between them. “Yes, yes.”

“Perhaps Ivar?—”

Once more, she spun on him. He withered beneaththe full force of those wicked eyes. “Yes, Azariah? Do continue.”

Azariah looked from her to Ivar and back. Fast, he shifted his weight back and forth between his hind legs. “I was just considering all possibilities, Your Majesty. Could the lady Elowyn perhaps be hiding beyond the door? Purposefully shielding herself from Ivar?”

The disapproval melted from the queen’s face as she peered at Ivar, who was already shaking his head.

“No, my queen. I’d never risk misleading you. I was very thorough. She isn’t there.”

The queen looked at Azariah again. “Is she anywhere in the palace?”

His eyes widened before shuttering. He stilled as if listening to a sound the rest of us couldn’t hear.

Eventually, with a shake of his braided mane, he said, “No, she’s not anywhere in the palace.”

“Within Embermere?”

Another minute passed while he “listened.”

“Yes, Highness. She remains in Embermere.”

“Where?” It was a barked order.

Inexplicably, Azariah glanced at me before again “listening.”

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