Page 100 of Fae Reckoning

She chortled. “My king? You’ve never beenmyanything, Oren. You’ve only ever been Odelia’s.”

The strength was back to his shoulders. “Finally, you speak the truth.”

She sneered, resembling the snakes around her. Nothing remained of the two deep slices I’d drawn across her neck but fine lines of dried blood, and even those were shrinking. Even her loose hair shone free of the blood that had clumped it. The skin of her face was brightening.

“Did you kill our son?” The king’s question echoed in the sudden silence that accompanied it.

Zafi’s wings tickled the shell of my ear as she breathed, “Ivar has succeeded. All the dragons in the palace are free of their shadow chains.”

I didn’t dare do anything to confirm I’d registered the news, not even glance at the dragons lest I highlight their newfound freedom.

“I asked you a question, Talisa,” the king said. “Did you kill Saturn?”

She snapped a furious glower at him. Her dark brows slashed across her face. “How dare you ask such a question of me?”

His voice softened. “Did you do it?”

Her hands fluttered to her bosom. The large rubies on her fingers flashed red in the mirrors, catching the many lumoons that continually illuminated the hall. She fluttered dark eyelashes. “How could you think that of me, Oren?”

I held my breath as I waited for my father to fall for her blatant manipulations yet again.

But sorrow and disappointment tugged at the corners of his mouth. “What you did to all your sisters?—”

Talisa’s brows jumped.

“Oh yes, I know about them too. What you did to Odelia … and to Zelia, Inaya, and Nazira … was worse than death. Who’s to say you didn’t do the same to our son? To your father?”

“I didn’t killPapa,” she protested immediately.

“And Saturn?”

Talisa stared at him, the flirtation slipping from her face.

He sucked in a sharp breath and stepped in front of the protective barrier that was Dashiell. “You did, didn’t you?” He shook his head, his crown sliding another fraction of an inch. Soon, it would fall.

Talisa blinked rapidly. An actual sheen coated hereyes, making their sky-blue shine. “I had to,” she said in a thick voice, reaching for Oren.

He took a step back, into Dashiell.

“He didn’t understand. He was trying to take power from me, and if he’d succeeded Embermere would have fallen to our enemies.”

“What enemies?” Oren’s voice was broken. “The only enemy I see here is you.”

She reached for him another time. He jerked back. With one arm, Dashiell held him to his chest. The king sank into it.

“That’s not true,” Talisa insisted, sounding concerned with what he might think of her. “I loved Saturn as much as you did.”

The king shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“I did, Oren, of course I did. But Saturn, our boy?—”

“And you dared to tell me not to use his name! You dared to make me feel guilty for bringing Elowyn here!”

“I didn’tmakeyou feel anything,” she snapped, blinking away the evidence of her weakness. “Saturn was playing with powers he didn’t understand. He was going to ruin everything my ancestors have been working toward practically since Prince Borromeo was banished here. I tried to talk reason with him. I tried to get him to see.”

“She did, Your Highness,” Braque interjected, taking a couple of small steps closer. “I had to erase his memories so many times.”

Talisatskedand glared at him over her shoulder. He snapped his trap shut.

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