Page 56 of Fae Reckoning

“He should feel some o’ the pain we all have,” Roan said. “He ain’t the queen, but he coulda stopped her all day, every day. And he didn’t. He n’ that fool Braque are the only ones who coulda, and they’ve chosen not to over and over. Ya know how many’ve died while they’ve sat around with their heads up her arse? He deserves pain.”

Ivar’s tongue slithered from between his lips to lick the blood oozing from their split skin. “You’re wrong. I can’t stop her. No one can.”

“Oh,” I growled. “So you do remember how to talk?”

He shrugged. “Torture me all you like. I won’t tell you anything you don’t already know. Her Majesty will rule forever. The stupid, useless girl you’re all banking on is no match for her.”

Anger rushed along my skin like flames whipping in a fierce wind. I nudged Ryder out of the way and crouched in front of Ivar. “Thatfemaleis my mate. And if you fucking talk about her like that again, Iwillrip your head off with my own two hands, fuck our morals and principles. You got me?”

In all my life I’d never done anything like that toanyone. But at that moment I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t carry out on my threat despite the validity of Ryder’s argument. Apparently, whatever Ivar saw in me then was enough for him to believe I’d do it.

“Fine,” he spat. “I won’t speak of Elowyn. But I won’t speak of Her Majesty either.”

“Let me have at him,” came a deep voice that had me swiveling toward the gap in the wall that Ivar’s horse had kicked open. Xeno was stepping through it, already cracking his knuckles and his muscled neck. “Hewilltell me everything we need to know to protect Elowyn.” Xeno squatted next to me, across from Ivar, and grinned ferally at him. “Won’t you, you sniveling, weaselly fucker?”

Ivar studied Xeno for several beats before his eyelids lowered halfway as if he were preparing himself for pain. “Do as you must. But I will not, under any circumstances, betray Her Majesty.” He whipped his gaze to me. “I promise you that. No matter what you do, you will not crack me. My loyalty to Queen Talisa Zafira Tatiana the First of Embermere is as undying as she is.”

A pair of snakes reared their heads and dove at Ivar’s torso, sinking needle-sharp fangs through his torn tunic and into the skin of his sternum. He hissed and gritted his teeth, clenching his fingers around the armrests.

“Who’s responsible for those?” Xeno asked of the snakes.

“Hiro,” I answered, joining him in turning to studymy friend. The genial calm that Hiro had carried as long as I’d known him was absent, his face harder than I’d ever seen it, making his usually soft features strikingly angular.

Xeno offered an appreciative nod. “My man, good work.”

I was turning back toward Ivar when I noticed the advisor flinch. There was real admiration in Xeno’s voice, which didn’t bode well for Ivar. Nor did the broad, muscular frame of the changeling. Xeno carried himself like the kind of male who knew how to wield his body to maximum effect.

One of the snakes remained latched on to Ivar, drawing on its puncture wounds with a suckingssssslurssss. Shit, was the snake … drinking his blood? Had the whole damn Mirror World gone crazy? Brows climbing my forehead, I snapped around to look at Hiro. Ry and Roan were already gaping at him.

His own eyes wide and bright, Hiro shook his head. “The blood drinking’s not me. I don’t know what’s going on. It’s gotta be …her, right? Somehow…?”

Ivar let out a wheezing, dark chuckle, his legs and arms braced against the snake’s assault. “She’s everywhere and in everything. She’s the sole channel of the land’s magic. There’s no escaping her. Now that she’s immortal, there never will be.” The snake sucked with a particularly loud slurp, and his eyes glazed over. “May as well give up now.”

Frowning at him, at the snakes, at fucking all of it, I stood. “If we give up, the darkness will wipe out thelight, and soon the Mirror World will be lost to darkness forever. There’ll be no bringing it back. It’s already too close to the edge. How can you want that? You’re part of this world too.”

The snake sucked. I grimaced. Ivar swallowed, then swallowed again. “It’s not about what I want. It’s”—ssslurss—“what is.”

“That’s total dragonshit,” Ryder snapped in a thunderous clap of anger. “If we don’t stand up for what’s right, then we’re as responsible for what comes next as she is. My brothers and I”—he looked from me to Hiro to Roan, and then also included Xeno—“we’ll fight for the light until our very last breaths. Because we must. What else the fuck are we here for if not to fight for the survival of what’s good and righteous? Don’t you believe we come here to leave the world a better place than we found it?”

Mindful to remain out of striking range of the snakes, which were tethered to Ivar’s body, Roan sidled up to him, languidly swinging his ax. He scrunched up his nose and mouth until he was mostly hair and those startlingly limpid green eyes of his. He gave his ax another swing before leaning on its handle, blade pointed toward Ivar.

“What the fuck happened to ya, man? Ya were never my favorite, that’s for damn sure. But ya didn’t used to be a cowardly sneakle lickin’ milk off the queen’s fuckin’ teats. Ya used to have a mind of yer own.”

The snake disengaged its fangs, Ivar’s bloodcoloring them pink, and Ivar exhaled with a roll of his head. “That was a long time ago.”

“What changed?” I asked. “We’ve been around for about as long as you have. It’s not like passing time just turns you into an asshole willing to stand by while the world burns around you.”

Ivar pointed his stare into the distance—away from the snakes—and clamped his lips shut.

“What’s the queen done to you?” I pressed. “Maybe we can help.”

Ivar snorted. “How? By setting serpents to devour me from the inside out? It’s not like any of you have figured out how to defeat her.”

I wanted to tell him that of course we wouldn’t allow the snakes to actually eat him. We weren’t the queen, after all. Once Hiro reversed the transformation, Ivar would go back to his usual non-snake-y self. But that would undermine the threat that was disturbing him enough that he might still reveal something—anything—to help us take down the queen.

Xeno rose, swinging his arms to stretch his shoulders. “I’ll get him to talk. He’ll tell me how to protect Wyn. Trust me.” Xeno bared his teeth, his creature close to the surface, then shed his boots. He began unbuttoning his pants. “Better take these off first. Not sure if Pru’s got another set. These are already snug.” He stepped out of his pants and pulled off his shirt, dropping them to the dusty floor next to his boots. “You’re all gonna want to back up.”

Rationally, I was certain that Elowyn and I hadboth felt the mate bond form between us. There was no magic more powerful in all the fae lands. I knew she chose me and only me as her partner, but damn, did Xeno have to be so fucking … attractive? My body was equally strong, though much leaner, and I’d never met a female who wasn’t drawn to me…

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