Page 93 of Fae Reckoning

“No.” Rush laid his fingers on my arm. “We haveto go.”

“But—”

“Go,” Hiroshi told me. “We’ll buy you as much time as we can.”

Worry pricked along my nape. I sheathed my sais in spite of it.

The high windows along one wall shattered. Then the massive claws of a familiar black dragon bent around the frames of two of the windows, cracking the wood of their sills.

I told Einar in a rush.

Behind Einar, the sky of mid-morning darkened rapidly, a roiling tempest concealing the fluffy white clouds and bright-blue sky of moments before.

Einar said.

Besides the outward signs of her drawing proximity, Ifelther. Which meant I now knew exactly in which direction to go.

“We go that way.” I pointed toward the double doors that were about to be ripped open by the foul, stupid beasts who’d gnawed Hiroshi’s arm off, who’d do any dark deed theirqueenieasked of them.

To their credit, none of my companions hesitated—not even Pru, whose days of wringing her hands and fretting about it beingoff with our headsseemed to belong to someone else’s past, her expression presently grim and determined. When I ran toward the doorsinstead of seeking an alternative to this immediate danger, they flanked and followed.

“Ivar,” I said as my steps squeaked on the polished hardwood floor that was about to be befouled. “Once we get clear, I want you, Ryder, and whoever wants to go with you, to head down to the dungeons. We need to free those dragons. I’ll find the false queen.”

If they thought anything of my altered course, they didn’t voice it. A sai back in hand, I verified that Pru and Edsel were behind us warriors, then yanked one of the doors open while Rush did the other.

On the other side, with her crown perched perfectly atop her head … stood Talisa.

Dozens of soldiers dressed in the sky-blue tunics that denoted them her personal guard were lined up behind her. A dozen pygmy ogres, some with blood smearing their mouths and hands, all with blood staining their clubs, towered to either side of her.

Her lips were painted an identical hue, and glistened. She licked them before her attention landed on Ivar. Her ice-cold eyes grew icier.

“You. Traitor.”

I expected Ivar, the kiss-ass, to flinch. He didn’t.

“I could say the same about you.”

Talisa stared at him while her sentinels held steady. Finally, she said, “You’ll die today.”

Ivar’s responding smile was as wicked as hers. “No. You will.” I’d never before heard him speak to her without an ingratiatingYour MajestyorYour Highness.

Based on the tightening of her lips, eyes, andjawline, Talisa was noticing how much had changed too. “We’ll see about that,” she said, then looked at my companions, at the corralled undead at our backs, before landing on Rush. Her eyes blazed but she made no comment.

Next her attention descended on me. “Now that no rules bind me, I will kill you myself.”

I drew my second sai.

She threw her head back and laughed, a melodic roll that was disorienting for how normal and pleasant it sounded. “Once I’ve killed you, I think in time I may come to miss your ridiculously unwarranted bravado.”

“You won’t be around to miss me.”

“So sure of yourself.” She trilled some more.

I shrugged, cracked my neck, and lunged for her.

When I should have pressed sharp metal to her throat, she was gone. Just … gone.

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