Page 107 of A Reign of Roses
“Well,” she breathed, sitting back in a puff of pink gossamer and feathers. “Consider me flabbergasted.”
“Pledge your armies to our cause, and we’ll leave you with half that ledger now. The remainder will be waiting for you on the other side of our victory.” Kane’s features were hard. No relief in those tense shoulders quite yet. My stomach roiled.
“Naturally, my dear, naturally…” Ethera wound more of that thick hair into her hand as she studied the leather and fine print. “This has transformed the landscape of my predicament.”
After long moments, Ethera hefted the book in her delicate hands and stood, her chair scraping on the wood floor with the movement. “I’ll need to think on it. Maybe for just a little while…”
“You’ve plied us with mountains of tea and pastries and indulged us in idle chatter…” Kane shook his head as he braced white fingers on the lace tablecloth.
My own stomach flippedagainand some faraway corner of my mind forced my eyes down to my teacup. It had been so milky. So thick, and pale—
Kane bared his teeth at her. “We need an answer now, Ethera.”
“While I would have been absolutely bedeviled by this…” She waved the ledger, and the pink feathers of her sleeve fluttered. “Had you not regaled me with your new nature, I might have been persuaded. But alas…now I’ll have to take both prizes I desire. Deepest apologies.” She turned to her guards and cocked her lovely head at me. “Seize her, won’t you?”
29
Arwen
Chaos erupted in the prettyparlor.
Kane didn’t give the first two guards a fighting chance. He flung his arms out, surely expecting his obsidian lighte to obliterate them as I did—
And nothing happened.
Without thinking, Kane drew his sword with otherworldly swiftness. I fished for my own power, but knew it wouldn’t come. Memories rushed into my mind like water over a cliffside.
Maddox and a cackling Octavia…the lighte leaving my body. Feeling limp and weak and powerless. The uncanny ache and dizzying lethargy. Being held down, beingdrained—
No, no,no—
My hands had gone to my veins. I squeezed and tried to breathe. But my mouth was bone-dry and my jaw was wound so tight it was shaking, and my heart wasracing, and I couldn’t breathe—
“Liquid lilium,” I managed to say, as Kane pushed me back behind him, stumbling us both into the pastel wallpaper. “In the tea.”
Kane grimaced, but said nothing of the sickening sensation of lighte dwindling from his body. My only indication of his fury was his white knuckles, clenched into fists around his dagger and sword.
One overzealous guard lurched toward us and Kane’s steel soared through his gut. Another parried twice before taking one of Kane’s blades through the neck. Blood gurgled out onto the rug, soaking the soft threads.
“Why do you want me?” I begged the queen, drawing my own blade and hearing it sing against a shield embedded with the Quartz of Rose crest.
The queen had backed into a corner, surrounded by enough guards that I could hardly make out her shiny hair or glittering teal eyes. But I could hear her.
Hear herlaughing.
The clatter of silverware and shattering of porcelain cut my eyes across the room as six guards took Griffin down and the tea table along with him. They’d known he was strong by his size and his title, and had clearly put the most manpower toward him.
I tried to quiet my panicked mind—we knew something the queen did not.
We had a witch.
Mari could mangle the entire room with any number of spells. She’d trained with Briar all the weeks I’d been gone.
My eyes cut to her over the fray. Her eyes were closed as static raised her curled hair around her head like a corona of fire. A guard hauled Mari away by the middle, shouting something I couldn’t hear, his face a mask of horror. She continued to mutter her spell, undeterred.
I smelled the magic before I saw it—that earthy wind, like ancient moss and rain drying on primeval stone. When Mari’s eyes opened,the room, already teeming with guards and swords and screaming handmaidens, had crowded with a dozen more bodies.
No, not bodies—shadows.
