Page 117 of A Reign of Roses
He was like a hound. He couldsmellmy fear.
“You must be Arwen.”
“Where’s Kane?”
Without answering me he strode toward my cage and flicked the ironclad latch open with a single menacing finger.
When I didn’t scramble out immediately, the Blood Fae lowered his brows. “I won’t bite.”
I didn’t laugh. Neither did he.
In the end I scooted out of the birdcage about as ungracefully as a gangly newborn lamb. By the time I was standing he’d already walked out.
Night had drowned the palace courtyard in darkness and the few mermagic lamps that decorated the garden’s arches and fountains cast the blades of grass and clumps of frost in hazy blue.
Where I expected slain Rose men I found untouched, fresh snow. I’d only heard yelling, but assumed Aleksander had slaughtered them all when he’d arrived.
My boots crunched as I raced to keep up with the Blood Fae’s long legs. Terrifying or not, the man was tall and lean and graceful and made me feel like a scurrying rat beside him. The weakness in my bones didn’t help.
“Why didn’t Kane come free me?”
He said nothing and my heart slammed into my ribs.
“Where is he?”
Aleksander didn’t turn at my question even as he said, “I told him to wait outside.”
“And he obeyed?”
At a gilded arch wreathed in snowy vines, the Hemolich finally turned to face me. Those bloodred eyes simmered. “I owed your king a debt. He cashed it in. But that required doing this my way.”
Kane had gone to Aleksander to free me. Besides his father, I wasn’t sure Kane despised anyone as much as the ice-cold man that stood before me. Warmth flickered through my chest.
At the end of the garden path, Aleksander opened a heavy palace door with one hand and I dashed in after him before it could slam in my face. The long hallway was empty, and I couldn’t hear any voices in the neighboring rooms. The eerie quiet turned the watercolor wallpaper and gilded moldings ominous, the cherubic faces in the paintings like ghosts, watching us.
Was the palace empty? Had he killed everyone inside? Did Ethera’s men know I’d been freed, or would they be after me the minute they found my cage empty? I was still too drained to defend myself against much of anyone, even mortal soldiers.
For now at least, I had my white-haired Hemolich bodyguard. Whatever he’d done—ornotdone, given the lack of gore or bodies—I was grateful.
“Thank you for—”
“Don’t.” Aleksander’s voice was low as he his stalked through the next passage, his hands lodged in his pockets.
“Why can’t I thank you for your kindness?”
“I’m not kind.” Each word seemed an effort not to tear into my throat, and I swallowed audibly. Aleksander’s nostrils flared.
“Kane was riddled with lilium when he found you,” I said as we rounded a corner into a hallway dripping in chandeliers. Some so low I had to dodge past the dangling crystal. “You could have killed him, but you didn’t. Is that not kindness? Or mercy, at least?”
Aleksander didn’t respond, trudging through as if he knew theplace well, turning here and pushing a door open there. His eyes never met mine, his hands never left his pockets, and I didn’t spy one guard or handmaiden.
“Are they all dead?”
His throat bobbed though he didn’t answer me. I paled, regretting the question.
“They’re hiding,” he said, voice like venom, as he nudged the door to the grand hall open with his shoulder. “Like mice.”
The grand hall was off the parlor, and I could just make out the shattered window, which funneled freezing night air into the room. The towering golden elm tree and its priceless branches were still lodged through the broken glass, halfway hanging outside the now-vacant bow frame.
