Page 107 of Of Fate and Phantoms
"But I'm your pack leader. You belong to me now."
"I belong to my husband. I wanted torunwith you. Nothing more," she added in a mumble, all the fight gone out of her.
She picked herself up and came to stand beside me. I hooked my arm through hers and she seemed to take comfort in the close connection.
"If you come near Harriet again, I will send London's dead to you door," I told King.
He swallowed. "All of them?"
"As many as I can muster." Sometimes, a little white lie felt good. Wickedly good. "Now, answer our questions and we'll let you go."
Lincoln had remained by the door. He'd straightened but his face was racked with pain. I let Harriet go and went to him. I touched the tips of his fingers, an offer of encouragement. He gave me a flat smile and walked steadily toward King.
"You changed into the Prince Consort's form," Lincoln said quietly yet firmly.
"Did I?"
"How did you do it?"
King's lips pressed together. He looked away.
"Punch him in the stomach," I told the dead woman.
She protested, but did as I ordered. "Sorry," she said to King as he coughed over her.
"I will have her kill you," I told King. "After what your friends did to mine tonight, I have no qualms about that. We know you went to the palace and used the prince consort's form to speak to the queen. How can you change into his form, and others?"
"I don't know," he said. "It's just something I can do, like you can do…" He indicated the dead woman. "This. I learned years ago that I could shift into other shapes, but not easily. Anything other than my natural shapes took practice, and if I wanted to copy someone specific, it took years of practice."
"Your natural shapes?"
"This one and the one I run in."
"You've been trying to look like the prince consort for some time," Lincoln said. "You wanted tobehim, didn't you? Hence the name you adopted."
"I've been told I resemble him a little." King tried to shrug, but with his shoulders pinned to the wall, it looked more like a twitch. "It was just a game. No harm done."
"No harm!" I marched up to him and poked him in the chest. "The queen thinks she's been speaking to her beloved dead husband!"
"And how is that a bad thing? She adores him still. Why not give her some happiness and allow her to think he pines for her as much as she pines for him?"
"You sicken me," I said.
"I know what I'm doing."
"And what is that?" Lincoln asked. "What do you want from her?"
King sniffed. "Nothing."
Lincoln smashed his fist into King's face. It was so sudden that even I was caught by surprise. King's head smacked against the wall and for a moment, he looked dazed. Blood trickled from his mouth, and he spluttered then spat out a tooth. "Bloody hell, aren't you in a fine mood."
"Is it any wonder?" I snapped. "You ordered your people to kill them!" I had a mind to punch him myself.
"I can wipe out every last one of your pack," Lincoln said with a growl that was more animal than human. "I can see that your kind become extinct after tonight. Don't presume I will show mercy, because I will not. Not after you showed us none."
Harriet gasped. King's pack exchanged worried glances. "Tell him," one of the men urged King. "The secret don't matter no more. You tried and got caught, and that's the end of it. Tell him what he needs to know!"
"It's not as simple as that." King sounded as if he were weighing up his options. "There will be repercussions."
