Page 53 of Bound to the Shadow Queen
When an unearthly screechsounded against my window pane, I was forced to question my sanity in allowing my wife’s vermin to live, but even I didn’t kill without reason.
The skathryn was annoying, but it wasn’t dangerous. I was less sure about its chosen owner, though Everly herself was less dangerous than the secrets she kept.
Surely she was just about tapped out of them by now. Then again, she could always surprise me and be the Shard Mother in disguise, or perhaps even a mountain troll masquerading as a squirrel.
I reluctantly cracked my window and the door for her ungrateful beast to flap through to her rooms, hating the way her scent wafted in, along with the intense sensation of the lingering panic I could only hope would keep her from hurling herself into danger again.
All the way to my war room, I tried not to think about my wife. Her strange reaction to the locket, our shared nightmares, or the fact that she was actually stubborn enough to freeze to death in her rooms rather than ask her healer to light her fires. There was a jarring contrast between her furious, relentlesspresence in my rooms and how frail she looked shivering in her bed the night before.
Now that she was back in her rooms, I would need to tell Mirelda she had returned. I gritted my teeth, sitting down at the table to read through missives Eryx had left for me. The maid had earned her trust in blood, just like my Lord General had, but my wife’s presence here still felt uncertain. Temporary.
Or perhaps I was just worried about what form her next betrayal would take, and who would be caught in the crossfires.
A knock sounded at the door just before it creaked open, and Soren Redthorne strolled in as though the place belonged to him.
Frost unfurled over the maps on the table, and his golden eyes tracked the movement. His easy smile only deepened the irritation already coiled in my gut.
“It’s quieter here than I expected,” he said, hands clasped behind his back. “Almost peaceful.”
I glared at him, doubting very much that he had decided to pay a visit to my war room for its placid ambience.
“What do you want, Lord Redthorne?” I asked, my tone flat.
He chuckled softly. “Just trying to make conversation.”
I blinked once. Twice. I didn’t want conversation, least of all with him.
My mana stirred, restless beneath my skin, and I stood abruptly, intending to leave him to his own words. That was when his tone shifted.
“There are rumors,” he said.
I paused mid-step. “I don’t waste my time with gossip.”
“Funny,” he mused, “I don’t believe that for a moment. But this also isn’t the usual kind.”
I turned slowly, narrowing my eyes. “Get to your point before I lose what little patience I have left.”
“You won’t be able to hide her forever.”
I reached out with my mana, wrapping an icy coil around his neck and squeezing. “Threats, Lord Redthorne?”
He shook his head, though his expression hardly faltered. It was further proof that he was more than the emissary he pretended to be, no doubt trained against all manner of torture.
As all spies were. Only a fool believed an emissary from the other courts was anything else.
“I want to help,” he rasped. “She’s my friend.”
A bitter thought sparked to life, a memory of Everly’s laugh at the dinner table, her attention fixed on the Autumn emissary as he offered to play host to her in my palace.
Friend.Was that really all she was to him?
My jaw clenched as I released him with a crack of ice. He dropped to his knees, coughing and rubbing at the bruises blooming along his neck.
“It isn’t too late to get ahead of this,” he added. “There is still time to?—”
The door slammed open, effectively silencing the Autumn fae.
He climbed to his feet as my Lord General strode into the room. Eryx’s gaze swept from me to Redthorne, his stoic expression revealing more worry than it usually did. His voice was steady, but grim.
