And that was when Lex realized they weren’t far from the caves. A mountain away, at most.
“If I’d been a second later,” the queen said, “you would have arrived at your destination. But my men are very good. They stopped the portal creator from taking you too far.” The queen’s eyes twinkled, and she gestured behind her.
Lex’s heart stopped. “Amund!”
Amund stumbled between four robed alchemists, his face ashen and bruised, blood dripping down his mouth. His left leg dragged behind him, contorted gruesomely.
“Let him go!” Lex shouted, her face heating with rage.
The queen frowned. “How disrespectful. Whatever do you see in her, son?”
“Not your son.” Camille walked out from behind a snowbank.
What in the hell?Camille had escaped before the king could get to her. Had she been here all along, or had she followed them?
The Dark Queen snarled. “You?” She sighed and looked to the sky as though pained. “You arenothing. Merely the vessel that brought me my son. Garrin was always meant to be mine.”
Had the queen lost her mind? Camille hadn’t given Garrin up. He’d beenstolenfrom her.
Garrin’s throat bobbed as he looked between his mother and Camille, his hands clenched at his sides. “Let them go, Mother. Camille has done you no harm, and nor has Amund.” His stance was tense, but his tone soft.
“Hasn’t she?” the queen said, ignoring the question of Amund. “Now that she has joined the party, I recall many grievances against her. That she lay with my husband at the foremost. That she tried to claim you as her own, the most grievous. Everyone knows you are my child. But if the slightest doubt spreads across the land”—her voice quavered, and her eyes hardened—“there can be no question that you are mine.”
Without breaking eye contact, Garrin said, “Why would anyone believe a portal creator over the queen?”
Ailith sniffed, and her chest rose. “Why indeed. Still—”
“Why are we here?” Garrin said. He was deflecting again, drawing the queen’s attention away from Camille and Amund, the latter collapsed and not moving.
Camille held a calculating expression, and Lex worried. There were half a dozen alchemists and only Garrin, Lex, Camille, and a severely injured Amund. So basically, Garrin and Camille, since Lex sucked at controlling her power.
The queen walked closer to Lex until they stood toe to toe. “We are here because the alchemists tell me her power level is distinct.” She tapped her lip and glanced at Garrin. “I wonder why that is? Perhaps it is the reason you are drawn to her?” She looked back at Lex. “You know, he didn’t give in. Not even when my alchemists blocked his magic during several rounds of torture.” The queen smiled with pride.
Lex’s mouth gaped. What kind of woman tortured her son?
Garrin hadn’t gone into detail about what the soldiers and alchemists did to him inside the castle. That he’d suffered made fury rise in her chest.
“Garrin was trained as a mercenary by his father.” The queen shook her head. “But now look at him. What has become of you, son? Every soldier wanted to be you. Every woman wanted to sleep with you. And now you bow to this?” She flicked her fingers at Lex.
“Women still want to sleep with him,” Lex said. “Me included.”
“Lex,” Garrin said. “Don’t.”
Lex threw up her hands. “How can you listen to this? She wants to hurt you.”
His mother laughed. “Hurt him? Oh no, it isn’t Garrin I wish to punish. It is his father.”
34
Lex shook her head. The queen wasn’t after Lex or Garrin? She wanted the king?
Garrin shoved her behind him, threw out his arm, and aimed at a mountain off to the side.
The ground rumbled and snow shot up and into the air.
An avalanche sped down the mountain and buried the four alchemists beside Amund within seconds.
But only the alchemists. Amund was still crumpled off to the side.
