A smile crawled over my face. Now that was a promise I could get behind.
Chapter 19
Noth
Midnight was the darkest part of the night with the deepest shadows and my Nightmare’s natural element. The best part of my shadow magic was how much it disrupted the Fae. Neither side gained an advantage over the other until I came to power. We were too similar. My Nightmare gave me a slight edge over Severin. I didn’t abuse it, but it was gratifying to see Severin faint in the inbetween as we traveled to my palace. I easily stepped Maggie and dragged Severin through the dark and into the gloam of Brad’s bedroom. Slapping the Fae awake, I swallowed the sound, and his cry.
I knew Brad would take the most ornate bedroom. The one I saved for visiting dignitaries that I hated. It dripped with pointed arches hanging from the ceiling, in overwrought gold. A stark contrast to the tastefullyaccented silver in the rest of the palace. The candles in this room were always tallow and the entire space smelled of it. Brad was too dumb to replace them. The tall windows appeared as if they framed an artful, grassy knoll, but it was actually our sewage field. The enormous scarlet bed with all its silk pillows and twisting bedposts was comfortable enough, but positioned to catch the odd night breeze over the field. Never underestimate psychological warfare when negotiating.
The two guards in his room made the mistake of attacking a pissed off, groggy Severin whom I might have tossed in their direction. I made sure to swallow all those fighting sounds too. Couldn’t have our sleeping beauty awaken before we were ready for him to perform.
Maggie pulled down and crushed the black boxes surrounding his bed. Watching her move from room to room in the palace, unmaking Brad’s leash on my people was hotter than the sun in Sandaniska’s summer.
A small hurt sound and the chime of chains sounded in the snore-filled room. We all turned to find the bride awake in a pile, tied to the floor. I bristled for Maggie’s sake. Maggie started forward when she saw the girl’s black eye and split brow until a bloody Severin stepped in front of her and snapped the chain. Maggie knit the girl’s skin back together, but she would always carry the wicked scar bisecting her brow up to her hairline. It looked strange on such a delicate creature.
“Take her, Severin,” I whisperedto him.
He picked the girl up. “I won’t come back and I will still expect my half.”
I knew Maggie wanted the girl safe. Tucked away with the Fae, she wouldn’t be vying for my throne when Brad was dead.
“You’ll get your payment, Twinkles.”
“I better, Rat Face.” He disappeared in a puff of golden dust.
I narrowed my eyes, a frown on my face. Severin didn’t need to start with that too. Maggie widened her eyes, managing to look not an ounce innocent.
Brad slumbered peacefully in the gigantic bed, his sawing sounds somehow the least offensive thing about him.
We stalked to his bed and Maggie made a throat-slitting gesture. I shook my head ‘no’. She pleaded with her eyes. I shook my head again. She crossed her arms and canted a hip, a mulish pout to her lips.
“NO,” I mouthed to her more clearly, secretly excited to see her so bloodthirsty.
I went to pull a nightmare out of his mind, hovering over him. Was Brad’s hair askew?
Moving back, my curiosity got the better of me. I poked him with the Calix, pushing it slowly through that barrier that always formed from his bangle. The Calix reached out to him with hand-sized thorns, welling up a few beads of blood.
His startled awakening slid the hair right off his skull,the odd tuft remaining. Brad scrambled to put it to rights when he should have been trying to kill me. Too bad I didn’t need him dead just yet. My hands twitched. All the hate inside me welled up to a bitter sting.
“Are you awake, worm?” I asked him.
Brad scrubbed his face, annoyance in every crease. “Delightful as always. You are a real trooper, halfbreed. I was sorry I couldn’t make a real monster out of you in our delightful time together.”
He had come close. I didn’t like how much of him remained in me. My Nightmare leaked through, stabbing my claws through the bed, crowding Brad into the mattress. “Looking for me to wear your head as my crown?”
Maggie laughed on the other side of the bed. She was right. That didn’t make a lick of sense but Brad paled anyway.
“Guards!” His yelp made it impossible to understand how he had convinced anyone that he was capable of being King. “Thank God!”
The door creaked open to reveal an empty black hallway. Shadows flickered dramatically against the wall.
“Guards?” Brad’s voice reduced to a child’s nighttime whisper.
My Black Skulls slipped into the moonlight, weapons drawn. Everyone had a secret order in their back pocket, right?
One handed me the fake Calix and I had to tearit away from the vines of the real one to toss the fake at Brad.
“Get up and try not to cry. You have an announcement to make.”
