“How did she know?” I asked, gaping at what had just occurred in front of me.
“Premonition,” Rook whispered back. “That’s her gift. But she should tell you about it herself sometime.”
I didn’t have time to respond before Medusa was speaking again.
“I had to try, you know,” she said, putting her hands on her hips and raising her chin as she stared back at Lark and Cass. “They wouldn’t respect me if I didn’t.”
The gorgons hissed their assent.
“I’m here about a gorgon named Lycurgus,” Lark said, steering the conversation back on track and getting to the point of our visit. I could feel his impatience. At least I wasn’t the only one who wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. “I assume you know who that is.”
“Is he dead?” Medusa asked flatly.
“Captured.”
“Pity.”
She raised a hand and examined her nails as if the matter was of no consequence.
“I know he bargained with my brother to procure the key to Hellscape,” Lark said.
“Procure,” Medusa scoffed. “Is that what you call a rightful gain from your gambling addicted brother?”
Lark’s gaze narrowed.
“Very well,” Medusa sighed, rolling her eyes. “Not that it mattered. He needed Fae blood to use it, you know that. Though I imagine the one who conscripted him for the task in the first place might have sufficed.”
I tensed. This was the information we needed. This was why we were here. And she knew it. She was playing with us, I realized, letting her eyes roll over her nails and flick up to Lark who stood completely still in the eerie moonless light.
“What do you want to tell us who it was?” Lark asked. “And don’t say you want to be set free.”
Medusa rolled her eyes again and then twisted her head back and forth, as if rolling out the muscles of her neck.
“I want that Cerberus next door moved,” she said, frowning. “Howls all night and whines all day. Makes getting one’s beauty sleep a trifle more difficult. Not that I need it.”
“I’ll move your noisy neighbor,” Lark promised. “Now. Who sent Lycurgus to get the key from my brother?”
“You already know, don’t you? You just want me to verify your suspicions.”
Lark’s gaze narrowed. Medusa just smiled, those sharp, pointed teeth on full display. When she realized he wasn’t taking her bait, however, she huffed out a sigh.
“Fine,” she said. “It was the Dawnpaw. The younger one, not that any of us are young anymore, are we? Well, except you, sweetling.”
Her gaze snapped to me and she licked the top row of her razor-sharp teeth with that forked tongue. I stood my ground, trying to appear unaffected by the obvious taunt.
“Ariadne?” Lark snapped, drawing the Queen of the Gorgons’ gaze back to him.
“The one and only,” she hissed.
“Why did she want it?”
“You already know that too.”
“Humor me.”
“She’s been experimenting, dabbling in a bit of dark magic here and there. The sort that your kind always claims to abhor until you decide you want to use it.”
“For what?”
