A small laugh escaped him, but there was no real mirth to be found. “I am alone.”
“Did you speak to the queen?”
“No how are you, Xenith? How was your day? Did you bring any more jewelberries?” Xenith cocked a teasing brow.
I couldn’t help but return his grin. “As I said, we don’t have time.” I paused for a moment. “Did you bring more jewelberries?”
“No.” He shrugged. “Still, it would have been nice to be asked.”
“You’re exhausting.” I stepped closer, leaving mere inches between us, and lowered my voice. “Did you speak to her?”
He nodded, his gaze downcast, refusing to meet my face.
My heart sank. I’d not had much hope she’d listen, but I thought maybe… with her beautiful son… with the owl as proof…
“Did you show her the owl?”
Xenith looked at me once more. “Of course I did. I told her everything, just as you told me to. I showed her the owl.”
“What did she say?”
He gave a little shrug. “The same as I said to you. That it must be one of the human servants.”
“But the arrow was one of ours.” Anger began to creep into my voice.
“She said they might have stolen one.”
“They didn’t, Xenith. I can feel it. I know. I don’t know how, but I know. It is one of us committing these atrocities.”
He lifted a hand in surrender. “I believe you, Xenith. I do. I can’t say I feel anything coming like you claim, but I believe you. I trust your judgment.”
I took a breath, trying to calm my growing tension. “How did she leave it? Will she consider taking action at all?”
“What were you hoping she’d do, Quay?”
What was I hoping? “I don’t know. Send out a patrol. Station more guards. Alert her subjects to the possibility of danger. Cast protection around the animals. Something!”
I truly wasn’t sure what I’d expected. Though she’d turned her back on me, she still was the queen. She had power. More than me, at least. She had power of magic and of control of her people. She was the queen. She was supposed to know what to do. She was my—
My last thought caused me to gasp aloud.
“What? What did you just think?”
I ignored Xenith. Was I truly such an imbecile? To fall in love with Flesser when I knew he had no love for me? And now this? To realize I’d expected her to know what to do because she was mymother? Was I truly nothing more than a little child running scared to his mother after all this time?
“I am a fool, Xenith. An utter fool.” I turned from him.
He grasped my shoulder before I moved too far away. “She said for me to keep an eye out, that if I found anything else to let her know.”
It would be too late.
Like everything else I’d been feeling, I had no basis for my certainty, but I knew.
Too late.
“Maybe she’ll believe us… believe me, if it happens again. Of course, we will hope it doesn’t happen again. Maybe it’s over. Whatever it is.”
I turned to face him once more. His face held a pleading expression, though I wasn’t certain if it was out of a need for me to tell him everything would be alright, that there wasn’t danger, or that I would be fine.
