Insanely good.
Like it had with Rudolph.
“Oh,” Mab said, eyes closing. She took a deep breath, and her broken ribs made crackling sounds as they expanded and resettled into their original places. Mab opened her eyes dreamily, rolling her throat, and when she spoke again her voice had returned to normal. “You are coming along quite nicely, my Knight. I approve.”
My raised hand started shaking. So did the rest of me.
I reeled back from Mab.
She sat up slowly, laughing a low, satisfied laugh. “Instinct. Fury. Focused aggression. Yes, my Knight. All powerful tools, ones you will need. Excellent.” She tilted her head. “Though I would suggest better tactics. Did you think you could beat an immortal to death with your bare hands?”
I looked away from her.
“No,” she purred. “You weren’t thinking. You gave in to your instincts. And already so protective of Ms. Raith. Also good.” She rose, slowly and sinuously, like a cobra. “What is done is done. Youwillcontrol her, my Knight. The alternatives are unthinkable.”
I seized the sheets off of my bed. I covered myself.
“I want time to think of my reward,” I said, voice hoarse. “I want you to leave.”
She was suddenly in my face, faster than I could see.
“Did you think,” she hissed, her voice somehow audibly adding capitals to words, “that you would use My mantle to save your child, and then rob Me of My due service? Did you think that in the service of Air and Darkness that you would not be changed? Not bent to My will?” She leaned close and whispered, “The truth becomes more and more obvious, does it not? You are, more and more, bit by bit, a wicked man, in service to a wicked Queen.”
I shuddered.
Mab let out another low laugh. “I have had a fine, fine day. Your request for more time to choose is wise. This, too, I wish to encourage. I give you until your wedding.”
And with a whisper and a stir of cool air, she was gone.
Leaving me sitting on the cold stone floor under an uneven swath of cotton sheet, legs curled against my chest.
“What have I done?” I whispered.
As a professional wizard, let me tell you—that’s one of those phrases you kind of dread saying, with excellent reason.
“You got played,” I answered myself.
And so had Lara. She’d extended trust to me.
And, grieving, blindly focused on helping Thomas, needing to keep what I was doing secret, I’d been arrogant enough to proceed with some serious high magic with only bare weeks of research rather than the months or years that were usually recommended. If I’d done that, come at it from enough angles, I might have seen this coming.
But there hadn’t beentime.
My shoulders sagged.
I just needed time.
A wicked man, in service to a wicked Queen.
Mab’s voice echoed in my head.
And inside my chest, in that little warm spot that still burned, a quiet voice said,No. That’s not going to happen.
And I recognized the voice.
Because it was me.
Lies. Mab cannot change who you are.
