“Mal, you didn’t.” Raum let his mouth part in stun. “You took the scheme from me?”
“Oh, I did.” She snickered. “Right out of your thoughts.”
Raum jabbed a finger at me. “And this is exactly why we don’t share moves in a scheme, not when traitors steal the memory of the plan from your mind. We only worked it out this morning, Mal!”
“And your love of embraces did not serve you when you bid us farewell.”
Raum gasped in a bit of horror. “You violated my mind when I was showingaffection. Devious and inspiring.”
Kase looked utterly perturbed. “You took Niklas from us this turn.”
“Oh, I took him. He made those talismans mere weeks after last turn’s attempt.” Malin narrowed her eyes. “How dare you put poor Skadi in such a position.”
“How dare I? I think that’s envy in your tone, Mal. Annoyed you didn’t ask her first?”
I still didn’t fully know what to make of this. The king and queen practically prowled each other like they were about to engage in battle. They spoke harshly, but they both seemed to be biting back grins.
“Skadi.” Malin looked over Kase’s shoulder. “You can let them go. Poor Rolo and Borg. They’ll never trust you again, Kase.”
All the king did was shrug.
I swallowed and imagined the coldness around me splitting, like an unstitched seam. The two guards fell the short distance, landing in a heap on the floor. They groaned and muttered about how they wanted to be reassigned as they staggered back to their feet.
I anticipated their fear, their avoidance of me. Neither man pointed any ire my way, instead it was all leveled at their king.
“We guard all this for you and this is how you repay us.”
“I pay you in penge,” the king grumbled.
“I think I might go to the Southern Kingdom. Perhaps to the Night Folk. No worrying you’ll be ambushed by your damn king there.”
Kase waved them off and turned back to his queen, a smirk in the corner of his mouth. “All right, you win, Mal.”
“I win?” She tilted her head to the side. “I don’t believe you finished that statement, Husband. I winagain. How many turns is this now? Ten? Fifteen?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Someday you will know when you scheme, I will be scheming even more. At least when it comes to this. You’re never going to find it. Not until the actual day, Kase Eriksson.”
The king was in front of her in two long strides, his arms around her body, the queen pinned to his chest. He kissed her for a breath. “One look, that’s all I want.”
“No.” She pinched his side. “You can wait patiently like the rest of us do on our own birth revels.”
My lips parted. “It’s nearly your birth celebration?”
Malin snorted. “Kase always tries to find out what I’ve gotten for him, and every damn turn he gets more annoying with his attempted heists.” She pinched him again, shrieking a bit when he kissed her.
“A gift.” I wasn’t certain if the laugh that slipped through was amused or hysterical, but it came through all the same. “That’s what this is about? Finding your gift?”
“I don’t like surprises, and I’m impatient,” Kase said as though it were nothing.
I held a hand to my head, laughing, maybe sobbing a bit, and slid down the wall.
“Look what you did to her,” Malin scolded. “She’s not used to this, Kase.”
“She was perfect,” he insisted. “Rolo and Borg will be talking of her for turns.”
I looked back at the two guards, a furrow to my brow. “I’m sorry, I . . . shouldn’t have kept you in there that long.”
