Thank the gods.
Mira, clad in a thin night dress, shoved into our corridor. Aleksi was at her back, then Sander.
Dorsan, with a raised spear was tucked amongst them, but his attention landed on his princess and the swirling mists around her palms.
The endless flow of people kept stuffing inside our corridor. My mother and father were more like my wife, and always rose with the dawn. Daj was already dressed in his typical black, and my mother had a dagger in her hand.
If I was not lost in some bespelled exhaustion, if Skadi had not stolen a woman into her mists in anger and was fading from me, I might’ve embraced them all.
No questions, and every damn soul in this palace was ready to attack for our sakes.
“She needs to let her go.” I fumbled the words, but pointed at Skadi. “Oldun . . . came here . . . I don’t know.”
“Another woman came to you?” Mira’s mouth dropped. She looked from me, shirtless, to Skadi in a silky shift, then to the mists of her affinity still coiling near the washroom. My friend’s smile was nothing short of wicked when she looked back at Skadi. “I’mobsessedwith her.”
“Mira.” Sander nudged her.
“It isn’t only men who wish to kill when the one they love is touched.” Mira shrugged one shoulder. “Keep your hands off her husband.”
“What is wrong with you?” I was almost certain the voice belonged to Heartwalker, I couldn’t see him, but the way Mira snarled in the direction of the voice was proof enough.
Sander came to my side. “What happened to you?”
“Oldun threw something on me.” I looked at my wife. “Skadi, let her go. We need to know why.”
“She hurt you.” Her flat expression found me, she blinked, like she might be recognizing me for the first time.
My mother worked her way into my room and placed a hand on my fire’s arm. “Let me speak with her. I’ll see it all.”
In other words, Maj would take the entire memory of whatever motivated Oldun to come into my chamber.
Another breath, another heartbeat, then Skadi’s eyes flickered and she closed a fist.
With a scream Oldun fell in a heap in the corridor. Frenzied, she swiped at her arms, as though the mists were still creeping along her flesh. She wailed and screamed again when she caught sight of Skadi so near.
“Don’t touch me! You’re . . . wretched and a creature of the hells.”
I was going to kill her.
Oldun backed into the shins of Aleksi. My fellow prince sneered down and took hold of her arms, hoisting Oldun to her feet as my mother approached. “Queen Malin. You must listen to?—”
“Did you try to kill my son?”
“What?” Oldun’s eyes jumped to me, then back to the queen. “No. I-I-I tried to save him. From her.” She pointed at Skadi. “She kills and doesn’t even know she does it. He told me all about her.”
“Who told you?”
Skadi hugged her middle, brow strained.
“I-I didn’t learn his name. But he knew things about her. She’s vicious, and dark, and a monster. She killed her own parents. Stole their life away as they slept.”
No. That wasn’t possible. If my mother did not throttle Oldun soon, I would.
Atmy first step, Sander pushed back on my shoulder. He jerked his head toward Skadi.
Dammit. Her eyes looked more like a somber storm, gray and dull. She backed out of the bedchamber, toward the staircase leading to her library. She was fading from me, she was slipping into the mask of frigid apathy the longer Oldun shouted fears and disdain.
“He told me if she no longer wanted the prince, she would leave.” Oldun slumped so Aleksi had to brace her weight to keep her upright. “He told me if I could give the prince the tonic, put him into a sleep, I could make it seem as though he’d chosen me, and she would leave us.”
