I paced behind the garden bench where the queen sat, eyes closed, still as the stone beneath her.
After a moment, my mother shook her head. “He does not agree with the alliance. His thoughts kept repeating that the princess belonged to his clan.”
“How long has he been following her?”
“Since the vows. He caused the chaos of the night to give him a chance to slip into the palace. All of us had toxins in our tea, and it was his warped plan to take back the princess.”
Niklas tucked his herbal reference tome under his arm, cracking each knuckle just below the rune tattoos across his fingers.
He lifted a glass vial filled with the black leaves of the elven plant. “I’d like to study this. It’s a poison I do not know, but seems we have need of its antidote for Teo and Nettie. Your wife had beautifully quick thinking today.”
Skadi. I stopped pacing. When my gaze lifted to the window of her chamber, the bright shade of her hair stepped back from the glass pane.
Wicked, beautiful, befuddling woman.
Last night she’d shouted at me that she had no desire to know me, to care for me, to want me. Next, she was drying tears of littles, reading them fae tales, then saving my ass with the magic she feared.
Now, again it seemed, she had little desire to speak to me. I’d gone to her after the elven died, but Dorsan emerged, stating he would confirm if the man was Ljosalfar, a familiar face, or if he had any insight on behalf of the princess.
Someone tried to send me to the Otherworld to get to Skadi.
The truth of it brought a fierce panic and commanded my every step afterward and brought the realization that I would stand against a blade to keep her with me.
The frightening part was my fear ran deeper than merely caring for the wellbeing of an innocent woman. It transformed into something darker, something brutal, where the compulsion to pluck the bones from the sod’s body took hold, until I feared I might lash against someone I loved should they stand in my way.
It made little sense, it was reckless, and the sentiment was not returned.
“Jonas.” My mother rested her palm on my arm. “His mind felt a great deal like a man lost to a twisted belief. He believed to his soul that this alliance was temporary; he merely wanted to hurry it along.”
“A zealot.” Sander leaned against the wall of the palace, face hard. “You heard what he shouted. He thought this was saving the elven people.”
My mother played with the end of her messy braid. “I will see to it the Dokkalfar king hears of this, and understands that if he knows of how this happened, any alliance he thought he had is over.”
“I am not sending her back.” My fists curled at my sides.
“Did I say that?” My mother narrowed her eyes. “What I am wondering is why you are here, and not speaking toyour wifeabout all this?”
“She does not wish to speak to me.”
“How do you know?”
“She sent Dorsan to speak on her behalf.”
My mother clicked her tongue and shook her head. “Such a pity.”
“What? If you have something to say, Maj, say it.”
“It’s nothing.” My mother strode past me, aiming for the open entrance. “I just never took you for a coward.”
The queen was gone before I could return any sort of protest.
I frowned. It wasn’t cowardice, I was granting her desires; surely that was the honorable thing to do. Still, I turned on my heel and made my way toward the entrance to our wing. Perhaps it would be wise to see that she was not entirely unsettled by this ordeal.
Not to mention, I’d yet to thank her for saving my neck.
Much the same as before, Dorsan stepped into the hall when I went to Skadi’s door. “I need to speak to her.”
“I do not think the?—”
