My head swung toward my mother.“What?No.Absolutely not.”
Rafaela’s own jaw clenched.“She insists.”
“So what?Get rid of her, then.Or lock her up.Whatever.She’s not going anywhere with me.”
Cosette swung that leg some more.Tiny as it was, it landed with atapeach time.To my sensitive ears, it was a taunting boom that had my power coiling, preparing for me to call on it.
“Keep right on going,” Cosette said.“I have an excellent memory.I’m adding another count of threatening an officer of the empire to your long list of charges.”
I blinked at her.Swiveled back to Rafaela.
“How have you not killed her already?”
Not even the centuries I’d been gone would have been enough to soften this woman.
“I have not killed her,” Rafaela said tightly, “because I don’t just kill creatures.”
I blinked again.Glanced at Alonso.His face was blank, as if he were lost to his thoughts.
“I adhere to the dominion of Emperor Junot.”
Yeah, suuuuuure you do.Aloud, I said nothing.
“As she has repeatedly informed me, Cosette Darling is an investigatory soldier of the Blue Band and an officer of the empire.As such, I find myself obligated to…” Rafaela’s fangs lengthened until their tips crested her bottom lip.“…accommodate her request.”
I threw my hands in the air in exasperation.“Which is what, exactly?”
“Alonso and I have convinced her to show leniency?—”
“Leniency and judgment aren’t for me to dole out,” Cosette interjected.
Rafaela dragged her fangs across her lower lip until two small beads of blood blossomed.She licked her lip and continued.
“—due to the bloodlust that consumed you against your will.You were a victim of a violent abduction.None of what you’ve done since has been your fault.”
“That’s not what the magistrate was about to conclude,” Cosette said.
“Yes, well.Alonso will see to that.”
At his name, he looked up, focusing on us, before zeroing on Cosette.“We have agreed to allow you to accompany our daughter as a courtesy to the emperor.You are not to interfere with her or apprehend her, and you are certainly forbidden from dampening her power.”
Cosette stopped swinging her legs and sat up straight.“I will dampen it if I see the need.”
“Then you will experience not only my immense wrath, but that of my daughter, and hers is not to be trifled with.”
Cosette twisted her torso toward him, then Rafaela, the woman who was a giant to her, both in size and power.“Are you threatening me right now?”
Rafaela glowered.ButRafaela the Ruthless, who’d earned her moniker many times over, only shook her head.“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Her words, at least, were as cutting as the many daggers I had stashed on my person.
“The drake and I show honor to the emperor,” she bit out, the words seeming to claw their way up her throat.“Now, my daughter is on a time-sensitive mission.”
Cosette arched her tiny brow.“To … explore the changes to our realm since she was gone?”
“Exactly.And you will not delay her.”
“I’ll do as needed.”
