My thoughts go still as he moves the gun. Not to fire it. Not to bring it closer to me. He aims it at Amelie.
My sister bites back a squeal, her fingers digging into my forearm as she grabs me.
“Don’t move,” Mr. Duveau orders. “Either of you.”
Every inch of me is frozen, aside from my raging heart that pounds in my chest. With his gun trained on my sister, every reckless idea I have loses viability. I hate that he’s using her against me. I hate that he was right.
I know how to make her obey.
Threaten someone I love. That’s all he has to do. That’s all anyone has to do.
And after everything I admitted, both to Amelie and myself when we were trapped in the cell, I can acknowledge that I do in fact love her. For the love of iron, I love her fiercely. I can’t let anyone take her away from me again.
“What do you want?” I ask, feigning as much calm as I can. Surely, he can see the way my shoddy weapon trembles in my hand.
“First, release the dagger.”
I hate to leave us defenseless, but what else can I do? The barrel of the revolver is aimed at my sister’s head. Even if I could dive in front of her, she’s taller than I am. He’ll kill her just like he killed Mother. My fingers feel stiff as I open them one by one. Then, with a thud, the metal falls from my grasp to the ground at my feet.
Duveau nods to a nearby soldier, who rushes in to retrieve the discarded dagger. The soldier wrinkles his brow once he has it in his hand, clearly unimpressed by my workmanship. Mr. Duveau’s eyes flash toward it, just long enough to see what I made. His gaze returns to me, a smirk on his lips. “Really, Evelyn? You thought you could take us down with that?”
I press my lips tight to avoid saying something I’ll regret.
“You,” he says, expression turning serious as his attention moves to my sister. “Take a step away from her.” When Amelie makes no attempt to obey, he waves the gun, emphasizing the direction he wants her to move.
With trembling steps, she inches away from me. Her fingers release my forearm, leaving my flesh cold in their absence. It takes all my restraint not to reach for her.
“Guards,” Mr. Duveau barks. The soldiers shift, each step sure and calculated as some back away and others move in closer, until about a half-dozen men form a tighter circle around us. Revolver still trained on Amelie, Mr. Duveau’s attention returns to me. “You will come with me willingly. Otherwise, these men pump you full of iron bullets. And that’s after you watch me kill your sister. Agreed?”
I burn him with a glare. While I don’t refuse, I don’t argue either. “Where are we going?”
Duveau ignores me, motioning forth a soldier outside our ring of guards and whispering a string of orders. I hear the wordstubandwater, which tells me he plans on returning us to our former captivity. But when next he speaks, it isn’t to order us back to the dungeon. “Turn around and walk,” he says, nodding in the opposite direction, away from the lighthouse.
Dahlia’s brow furrows as she eyes Mr. Duveau. “Where are you taking them?”
“You know where,” he answers without looking at her.
“But…how? How will you get them there?” There’s no worry for me and my sister in her eyes. It’s something else that has her suddenly so flustered.
“On my new ship,” Duveau says through his teeth.
Crimson rises to the Summer Queen’s cheeks. “I thought that was supposed to bemyship.”
“You thought wrong.”
Her fingers clench into fists. “What about our deal? I have a war to win. We’re giving you the girls. We promised you a new treaty.”
Finally, he leaves my gaze to pin Dahlia beneath a scowl. “And I’m giving you an army.”
Two girls for thousands.There’s my answer.
There’s still so much I don’t understand though. All those dozens of warships the human assailant mentioned…they were coming to aid Dahlia? How can that be? The assailant saidthetime of the fae is at an end.
The fae.Not just the Alpha Alliance.
He will ruin all of you.
“We agreed to more than this,” the Summer Queen says, an edge to her tone. “Not just a single garrison.”
