A seat had been tucked into the nook to the left of the large stone fireplace, and someone sat there, though it was too dark to see who they might be. Just the suggestion of a presence watching us from the shadows.
Laphira sat rigid in a plain wooden chair near her mother, her skin as pale as parchment. Dark veins showed beneath her flesh where the pendant touched her throat. Her hands lay arranged in her lap, but her fingers trembled, the only sign she was fighting whatever held her. Her eyes remained locked on the wall. If she knew we were there, she didn’t show it.
Farris stepped toward her, his body low, slinking with his tail tucked between his legs. His paws made no sound on the thick rug. If Naveer, Laphira, or even whoever was hiding in the shadows saw the nyxin, they didn't give any indication.
He stopped and sat beside her, gazing up at her with his head tilted and a soft whine rising up his throat.
No reaction. But I caught the slight widening of her eyes, the silent plea trapped behind her frozen expression. My heart clenched. What had Naveer done to her and did it involve the effigy I’d found in her room?
The featherdorn pendant fastened around her neck stirred, its wings fluttering before it went still against her skin. Its tiny head turned, its gaze focusing on me.
Farris let out another whine.
Queen Naveer ignored him and watched us over her teacup, her red lips curved in satisfaction. Like a spider admiring flies in her web.
The nyxin rose and turned, his nose twitching as he stared toward the shadowy figure by the fire. A deep growl rumbled in his chest.
“Farris,” I whispered.
He slunk back to me, fur bristling along his back. After onemore glance toward the shadows, he sat, leaning against my leg. I caught Lore’s eye, and he gave me a subtle shake of his head. He couldn’t tell who or what sat in that chair either.
Queen Naveer plucked a piece of food delicately from between her teeth, holding it out on her finger to examine it before licking it off. “How delicious that it's you two who've made it this far.”
“That’s an odd way of putting it. Why delicious?” I asked in as cheerful a voice as I could manage.
She didn't look my way, though her mouth twitched. She'd heard me; she just wasn't going to acknowledge me.
“Answer my wife,” Lore grated out.
Naveer’s eyebrows lifted. “I will do whatever I please within my own court,Lord Rutherford. If that includes choosing not to answer impertinent questions, then so be it.”
Impertinent? She was the one tossing out teases without following through. Well, fuck her. The sooner we grabbed the talisman and got out of here, the better.
“Here's the key.” Lore tossed it onto the low table, and it clattered, skittering across the surface, stopping to teeter on the edge before stilling.
Naveer lifted her cup and sipped her tea. “’So many come to me with trinkets they can’t understand, hoping they’ll earn favor. Do you think yourselves clever?”
Her eyes skipped over Lore to land on me. That glance sharpened, and I felt her probing my mental defenses, testing my barriers.
Stiffening, I strengthened them.
Her mouth tightened, and her gouge slid away. “The talented often wrap themselves in subtlety. Such a thing is charming in children. Less so in adults who should know better.” Her gaze flicked from our boots to our clothing, then back up to our faces. “But I suppose I shouldn’t insult thosebrave enough to climb seven flights of stairs to deliver a bit of metal.”
Movement flickered in my peripheral vision. When I looked, only twisted sculptures stared back, a chall with haunted eyes, a beetle devouring itself mid-chew.
One of the statues moved, I told Lore.
Which one?
The one shaped like a chall. Or maybe the beetle one beside it with too many legs and wings folded down on its spine moved. It's…I looked closer.Yuck. Devouring a smaller version of itself.It had been crafted mid-chew.
The figurines weren't decorations, they were people and creatures trapped by this evil woman. Everyone who'd played her games and lost. Everyone who'd given her a “willing” sacrifice.
I don't see it moving,he said.Wouldn't surprise me if it did, however.
We're not guests. We're the next course.I turned back to the queen, catching the subtle excitement in her eyes.She’s enjoying this.
I’ll kill her now, if you’d like, though I don’t know if I can get past her wards. She’s strong. Very strong.
