“The hummingbird was shaking from the cold. The hummingbird wasn’t the right color. I think she stopped breathing—”
Someone moans in pain and when Briar brushes hair from my eyes, I realize it’s me.
“Then what happened?” Kassandra asks, face grim.
“The moth,” I gasp. “The moth saw the hummingbird flutter. The hummingbird might still be alive but doesn’t have much time.”
Kassandra does not push me for more details. She knows why.
“We need to be strategic,” she says instead. “Maxian’s father quelled the Dark Rebellion and rebuilt Versara, and his father before him united Amyria. We cannot have Maxian leveling the city in a fit of rage just to show us he can.”
Just to show that he’s still powerful, even if a halfling.
“Kassandra is right,” a voice says from the door. Eli stands on the threshold. “What has occurred? I felt rumbling from House Reign.”
“Do you know of the Reign Crest Lila?”
Eli stops in his tracks. Then his eyes take in my bloodied body, my pallor, my tears, and I see something I’ve never seen on him before, a darkness like shadows between trees, the tensing of his shoulders, the narrowing of his eyes. Fury.
“What. Happened,” he grits out.
“The king has tortured her. We need to get to her now before the cold takes her to the celestial plane,” Kassandra answers.
Eli’s gaze lands on me once more. “Why?”
I offer the only truth that comes to mind, the shame and hatred I feel.
“To torture us,” I say. “But he’s the…kissing king. He wasn’t going to—”
The oath stops me.
“But there are worse things than death,” Kassandra finishes.
“Does not every creature need to be invited into House Reign?” Briar asks. “Is there another way to access Reign?”
“My ring—”
“You’ve lost half your blood trying to talk,” Kassandra snaps. “However your ring works, we don’t have time to learn. Is there any other Reign servant who could help us?”
“Carter,” Eli says. “The king’s valet could grant us access, but he may be with Maxian. We need someone else from the Pith, someone who may be powerful enough to lace Lila here.”
There is only one option left, and he is not a friend.
“Death,” I say. “Death could bring her.”
“Will that not—” Briar glances around. “Tempt him into taking her?”
“No, this Death is strangely moral,” Kassandra says.
“We’re wasting time.” Eli unties his cloak, letting it fall to his feet. He turns to Kassandra. “Shall we perform the Rattling?”
“Does it work with halflings?”
“It should. He is the closest one with Death blood around.”
“I’ll circle the water, you warm the coal. Briar, a coal from the hearth?”
Briar rushes out of the room into the parlor. I shift in bed.
