“Can fae get drunk?” I whispered to Brielle, because this was not the way Ephaltes normally acted.
But Brielle didn’t answer me. She was glued to Ephaltes and nodding at his ranting. I gripped her shoulder and gave it a gentle shake. “Brielle?” I hissed.
She glanced at me. “Do you hear him? He makes such good points.”
What?
I checked the rest of our little group, and they all seemed to agree. Even Dearan and Dedalus nodded along like Ephaltes was some sort of genius. I whirledaround to find all the other nobles—hundreds of them—agreeing with Ephaltes.
This was not normal.
Ephaltes unsheathed his sword again and pointed it at Bylur. “I challenge you to duel for leadership. If I win, you step down, and I will rule as king.” Nobles clapped and cheered. When their voices died down, Ephaltes continued. “If you win, everyone here will support your council.”
The applause was more hesitant, as if they truly thought Ephaltes should be king.
Which made no sense. He’d never shown any signs of leadership, at least not while I’d been here.
And why was everyone agreeing? There should have beensomepeople who disagreed. Someonealwaysdisagreed. At the least, Dearan and Brielle should have supported Bylur. They always did.
Something wasn’t right.
Bylur had to see it too. The way he tipped his head toward Ephaltes told me he was trying to figure out what the fae had done. But what—
And then I saw it. The medallions hanging from Ephaltes’s neck. I’d watched dozens of meetings, and recognized one of them. Ephaltes always wore it. The other was brand new—I’d never seen it before, and it sparkled more than the older one. The fae who died this morning used a similar medallion to throw Ivodar across the hall. And they’d said they’d sold Ephaltes something he needed. And—
I tried to picture the last few meetings. I could only remember two, but in both of those meetings the people who argued about the council were sitting near Ephaltes.
And Ephaltes never sat next to Bylur.
And the people who sat closest to Bylur never opposed him.
Ephaltes was using magic to control the situation. And it was connected to those medallions. I was sure of it.
I skirted away from Brielle and her group, ducked around a dozen other nobles, and hovered just outside of the shadows surrounding Ephaltes, who continued to rant. “People let you lead because you’ve scared them all. But I’m not scared. If you kill me before we have a fair fight, everyone will know you were afraid of me. Me and all the smaller houses like mine!”
I eyed the older medallion. It was latched with a simple clasp behind his neck, one I could certainly undo without him noticing.
But if I got close enough to touch it, everyone would see me passing the ring of shadows around Ephaltes. Someone would call his attention to me before I reached him and his messed up medallion.
Bylur drew a sword. “If a fight is what you want, a fight is what you’ll get.”
I looked up at my husband. His mask made it impossible to see where he was looking, and everyone probably assumed he was glaring at Ephaltes. But I feltthe weight of his attention on me. Ifelthim focus on me.
And he’d just drawn Ephaltes’s attention. I could grab the medallion with a simple distraction now.
“Wait!” I cried, running forward and crashing into Ephaltes’s side. “Ooh! Sorry!” I pushed off of him with one hand and unclasped the medallion with the other. “Sorry.” I palmed the medallion and patted Ephaltes’s arm. “Sorry.”
I raised a palm toward Bylur to complete the distraction. “Wait! Do you really want to interrupt your party with a fight?” I glanced over at Brielle to see if taking the medallion had broken her support. She and Dearan looked at each other with confused expressions, and Dedalus grew his usual scowl.
“She’s right,” Dedalus growled from the side. “We don’t need to interrupt the party. Just kill the little usurper and let’s be done.” I was so relieved I laughed.
Ephaltes, however, palmed his chest. Horror filled his face when he realized what I’d done.
Bylur slid his sword back into its sheath as shadows converged on Ephaltes. Before they reached his face, he raised a hand and threw some small object in front of him. It erupted into a shimmering oval—just like the portal I ran through when I first came to this kingdom. “This isn’t over!” he yelled, running through the portal. It blinked out of existence the moment he passed through it, leaving a pile of writhing, swirling shadows behind.
Bylur extended an arm to me. I reminded myself to walk up the steps like a lady. When I stood next to him, he wrapped his arm across my back, letting his hand land on my waist. “Lady Auria,” he announced. “Would you like to tell everyone what just happened?”
I nodded. No, actually, I would notliketo tell everyone, but, yes, I did know what happened, and I did want everyone else to know too. I just needed to ignore the fact that I was talking to a huge crowd of magical fae nobles.
