Auri made a sound of distress behind me, but I was already halfway out of the apartment, Isanara at my heels.
“After,” I promised Auri over my shoulder. She had to come with us, anyway.
I should have paid more attention to the tears running down her cheeks.
CHAPTER 50
KORYN
The tower buzzedwith excitement as we joined the mass of courtiers returning to the masquerade. Many had dispersed to nearby rooms to partake in the physical matings that the Winter Tithe at Balar Shan demanded. Had it been only an hour ago that I’d been wrapped in Garrick’s arms, with Syleris’ mouth on mine? So much had shifted in that time. Maybe not for the better. I had more answers. But those answers only underlined the danger of our situation.
There was no doubt that we were heading into the king’s domain. The presence chamber was symbolic of fae royal power. Even in covenant with Auri, I was at a disadvantage.
Isanara pressed in against my hip.
Would you listen if I sent you back down to our room?
She snapped her jaws—fangs within inches of my hand. I didn’t flinch. A fae male nearby crashed into the wall in his haste to get away from her.
No,she added. I’d already gotten the message.
What if I mentioned protecting your hoard?
My hoard is well protected in my absence.
What did that mean? But I did not get a chance to ask. The crowd spilled into the presence chamber but then stopped.Instead of spreading out around the dais and lining the walls, there was a strange bottleneck. A row of onlookers, several people in front of us, was not moving at all.
I took the moment to brush my fingertips along Garrick’s sleeve. “We cannot stay long. If I can feel the talismans, so can Maura and Elodie. They will know they are nearby, no longer hidden.”
“As soon as we can slip out,” Garrick agreed. Once the king’s spectacle concluded, there was no reason to stay in Balar Shan. We had the talismans. We’d collect Garrick’s mother, and we would flee. Hopefully, the ongoing celebration of the Winter Tithe would give us enough of a head start that we could reach the Unknown Gate before any pursuers.
Maura would come after us. She would not let her plans unravel gracefully. She would kill us all if she found out.
My power moved in my veins, the icicles clinking against each other like wind chimes and echoing in my ears. I’d felt my power before, of course. But I’d never heard it. Was it responding to the proximity of the talismans? I shivered. I spent half of my damn life shivering. But this was not the Dark God, and it was not the cold.
Something was wrong.
My fingers closed around the edge of Garrick’s sleeve. We had already stopped, but he felt the change.
“What is it?” he asked.
It took me a few seconds to recognize, short as I was. But even over the heads of the taller fae courtiers, the thrones should have been visible.
“The dais is gone.”
Garrick’s head whipped around to verify for himself. He was tall, even among the fae, but many of the costumes for the Winter Tithe boasted feathers or helmets or ornate crowns, and he’d been distracted.
But why would the king remove the dais? Whatever the spectacle was, wouldn’t they want everyone to see it? I doubted the king himself would be content to watch from among the lowly courtiers in lieu of his throne.
Garrick pressed us forward through the lines of onlookers, now spreading out to get a better view. There was something to see at the center of the presence chamber, even with the thrones and dais removed.
Stay close, I urged Isanara. The last thing we needed was to be separated in this melee. But she was already pressed into my thigh, her tail wrapped around my arm that wasn’t tangled up in Garrick.
That wrongness I’d felt before built with every step. Every brush of an arm against mine or heated exhale in the crowded space ratcheted my anxiety higher. Fear—I’d seen fear in Auri’s eyes. I’d assumed it was because of the talismans, but I felt it now, myself. I could not even attribute it. I was just… scared.
Garrick stopped moving. We hadn’t reached the front of the crowd. But he could see over their heads, now.
His hold on me tightened to the point of pain.
