The Paragon was right—I really was bound to the Night Court. The will of magic had to be keeping them in check—it must have been what kept that rando night fae from killing me, too.
“Ah. Ah-ha-ha-ha,” the Paragon uttered a canned laugh. “Isn’t she funny? Thank you for your presence this morning. I shall show Queen Leila her new lands. Good day.”
The Paragon zipped up the driveway, which curved around to the back of the house, taking us around the corner, which instantly muffled the outrage of my insulted Court.
“You are a new kind of crazy,” the Paragon grumbled. Even though he was moving at a pretty quick clip for such an old guy, I was able to keep pace with him since I was just a tiny bit taller than him. “Or even worse, you are fearless! I said not to let them bother you—not that you should pick a fight!”
I shrugged. “Since they’re never going to like me, it’d be better to show them that I don’tcarethat they don’t like me. Wouldn’t it?”
The Paragon sourly scrunched up his lips. “They’re bound to your will. You could have made them hold their tongues with the magic of the Court.”
“I’m not going to be a tyrant.”
“You’re going to bedeadif you insist on acting fearless and stillstick to your moral code,” the Paragon grumbled.
We climbed the stairs of a gorgeous patio, only to descend them on the other side as he led me into a tall garden walled in by huge hedges.
Just as the Paragon stepped through the wooden archway that marked off the garden entrance, I saw movement in the shadows of the castle-house.
It was the fae from my parents’ place. The one who had tried to murder me.
Chapter Seven
Leila
He wore the same clothes—the long, dark gray jacket that let him blend in with the shadows, the leather bracers, and the smudgy gray scarf that covered the lower half of his face. But it was his eyes that struck me the most—as dark and lifeless as death.
“Paragon,” I hissed urgently as I felt ice spread through my veins, making me cold despite the warm summer day.
The Paragon backed up several steps. “What do you—oh.” He broke off when I pointed to the fae.
“That’s the fae that tried to kill me.”
“Him?” The Paragon grimaced. “Out of everyone in the fae kingdom, whyhim?”
“Who is he?” I asked.
“Lord Rigel of the Night Court, also known as the Wraith. Although he’s a high ranking fae noble, he’s an assassin by trade.”
My heart thudded in my throat, but I felt it was my civic duty to break the tenseness of the moment. “How good of an assassin can he be if youknowhe’s an assassin?”
“It’spreciselybecause he’s that good that he’s known,” the Paragon said. “He’s one of the most dangerous fae lords in the United States—North America, even. It’s an open secret that he’s available for hire, but he’s so good there’s never any proof that it’s him. His position as a high ranking noble in the Night Court leaves him politically untouchable.”
Rigel didn’t move, but there was something about him that threw all of me into high alert, and my heart beat faster and faster as his black eyes didn’t look away from mine.
“But I saw him,” I said.
“Did you physicallyseehim shoot you?” the Paragon asked.
I tried to swallow. “No. He was on the roof of the barn then. But after he hopped down to the ground he tried to throw a dagger at me and some magic—the stuff that keeps fae from killing their monarchs, I think—blocked him from harming me. I think he was mad.”
“If he showed himself, mad is avastunderstatement.”
“That’s really comforting to hear.” I was almost afraid to blink—would this nut attack me in broad daylight in front of the Paragon?
“Sadly, there’s nothing you can do about him. With luck, whoever hired him to kill you did it on a long shot. As you discovered, he can’t hurt you directly given that he’s a member of your Court.” The Paragon sucked his head back into the gardens and shivered.
“What aboutindirectlykilling me?” I asked.
