“Ahaha.” Dion used the fake laugh he trotted out whenever he was trying to smooth a situation over. “Gossip is such anuglyword. Do let us return to civilities and polite language—”
“The screams were hard to miss,” I said.
“Ahh, Lady Chrysanthe does have a lovely set of lungs,” Queen Leila said.
“Quite,” I agreed.
Dion and the queen’s steward stared at us both for several moments of silence. Dion, particularly, gave me the stink eye.
I stared back at him.
While I’m not sure our queen’s blunt way of speaking will have a positive influence on the Court, I’m going to enjoy it as long as she’s around—or as long as that particular quirk survives. Once she realizes we’re bound to her will I imagine it’s only a matter of weeks before she has us dancing to her orders like puppets.
It was an idea I did not look forward to, though I was relatively skilled at evading royal orders. But the thought alone was enough to make me push another one of our half human queen’s buttons.
“You brought a gun to a hunt?” I asked.
“Yep.” She gave me a bored look. “Because I, unlike the rest of you fae, apparently, live in the twenty first century.”
“It hardly seems sporting given the rest of us are armed only with bows or crossbows,” I said.
“Oh please.” Queen Leila snorted. “If you were feeling particularly motivated, you could kill someone with a toothpick.”
“Queen Leila,” the steward said in a voice that quivered with fear. “Perhaps we ought to ride on?” The steward lost some of her poise and looked distinctly sick with fear as she glanced at me.
“The toothpick would be unnecessary,” I said. “Nor would a gun.”
“Whatever!” The night mare started walking off on its own accord, but Queen Leila clung to the back of the saddle so she could shout to me, “I’m not the one who is an openly acknowledged assassin—talk about bad business practices!”
“Queen Leila,” the steward said in a tight, quiet voice. “You cannotspeaklike that to Lord Rigel.”
“I totally can! You just don’t want me to.” Our entertaining queen stuck her nose up in the air. When the night mare moved into a smooth-flowing trot, her body gracefully moved with him, even though she couldn’t possibly see anything like that.
Yes, she is quiteamusing when she’s angry. Like a puffed-up kitten.
“It’s fascinating, but she doesn’t seem to fear you. I don’t know if that’s admirable or not, though. Even Queen Nyte knew enough to avoid you.” Dion glanced over at me. “You really enjoy winding her up, don’t you?”
I laid a hand on my mount’s shoulder when it pawed the ground. “She has entertaining reactions.”
Dion turned his horse in a circle. “That’s all?”
I shrugged. “I am attempting to provoke her to see if I can uncover her thought pattern—it would help me ascertain the Night Court’s future.”
“And?”
I watched the giant night mare disappear back around the bend they had come from. “If she has a pattern, it’s not one I understand.”
“What do you think that means for the Court?”
I paused—as amusing as the new queen was, my main concern would always be how she would upset our precarious balance.
She hasn’t found her place yet, but when she allows herself to act freely, she’s like a night mare—fierce and overwhelming.A queen like that leading a Court where a whisper can change the whole power structure?
I nudged my horse forward. “Nothing good.”
Chapter Sixteen
Leila
