It terrified him.
Worse, it would leave him vulnerable. He hated that thought even more.
Choose.
That was the real game Marthen was playing, and they both knew it. If he didn’t give the wizard what he wanted, Dash would lose and learn nothing at all.
Of course, he could possibly learn what he needed to without Marthen’s help, but time was running out. With or without Renata’s wand, that spell would kill him. And the time to cast it was within the hour of when the next full moon began to wane. If it wasn’t cast then, he’d have nothing to worry about where the spell was concerned.
But he wasn’t that lucky, and he knew it. They had everything they needed to kill him. That poster had been his warning.
Time was ticking.
If that spell was cast, he was finished.
And even if it wasn’t cast, he was still in danger. So long as Renata’s wand was out there.
Just ask the damn question.
He glanced at Tanis and drew a deep breath. Fine. “If I fail in this, will Tanis be all right?”
“That’s the right question, King. And deep in that dark place where your magick lives, you already know the answer. No one in the Thirteen Kingdoms will be all right if you fail. But thequestion you should be asking both of you is what will happen to her if you win?”
Chapter 12
Keryna stood in Renata’s wardrobe antechamber, admiring herself in her rival’s ornate court gown that she’d squeezed herself into by lacing a corset way too tight. Honestly, it was biting into her so badly, she was surprised she hadn’t broken a rib. Even so, it was much prettier on her than it’d ever been on Renata, in her opinion.
As a human, Renata had been painfully skinny with dark hair and eyes. The blood red gown had never really flattered the younger unicorn’s coloring the way it did hers.
I’m the one who looks like royalty.
She picked up one of Renata’s ornate crowns from the shelf to her right and started to put it on her head, then frowned at her image. “I don’t have mousy hair.” Her sisters had just been mean and jealous of her when they’d said that. While it wasn’t the golden blond of her sisters’ hair, it wasn’t really brown either. Definitely not the color of a mouse. Or the texture of one.
Maybe a little. But only because it was coarse and wiry.
“What are you doing?”
Keryna dropped the crown in her hands as the imp’s voice intruded on her thoughts. “Don’t do that!”
The imp scoffed at her. “Should you be playing with jewels that don’t belong to you?”
“Mind your own business, Bink!” Keryna picked up the ornate crown from the ground and put it back before one of the king’s advisors caught her. They still weren’t on her side. Not completely. And if they caught her in Renata’s room, they’d be furious at her.
She’d already had a fight with Kronnel this morning. Last thing she needed was another skirmish with the old bastard who kept threatening to throw her out of the palace. If she murdered him, too, others might begin getting suspicious.
Her only saving grace was that Kronnel didn’t know Renata was dead or that Dash had already banished her. Thankfully, she’d been able to assure Halla that she would tell Kronnel about Renata’s death before the hobgoblin had reached the old bastard.
Halla had been more worried about catching up to Dash than anything else. That was the beauty about trust.
No one asked the right questions. They just assumed things they shouldn’t.
And speaking of...
“What are you doing here?” she snarled at the imp. She was still furious that he and his accomplice had returned to the palace. He’d promised her that he’d drop Renata’s horn in her room and then vanish into another kingdom and never be seen again.
That had lasted all of a few days. Next thing she’d known, they’d returned, telling her about their ploy to kill Dash by using the other kingdoms to provide a bounty on his head.
It was stupid and dangerous.
