The air sizzled around us. At the door, my guards tensed, ready to subdue—someone. I hoped it was not me.
Would that I had summoned a cutting remark or witty comeback to this. That my words were like a surgeon’s blade, carving him up with elegant ease.
I slammed my hands upon the table. My chest heaved and my cheeks grew hot. Tremors shook the ground beneath my feet, and alarm colored the features of those around me. I breathed deep, forcing my tone to become calm. No, not calm. Utterly cold. “The Dark Fool may not dare to show his face. Perhaps you, Lord Elidor, should have followed his example.” I straightened slowly, arms outstretched, palms flat and pushing outward. The blood roared inside me; flame coursed beneath my skin, as if it might pour from my outstretched fingers, but I was too far gone to care.
I pushed, and trees swayed. The dome of sky overhead cracked, rained down debris upon the table. Would-be council members cried out in alarm and pushed themselves away. The ground beneath them rippled; a fissure opened, emitting bubbling magma like a chasm to Hell.
With an immense groan, one of the trees fell over completely, smacking across the table, while weeping fae leapt out of the way.
I did this.It did not fill me with the horror it ought.I meant to.Elidor challenged me. He deserved to feel my power.
The peasant girl inside me grew quiet, uncomplaining, unafraid. What was there to fear anymore?
I was Faery, and Faery was me.
And Faery was in control.
The assembly stared open-mouthed.
I lowered my arms and gentled my expression. No longer need I worry it made me look weak.
“Never mistake your true queen for a powerless insect,” I said quietly. “She is no mayfly, but a wasp with a poisonous sting. The Dark Fool, does he make no appearance before the mortal moon grows full, I will bar from Faery evermore.”
A brief gasp came from Lyel at the doorway, then the room grew silent. I glanced to see how Lord Elidor took my words, but there was no sign of him, save for a long-fingered hand reaching up from the magma one last time.
Is this all it takes to murder a fae? How easy it has become.
Too easy. I could not let him die.
Even as he was sinking lower into the magma, I grabbed hold of Elidor’s hand, pulled him free. He screamed, as unholy a sound as ever I had heard, while his skin blistered and his silvery hair burnt to a crisp. The Aos Sith was not so pretty now.
“One mercy I give only,” I told him. “Never think you shall earn another. Nor are you and your comrades welcome in my presence ever again.” I beckoned Lyel from the doorway, and he and his colleagues escorted Lord Elidor and the rest of the Aos Sith out.
I stroked the thorns encircling my neck and, when they bit me, smiled at the pain.
“I do need to select a council from among your number,” I purred, peering through slitted eyelids. I looked to the remaining fae before me. “If you could each in turn explain how you served my mother or why you think you would be a suitable choice, I would be ever grateful.”
When our business was done, I returned to my chambers to find the Dark Fool sprawled across my bed.
Thirty-Six
Propped on one elbow, Amadanlanguidly stretched out, displaying to their best advantage the toned muscles of his long legs. He wore velvet in the green of the deepest forest; a crown of ivy encircled his ebon curls.
Flame coursed inside me. I wanted to throw it at his head. I wanted to carve out his liver with my own perfect nails and feed it to the devouring earth below.
He had led the Hunt against my Thomas, then disappeared completely. I never thought I would see him again.
The bark upon my bedpost trees curled up and grew black. Roses dropped from the canopy, smoke rising like incense in some ancient temple, but it could not overpower the scent of forest loam and green moss, that touch of innocence made profane.
The overwhelming air of the Dark Fool.
He could not be here now. Had he any chance of buying my good will, it had long since passed.
“Amadan, go!” I waved my hands at him, and sparks flew from my fingers, sputtered out and dropped like ash to the carpet of grass.
He slowly sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and winding his arms sinuously around the bedpost. “Now is that any welcome for someone you as much as summoned?”
Did he notknowwhat a perfect target he made in that position? If only I had a bow and arrow.
