The Nightwalkers turned left ahead of us, and we followed. The distance to the castle did not seem long enough at all. Not when I needed to map out what the queen would want: information, control, and, incidentally but also pleasant to her, the chance to punish me. She must be delighted that I had fallen in love and she had maneuvered my bride to murder me. All the recent tally marks in this endless game of ours were on her side.
But none of that mattered as long as Bismyth and Cara and I walked free in the end. My pride was nothing.
The queen’s receiving room was all pale stone and living crystal; the kind of beauty that reminded one of her power, of all her stolen magic. The queen stood at the window, wearing yet another ethereal gown that could not have been fashioned from mere fabric.
She turned when we entered, her face brightening as if she were glad to see us, a beautiful smile writing itself across her lips.
I had been reading my mother’s face since before I understood that reading was key to my survival. The quality of her attention this morning—bright, interested, settled—told me she’d already decided every turn in this conversation.
Cara stood beside me. Her heartbeat was elevated, but her face was composed.
“Fieran.” The warmth in her voice was its own kind of weapon. It used to persuade me when I was a stupid boy. “And your wife.”
“Mother.” I kept mine easy. “You wanted to see us.”
“I heard there was some excitement this morning.” She moved from the window, unhurried, precise, the way she moved through every room she’d ever occupied. “Your wife leapt from the overlook. To get away from you, Fieran?”
She smiled, inviting me into the joke.
There was no hiding that Cara hadn’t shifted. Couldn’t. “Her dragon is reluctant to shift. We’re working through it.”
Her gaze moved to Cara. Settled there in the way she settled her attention on things she was assessing, both unhurried and inescapable. “I see. And before that? Your marriage has been so very short, and already it seems so very troubled.”
“Cara is worth any trouble.” I smiled down at her as if she were not trouble made mortal.
Cara was not reacting to the false smiles being flung around the room like weapons. There was stiffness in her shoulders, in the line of her throat, in the way her throat bobbed suddenly as she swallowed as if it were difficult.
My mother offered Cara an enchanting smile. “I wanted to congratulate you. On surviving the Hunt.”
“We’re difficult to kill.”
Might as well get to the point of the conversation. That was what she wanted to truly know: why was I still alive, and how could she fix that vexing turn of events?
“Yes. I heard there was some difficulty. In the labyrinth.”
“There were several monsters. That’s generally the design, for some reason.”
“She tried to kill you, Fieran.”
The words landed into the quiet of the room with the precision of a knife thrown.
Yes. She did. She saw your little performance with her family, your careful arrangement of every piece, and she drove the blade toward my back while I was trusting her blindly, and if Lightbringer hadn’t…
“Did she?” Pleasant. Mildly interested. The tone I used when someone had said something I found beneath me.
My mother’s eyes sharpened. “You’re not angry.”
“She was frightened. She’d been through a great deal. The circumstances were?—”
I let a note of dry ruefulness into my voice, the note that invited the listener to feel they were being let into a secret I’d rather conceal. “Not inspiring her trust. But we are working through it.”
“She would have put a blade in your back.”
“She tried.” I let my gaze move to Cara briefly, fond and slightly exasperated, nothing more, and then back to my mother. “She has shifter volatility and mortal aim. I have quick reflexes and great affection. I’m still standing.”
“And we are supposed to believe you are not at all hurt by a murder attempt?”
“Annoyed, of course, but only that.” A lie. I was furious. “I understand exactly why she did it. As I’m sure your Nightwalkers already reported, she slept in my bed last night. I know, and I understand, and I do not hold it against her.”
