Page 354 of Commanding Blood And Bonds

Freya had let me in. She was close enough for us to connect mind-to-mind. But when I reached again, I found only ice—frosted and crystalline. My own ice. Guarding her mind.

Despite Nix shoving me forward, I managed the climb. My legs trembled, arms screaming as Merikh wordlessly looped his arm beneath my good one. When I winced, he grimaced—and subtle cooling magic crawled down my side.

You can’t run, his voice slid into my mind.

I glanced at Nix. He hadn’t heard.

I wasn’t planning to. Not in this state.

That complicates things.

What are we walking into?

Your mate unleashed hell on our doorstep.

Sounds about right. Why am I being summoned?

She demands it.

The Queen doesn’t take kindly to demands.

Evidently, she takes less kindly to four members of her Guard strapped to a pyre.

My head snapped toward him. Pain lanced down my spine, but I didn’t care.

Holy shit.

Did Freya⁠—?

No. A beat. Not yet.

Jesus Christ. I wasn’t fond of the Guard—but they were mostly decent men. Elite fighters.

Ingenious. Barbaric. Ruthless. All because she thought I’d been hurt.

I was so fucking sunk.

She is addressing the council now, he added.

My pulse quickened. Is she declaring her duel?

She…

Focus. She what?

His swallow was audible. I think she’s accusing the Queen of violating the Accord of Blood.

The world tilted. No. I’d suspected—voiced it to my father—but hearing it aloud made the ground feel unsteady. I’d known, on some gut-deep level, that my mother had a hand in Valora’s brutal end. I told my father. And he, coward that he was, insisted I was wrong.

Temper surged like molten ore, filling the cracks of my broken ribs.

At the top of the stairs, the grand foyer opened around us. Raised voices echoed from outside. Nix stormed ahead, hurling open the front doors. I tried reaching the hierarchy. Nothing. My mother had cut me off.

But Merikh’s mind still reached mine.

Is she invoking the duel?

She’s invoking something more.