“Where are you keeping her?” It was said in a manner of calmness, but Kiran was the type of person where everything that came out of his mouth sounded like a command.
“In the dungeons,” I said. “She’s watched by a set of trusted guards at all hours.”
The king flicked his molten eyes toward the window. “And you said her magic takes over when the moon is full?”
I nodded, following his gaze. The moon still had yet to rise, but it would be any moment now. “I can take you to her.”
“Asha?” Kiran’s voice was gentle, respectful. Asking for permission before he swept her down into a dungeon with a crazed lunatic. Already, I could tell he didn’t want her to go, wanted to keep her as far away from harm as possible.
I couldn’t blame him.
But the Queen of Naenden didn’t seem to hear him. Her back was pressed against the wall, her fingers digging into the sides of her scarlet dress.
“Asha.” The king was at his wife’s side in an instant, stroking her hair as she closed her eye, her breathing going ragged.
And then Ellie was at my side, slipping her fingertips into mine. “What happened? Are you ill?” she asked the queen, but Asha made no answer.
Finally, Asha gasped a breath and let out a whisper. “He’s upset. Panicking. He wants to warn us.”
He?
What in Alondria?
“This way,” Ellie said, leaving my side and gently gripping the Queen of Naenden by the arm. She led her through the ballroom doors and into the corridor, informing the guards that the queen was ill and would need her privacy. Kiran and I followed behind, heat and anxiety rolling off the King of Naenden in waves.
The servants had hardly shut the doors behind us when a voice erupted from Asha’s lips.
It took me all of one second to realize it was not the Queen of Naenden who spoke.
Is she locked away? the voice demanded, low and horrifying and tantalizing all at the same time.
“Yes, she’s locked in a cell in the dungeons.”
It is not enough.
The queen’s expression was horror-stricken and didn’t match the fury that emanated from the voice. She was listening, shocked just as much as the rest of us.
“She’s under strict watch. There’s no getting out of those cells,” I assured her.
She’ll find a way. She always finds a way.
Ellie gripped my arm, her hand shaking.
In an instant, Kiran was at his wife’s side, holding her steady as she trembled. “Give Asha her voice back, or so help me, I’ll—”
Kiran, the voice rumbled, ancient as the dawn of time, and just as weary. It was begging now, pleading with the King of Naenden. You can’t let her escape. She’ll come looking for me. She’ll come looking for Asha.
Queen Asha’s eye went wide. Fury radiated in heat waves from her husband.
When the King of Naenden’s eyes met mine, they were no longer molten.
They were blue as the tip of a flame.
“Where is she?”
“I…” Could I let the king near Blaise in this state? Sure, he had taken a fae vow, bound his life to his promise… But there were ways of breaking a fae bond. With one’s life, for example. And the way the temperature in the corridor had spiked when Kiran glimpsed the terror on his wife’s face, when he’d heard of the threat to her safety…
I didn’t doubt at all that his life was a price he’d gladly pay.
If I let him anywhere near Blaise, he’d kill her.
“We’ll take you to her,” Ellie said, and I squeezed her hand, desperately trying to communicate with her. Could she not see what I saw? There was death in that male’s readied posture. “But it won’t do you any good to kill her. Whatever is inside her is ancient, just like whatever is inside you.” She nodded toward the queen. “It didn’t originate with her, and it won’t end with her, either.”
I nodded, making sense of Ellie’s words. “Just like it didn’t end with Madame LeFleur’s death,” I said, remembering the queen’s theory that the magic that inhabited Blaise had once crept within the shopkeeper’s body.
Kiran swallowed, but understanding washed over his face. When he spoke, his voice was dry. “Just take me to her.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but a door to my left crashed open. Out burst Harold, one of the guards stationed to keep watch over Blaise.
My blood ran cold.
Two words later, and I had a feeling I wouldn’t get that last dance with Ellie. At least, not tonight.
“She’s gone.”
EPILOGUE
BLAISE
