Grave Visions(93)

In the past she’d struck me as manipulative, narcissistic, and cruel. But never mad . . .

“My queen,” Falin said, kneeling between the Winter Queen and me. It was unlikely that she had failed to notice the fact he’d physically blocked her access to me, but he hurried on before she could rage about it. “Alex has been a friend to our court. She discovered an amaranthine sapling and has brought it to your court. She’s also brought a traitor’s conspirator for you to question.” He motioned to the bound bogeyman, who had very wisely remained still and hadn’t drawn attention to himself while the full weight of the queen’s fury had been focused on me.

Now, she finally turned to the bogeyman. Her pale lips curled back in a disgusted sneer as she studied him. “What say you, you repulsive little man? Are you sworn to a member of my court?”

Tommy looked up and smiled at the queen. It was a disturbing expression with his mouth of pointed teeth and the blood dripping down his face, tinting the water around him.

“I will never say, Queen of Ice.”

Her fist balled in her once full skirt, ripping at an already frayed seam. “To whom are you aligned?”

“You may ask until your last breath, but I will give you no names.”

If he’d been human, I’d have applauded his bravado, but guessed it wouldn’t have held long. But he was fae, and he promised it with such conviction of truth, that I guessed he was bound not to reveal the alchemist.

“There are ways to loosen your tongue, hobgoblin.” The queen motioned to Falin, who drew his two wickedly long daggers. They flashed in the unearthly light and I gulped. I wanted answers. Needed them to complete my bargain with the queen, to stop the influx of Glitter on the streets, but I hadn’t signed on for torture. Of course, what had I really been expecting? An interrogation room with a table, a couple of chairs, and a two-way mirror?

“Shall I take him to Rath?” Ryese asked, making a step toward the bogeyman. “We could start him on the rack.”

My stomach flipped and if the late breakfast I’d eaten hadn’t been quite so long ago, I might have been revisited by the food. Instead I just felt queasy. The urge to run out of the room and disassociate myself with the whole thing was strong, but I was a part of this. If I wasn’t going to protest, I wasn’t going to wash my hands of it either.

The queen pursed her lips. “No, I don’t think that will do. While I have no doubt he will eventually break, I do not wish to devote that much time in the creature.”

“Will you truthseek, Ice Queen?” The hobgoblin asked, still grinning that terrible grin.

“By your gloating expression, I’m assuming that would be a fruitless exercise as you are oath bound to reveal nothing.” She leaned down until she was eye level with Tommy. “Funny things about oaths—they bind only until death. Knight, kill that creature.”

Falin, who couldn’t disobey a direct command from his queen, jerked the hobgoblin to his feet and pressed a blade against the smaller fae’s exposed throat. For the first time, the smile fell from Tommy’s face, the whites of his eyes flashing as his eyelids drew back as if he could manage to see more of the danger that would somehow show him a way out of it. But it didn’t. Had he so much as breathed hard, the blade pressed against his throat would have bitten into flesh.

While Falin couldn’t directly disobey, he could stall. “My queen, are you certain? If I kill him we will not get the answers you need.”

“Do not question me, Knight,” she snapped. Then she turned and fixed her fever-mad gaze on me. “And we will most definitely get our answers.”





Chapter 26





“Kill him now, Knight.”

I didn’t even see Falin’s arm move. One moment the blade pressed against Rawhead’s throat, glinting in the strange light. Then the blade vanished.

For several long heartbeats, Tommy Rawhead looked stunned. Then his head toppled forward, and tumbled down to roll through the puddles on the throne floor. Falin released Rawhead’s body a moment later, and it crumpled to the floor in a lump.

I screamed. It wasn’t a conscious decision, the sound just burst out of me as an arc of blood gushed from the now-headless neck. I scrambled back, but the puddles of melted ice and sleet diluted the expanding blood pool, mixing and spreading it far beyond the body.

“Now we will get our answers. Planeweaver?” The queen turned to me, and bile bit at the back of my throat.

I doubled over, my stomach heaving, but nothing but dry hacking came up. Falin was suddenly at my side, his warm fingers brushing my sleet-encrusted curls away from my face.