Chapter 8

It took a moment for my brain to catch up to what my eyes were seeing. Meat still clung to the skeleton in places, dried blood flaking off white bone. A few clumps of hair hung from the skull, and on the top of the head, a delicate tiara carved of ice.

I spun away from the sight, back toward the door just as Ryese stepped into the room, followed by Maeve. He raised an eyebrow at whatever expression of horror my face betrayed; Maeve only studied me, her expression evaluating. I squeezed my eyes closed, not waiting to see their reactions to the gruesome scene. I gulped down air—a calming reflex. A stupid one around a rotting corpse. Or at least, typically, but my lungful of air didn’t bring with it the sickly sweet scent of decay. Blayne and then Lyell entered the room, and I dragged down three more deep breaths, before I realized that the air should have been gagging me. Yes, the room was large, and the corpse was more bones than body, but with the amount of gore hanging to it, the smell should have been pervasive. But there was no scent of rot. In fact, the air was as sweet as any in Faerie.

A jolt of shock ran through me. I couldn’t feel the corpse either. There was no grave essence reaching for me. No sense of the body at all.

I glanced over my shoulder, uncertain. The skeleton still sat there, grinning down from the throne. It certainly looked real. But I couldn’t feel it.

“What happened?” I asked, fixing my gaze on the back wall again.

“That is most certainly the question.” The queen sounded like she said the words through clenched teeth, but she’d moved farther into the room and I wasn’t about to turn around again.

“My queen, have you received any other threats?” Falin asked, but he didn’t approach the corpse or follow the queen. Instead he remained by my side.

“Do I need more than one? That is my circlet on its head.” Her heels clicked on the ice-crusted floor. “Lexi, whose body is that and who did this, this grotesque display?”

She made it sound as if the body would tell me just by being in the room. I forced myself to turn, to look at her, all the while trying to keep my gaze away from the corpse. Her council members had moved farther into the room. Lyell had approached the skeleton, but his body language was casual, as if he was studying a museum piece rather than a desecrated body. Blayne and Maeve both had their gazes locked on me, no doubt waiting for me to do something odd and witchy. Ryese leaned on one of the large pillars, watching the queen, not the corpse. Not that the corpse was doing anything, and it wouldn’t either. Not here in Faerie at least. There was no land of the dead here. I’d known that fact, had even enjoyed the release of pressure on my shields. But it meant my grave magic offered me nothing.

“I’ll need the body moved outside of Faerie.”

“No.” The queen clenched her hands in her skirt again. “No one outside this room must know about this. You will find the answers and then the body will be destroyed.”

I frowned at her. “It doesn’t work like that. The land of the dead doesn’t touch Faerie. You want me to raise a shade, that body has to be moved to the mortal realm.” I left no wiggle room in the statement. If she wanted me to raise the shade, we’d have to move the body. With the thought, my gaze flickered to the skeleton. How are we going to move that? I shuddered. I definitely didn’t want to be anywhere near it. I might have an affinity for the dead, but I didn’t do decaying bodies or blood. Or, apparently, skeletons.

The queen released a strangled sound and Falin took a step toward her, his face betraying his concern. “My queen?”

I caught her movement only out of the corner of my eye, but it was fast. Much faster than I would have assumed the aristocrat could move. By the time my head whipped around the queen had a large blade of ice pressed against Falin’s jugular.

“Are you behind this, Knight? You are the only member of court with blood on his hands.”

Falin tilted his head back, but he made no attempt to defend himself. The queen was shorter, but that made her no less deadly. A trickle of blood welled around the frozen blade, trailing a red line down Falin’s throat.

My gaze shot around the room, to the other fae present. All were focused on the conflict, but none moved, offered to help, or even objected. While I saw some startlement in their expressions, the overall impression I got was that they were each relieved the queen hadn’t turned her accusations—and blade—on them.

Falin lifted his hands, palms outward in supplication. “My word, I have no part of this and no knowledge who is behind it.”

He couldn’t lie. The queen knew he couldn’t, but she didn’t immediately lower the blade. She stared at him, the blade pressed against Falin’s flesh. My hand crept to the slit in my gown. My fingers brushed the hilt of my blade. It buzzed against my flesh, emitting a confidence that we could take the queen. I had my doubts, enchanted blade or not. Falin’s eyes flickered to me, and I wasn’t positive, but I thought he gave the smallest shake of his head.

The queen took several deep breaths and then stepped back. Her blade dissolved into mist and she rolled her shoulders, taking on a regal posture once more. I eased my hand away from my own hilt. Ryese was watching me, a knowing look in his eyes.

I ignored him.

“That is reassuring, I suppose,” the queen said, and from her tone, you’d never known she’d just considered slitting the throat of her knight. “Then we’ll have to move the body. I don’t want anyone to see it. Pack it as discreetly as you can.” A large leather knapsack appeared at her feet. “Be quick about it.”

I glanced at the knapsack and then at the skeleton. A chill that had nothing to do with all the ice around me ran down my spine. I pressed my lips together and turned to Falin.

“She wants us to . . . ?”

“I’ve got it,” he whispered, scooping up the bag.

In another situation I might have insisted on helping. Not this time. Losing my lunch on the queen’s throne wouldn’t be helpful. So I relinquished the job to Falin, with only the slightest tinge of guilt at leaving him to the grisly task. Not surprisingly, none of the council members made a move to help Falin.

As Falin approached the corpse, Ryese pushed away from the pillar and turned to the queen. “Dear aunt, are you sure about this? Perhaps we should destroy the body. If rumor of this . . . display were to be whispered about court, you will look weak. And there will be no keeping it from other courts if even one whisper escapes.”

“Would I not look weaker letting this action stand? I will find who is behind it and make a very public example of them.”

Blayne’s eyes cut to me, the move slow and exaggerated. “What if she cannot get that information for you? She is . . . untested. Is it worth the risk?”

As if her gaze were tied to his by a string, the queen looked at me. The frown that tugged down her red lips was uncertain. Half of me wanted to defend my credentials as a grave witch, but another part knew that getting tied up in this likely wasn’t good for my continued health and freedom. Unless, of course, I could swing this to my advantage.

The queen clenched her fist again and began to pace, just as she’d been doing when we’d first entered the snowy clearing. Her movement was jerky, her anger and worry barely contained. Her lips pursed, and she turned at random moments and just stared at me. I straightened my shoulders, trying not to squirm under her assessing gaze.

Finally her pacing brought her directly in front of me, and she stopped. “Can you do this, Lexi? You can question this corpse if we take it to the mortal realm?”

It took all my will to keep my gaze locked with the queen and not let it wander to the skeleton Falin was packing away. A skeleton I couldn’t actually feel.

“If it’s real, I should be able to raise a shade.”

“Should?” Her perfect eyebrow arched.

I left that alone. I’d never actually raised a fae before, not a full-blooded one at least, but I knew it was possible. “As long as the corpse is really a corpse.”

The frown tugged her lips down farther, until it dragged at the edges of her eyes, but she nodded. The body looked real, but Faerie often accepted glamour as real. If it had never truly been alive, there would be nothing I could do.

She started to turn away, but I took a step forward. I pasted on a smile I didn’t feel, trying to look confident. Not an easy task in the froufrou gown. Still, I was about to take a gamble, and confidence was key.

“Of course, you’ll have to hire me to raise the shade.”

“Hire you?”

“That is how these transactions occur.”

She stared at me, her frown giving way to a scowl, but it was Maeve who asked, “Are you threatening to refuse to question this corpse for her majesty?”

And onto thin ice already. “No, I’m simply trying to negotiate the terms.”

The queen crossed her arms over her chest and the abrupt silence in the room told me Falin had stopped bagging the body to listen to our conversation. The council members also watched with a little too much interest. Inside my head I cursed Maeve, but I held my tongue, and kept my chin lifted.

The Winter Queen’s eyes widened. She was shorter than me, but somehow came off as looming. It would have been a neat trick, if it weren’t so freaking frightening.

“I am the queen and you are in my territory,” she said, her voice cutting through the suddenly frosty air.

I acquiesced with the smallest nod. “Yes, and as the law requires, I came to your summons. But if you would like to employ my skills, we must negotiate a fair bargain.” Or, at least, that was my understanding of Faerie law. I’d had a crash course over the last few months, but the finer points escaped me.

The queen studied me for a long moment before giving a hiss of disgust and dropping her hands. “What is it you desire in exchange, Lexi?”

“Independent status.”

“No.”

She said it with rigid finality, and the hope inside me deflated. I needed to create a bond to Faerie for my own and my friends’ survival, and I’d thought I’d been handed a way. Two little letters crushed that chance. I tried not to let it show as I gave her a small shrug.

“Well, then, I wish you the best of luck discovering who is behind this.” I waved in the general direction of the skeleton.

“You cannot walk away now. Negotiations have already begun. We must continue until they are complete.”

Crap. Seriously? I glanced to Falin for confirmation I didn’t actually need—it wasn’t like the queen could lie. He gave a small nod and shoved a long bone into the bag. I tore my gaze away.

So we were locked in negotiations now. And that was why it was dangerous to jump into a situation with the fae when you only halfway understood how things worked. I sighed and considered my words carefully. Fae couldn’t lie but they could twist the truth so backward it was a near thing, and they always tried to get the better end of a bargain.

“So then, little planeweaver, what is your next offer?” the queen asked, smiling at me in the way a predator might grin down at cornered prey. And I doubted the fact she’d dropped the false-familiar nickname she’d given me was a good sign.

From the other side of the room the rustle of the knapsack closing was loud in the too-quiet space. Falin joined us a moment later, the bag slung over his shoulder. The tanned material bulged in odd places, and it was too small. If I hadn’t known a body was in there, I wouldn’t have guessed, but I did know, and the half-masked shapes pressing against the edges made my stomach sour.

“We are ready,” he said, heading for the doorway.

The queen shook her head. “No, we are in the middle of something.”

“Your majesty, can it not be discussed on the way?” he asked without pausing. He passed through the doorway and vanished a moment later.

The queen frowned after him for half a moment, but seemed reluctant to let the corpse get too far. “Come along,” she said before hurrying out of the room as well.

By the time I made it to the hall, the queen had taken the lead, Falin several steps behind. I caught up to him and fell in step beside him.

“Is she always this unpredictable?” I whispered the question as quietly as I could and have any hope he’d hear, but the look he shot me told me I shouldn’t have chanced saying anything.

I didn’t think he’d answer, especially when his gaze darted back to where Ryese and Lyell trudged along several steps behind us, but after a moment he whispered back, “No.”

I glanced at him, but he was staring at the queen’s back, and his features held both caution and concern. I didn’t really understand his relationship with the queen. He’d been her lover once, I knew that, but from what he’d said, that time was long past and he held no love for her now. There must be something between them though—his expression was too complex for him to care nothing about her. I hated that realizing that fact made my chest constrict, ever so slightly.

We turned a corner and reached the corridor with the carved ice pillar. The world fell from focus as we stepped between Faerie and the Bloom, and my steps became heavier, the world darkening slightly. It wasn’t bad though. Noticeable yes, but not even so bad as leaving the pocket in my father’s house.

Which was why I was completely unprepared for actually reentering mortal reality.

When I stepped through the door leaving the Bloom I stumbled, gasping under the weight of reality as it slammed down on me. The world spun, my knees locked, and I pitched forward. Falin caught one arm, the startled-looking bouncer—a green-skinned goblin—caught the other. They were the only reason I didn’t hit the wooden floorboards headfirst.

“What is wrong with her?” the queen snapped.

I couldn’t see her, my vision hadn’t cleared yet, but she sounded close.

“She’s fading.” Falin’s hand supported me physically, but his words were hard, unemotional.

My vision was clearing—at least to the point it ever did in mortal reality, I always missed the clarity of Faerie after leaving—so I had no trouble seeing the queen as she stormed over to Falin and grabbed a handful of his hair, pulling him down to her height.

“And this is the first I’m hearing about it? Why did I even bother sending you to watch her?”

Well, I guess that explained why the queen had gone from preventing Falin from speaking to me to ordering him to live with me. Not that it was any great surprise; I’d assumed he was there to spy for her.

I stepped out of the hands supporting me. I nodded to the goblin, but I didn’t thank him. You didn’t thank fae. Now that I’d gotten used to the achy exhaustion that had crashed on me upon reentering reality, it no longer seemed so crippling. I rolled my shoulders, already growing accustomed to the feeling.

“Are we going to do this thing?” I asked, moving for the door.

The queen hadn’t released Falin yet, so he stooped at what looked like an uncomfortable angle as she studied my face. Anger still flickered around the edges of her features, but there was concern there as well. I wasn’t foolish enough to think it was concern for me as a person, more concern for her potential asset. If I faded she couldn’t have her own pet planeweaver.

Her lips pursed, as if she was about to say something, but then her gaze slid to the short goblin who shuffled nervously in her presence. She released Falin and stepped back, smoothing her dress. “Yes. Knight, take us somewhere we will be undisturbed.”