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I stared at her, baffled.
“Now.”
The man fell to the earth, gasping, his throat intact but bruised from my grip.
My treluria gave me a tight nod. Still holding one hand to her middle, she walked closer, her eyes on the general and the soldier. “Do you recognize me?”
Her voice was cold. Imperious. She’d turned that tone on me at the tower where everything went wrong, but it still made pride rise up in me to hear it leveled at this man now.
My treluria was a queen. Yes, an imposter sat on her throne and dared to pretend to deserve her place, but it changed nothing of what my treluria was born to be.
The general and the soldier stared at her, and it was the stupid general who recovered first. Rage and contempt filled his face, and he looked at her like she was scum he’d found beneath his boots. “I recognize the cowardly snake who murdered her own father. Execution was too good for you, bitch. Your stepmother should have rid the world of an ungrateful whore like you?—”
His words cut off with a squelch.
My treluria blinked at me as I drew back, my hand coated in the man’s blood and his heart in my fist.
“He should not have spoken to you that way,” I explained.
Silence reigned.
Unbothered, I sniffed the organ, debating whether to taste it, but it reeked of fried foods and too much drink. Disgusted, I tossed it aside.
“Well, um…” Clay coughed awkwardly, and his voice was tight when he continued to the soldier, “Looks like you’re the only one left, buddy. Care to answer our questions now?”
The smelly man’s eyes darted across all of us, and a terrified whimper escaped him. “Please don’t eat me.”
“Better tell us what we need, then,” Clay replied.
I liked this twin indeed.
“There was a young man in these woods,” Dex said. “Dark hair, brown eyes, tall but slightly shorter than the rest of us. Have you seen him?”
The soldier’s mouth moved for a moment before he found his voice. “I-I can’t. Please. She’ll kill me.”
“Who?”
“The queen.”
Clay chuckled wryly. “Yeah, uh, she’s not here, so…”
Apparently, that did not matter to the soldier. He only trembled harder.
“Whatever it is,” my treluria said gently, “I will protect you. My allies will too.”
The man’s eyes darted to me as if incredulous she would offer such a thing when I’d just killed his companions.
“Just answer us,” she continued. “Please.”
Trembling, the man moved just enough to lift his wrist. A thick band of metal clung to him like a skin-tight bracelet. The outward-facing portion was rounded and made of iron with brass trim on the edges. The entire surface was covered in engravings that looked like they were carved in brass as well.
My lips peeled back in a snarl. Those markings were wrong, somehow. They did not move and yet my mind swore they were crawling around the metal like worms.
“Uh, nice jewelry,” Clay said, but his tone held more discomfort than sarcasm. Seemingly without realizing it, he and the other giants were recoiling from the band.
“What exactly does that do?” Dex asked.
The soldier trembled and said nothing.
