“No, she doesn’t appear to be. But she was inside the beast when it lit on fire.”
When she ignited it.
It had to have been her; she was the only anomaly here. The Salt soldiers didn’t know how to fight my creatures, and neither did Reza. He had tried to pull magic and use King Rusul’s crown when he’d first approached it, using his powers from the Court of Salt and the crown to unmake it.
I wondered if he would succeed—he was able to weaken it, like he had weakened all the life magic in our Court.
But he couldn’t overcome the beast. It had fought back, had been able to resist his power. I needed to examine what that meant later, because if I were able to raise a hand against him using death magic, that meant we had a way to take our Court back.
Without the crown, and without my family locked in Tirich Mir.
Yaseema let out a whimper, and my gaze swung back to her as she reached up and wrapped her arms over her face. For some reason I didn’t want to examine, my heart gave a lurch to see her waking up. At her movement my cloak slipped from her shoulders and slid down her torso. Badrah bent down to examine her, whisking the rest of my cloak off her body. I whirled around, realizing belatedly that she was naked.
Ramishah, the kitchen girl, shot me a look as if to say,what are you still doing here?and I looked away from her.
But something in me didn’t want to leave.
You just want to know how she killed it. That’s all.
But if Reza was now healed, he was likely spitting mad about the rebel attack and needed to be calmed down.
“I’ll leave her to your ministrations,” I said to Badrah, nodding at the kitchen girl before stepping out of Yaseema’s room and closing the door behind me. But even though I had closed the door on her, and even though she seemed unharmed, I couldn’t block out the image of her inside the beast I’d made, burning it down.
* * *
I returned to the great hall, which had been cleared of everyone, but tables were still upturned and food scattered across the floor. The decorations from the festival were strewn about the room, with intricate curling vines torn in half from the mad stampede caused by the creature. I bent down to examine the remnants of the beast, trying to glean some understanding of how this could have happened.
What had she done to burn it to cinders?
Something gold glinted in the pile of rot and ash, and I reached for it, pinching my fingers around the slender jewelry. It was the golden frame that the human used to see through, but now the glass was broken, the arms twisted, the object not fit for its purpose any longer.
Still, I picked it up and tucked it in my pocket before standing again.
“Where have you been?” His voice was sharp in the destroyed room.
I turned to find Reza standing a few feet behind me, Salt soldiers flanking him.
“Sir,” I gave a clipped bow. “I was just about to—”
“Save it,” he snapped and shot his arm out, grabbing me by the shoulder.
I shouldn’t have been shocked, because I knew it was coming.
Reza only touched you when he wanted to hear you scream.
But he wouldn’t get that satisfaction from me.
He lit my blood on fire when his poison filled my veins and I fell to my knees with a heavy grunt. The stamp of his magic would be emblazoned across my skin, and I could already feel the burn forming as soon as he touched me. It was the mark of the Salt Court. Having that mark was the real torture; this pain I could endure.
His punishment lasted a full minute, until I was gasping on the floor, my palms slick with sweat, acid rising to my throat as my body rebelled against me.
I’d survived his torture before. I would survive this too.
He needed me too much to kill me now.
When he lifted his hand from my neck, I released a shudder, a small moan escaping my lips. The only sound of pain he would hear from me.
I waited a minute. Two.
