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I could lie to myself all I wanted to, but even a woman as beautiful and alluring as The Sapphire Speaker, whose touch was skilled and delicate, whose tongue danced with mine in such perfect unison, could not raise my passions the way The Raven so easily did.

I wanted to hate him for that. I wanted to revile and loathe him for the stirring of my lust being as simple as a heated look from him where it had always been an icy plain that needed tending to. I needed to hold on to that bitter hatred and let it sit in my stomach and grow bountiful because, as much as I wanted to grow soft and wanton in The Sapphire Speaker’s arms, it was but a pantomime of what The Raven drew out of me.

She broke off the kiss, breathless and her eyes glazed with yearning. “I can see why you captivate him so thoroughly, my dearest Pearl. If you kiss him with half as much skill as you have kissed me, you will be a welcome addition to our marital chamber. Would you like that, sweet girl? To be the cherished pet of the Ard Banríon and the Ard Rí? To serve their pleasures and be pleasured by them?”

I smiled up to her and simply nodded. She would have no oath from my lips nor promise of future desires. I had learned my lesson when it came to the manipulations of the Fae, and I would not fall prey to them again. Not now that I knew what lay behind the curtains.

She purred against the seam of my lips and flicked her tongue along them. “Come to our chambers when the King returns from his sickbed. I would put you through your paces before we accept you as both of our pet. Delight me, and I will ensure you a thousand lifetimes of pleasure so pure and sharp that you will never wish to leave our chamber.”

Her teeth bit into the plump petal of my bottom lip and then she was gone.

I waited the span of ten heartbeats before turning and spitting in the doorway. Vile creature. Vile imposter.

Whether she knew she was in my place or not was irrelevant. She had grown complacent in the arms of this palace and saw nothing before her but humans she could bend and twist to her whims . . . like the rest of them.

I looked up to the portrait of my parents and turned the hatred in my heart over and over in the fertile soil of my mind.

“I will get free of this place,” I whispered up to my parents.

My father’s laughing eyes on his stern face seemed to wink at me, blessing my promise with his attention.

I wish I had known him. What secrets could he have imparted on me? His stormy silver eyes seemed to hide tomes and tomes of hidden knowledge I would have spent a lifetime hearing him whisper as I grew under his tutelage.

As I swept my way back through the various salons, I wondered if the ghosts of Canai eter Duthracht were restless or if they slumbered in the old stones of the once palatial manor home. I hoped they were just as active as the ones that haunted my soul.

Chapter 40

Ihad been avoiding him, and I’d managed to get away with it for two whole weeks with Goose’s help. There was no avoiding my duties, though thankfully, Daróg had still not been cleared to leave the infirmary in the Temple of the Ascended. I was shuffled between the salons and the throne room, both empty each time I entered. Whomever was deciding my rotation wanted me well and truly away from the other Fae. They wanted to keep me hidden as much as possible.

Whenever I’d hear his signature boot strikes on the stonework or floorboards, Goose would envelope me in shadows and pull me into what I called the “Goose Realm.” I didn’t know if that was actually a thing, and the one time I had asked him about it, he stared at me like I didn’t know the fucker was capable of talking.

The Goose Realm wasn’t an entirely separate world but was merely a pocket of space that could not be seen by other Fae. Humans seemed to be able to see it just fine, as I accidentally found out, trying to sneak up on Violet while she was sulking one evening. The stool to the head was adequate payment for my mistake.

Each time The Raven swept into a room, seeking me out disappointment and confusion warring in that handsome face of his, my heart shattered a little more. It must have been twinkling dust by now. The agony of its destruction was my payment and sacrifice for what I needed to do to see my plan out. I couldn’t be distracted by his entrancing smile nor the way his hands felt against my skin.

I couldn’t be haunted by the whisper of what we could have been. I needed to stay focused. Now that I had a mental map to navigate the obstacles of exit, I needed to be strong for the three humans I had chosen as my vanguard. I could not be taking deep breaths of his scent while he hunted around the room for me.

He had just left the throne room, where I was hiding behind Goose, waiting for The Oaken Rose.

I had sent her two messages, the first telling her she had two weeks. Emerald had crept into her chambers and left the message pinned to her pillow as she slept. It was a clear and present warning. If she had heeded it, there would have been no reason for the spider that was left with the second that had demanded she meet me here.

I had watched her flit through the court, “the blooming rose in the garden of weeds,” as she liked to call herself. Charming everyone.

I hated her. Not just for the place that she would eventually claim in his life but also and in equal measure for what she had done. She had tricked me, and I would not let that barb sink any lower. It was time to take control of where she sought to reign.

The whispering swish of a midnight-blue silk dress heralded her entrance as she closed and locked the throne room door behind her. Now, seeing her in the same light, and in the same place, I don’t know how I had missed it the first time around. How I had not placed her exactly in this room when I found her in the garden.

The roses blooming in her hair reminded me of the spider I had killed down below and was currently rotting under the stones of this palace. I idly wondered where exactly that prison was nestled below as The Oaken Rose searched the throne room for me. What rooms lay above the shards of my mother’s body? How many floors above her was I at this very moment?

I stepped from the shadows of Goose’s protection directly behind her. Goose twisted and coalesced back into his tall, shaggy, smoky dog form at my side. He was always at my side these days, even when he could not be seen by the other Fae.

“Are you looking for someone, my lady?” I knew exactly who she was looking for.

She jumped, startled by my shattering of the silence that enveloped her. “Oh! Cricket! I didn’t see you there.”

The attempt at an innocent tone that matched her sugary sweet tone she’d used on me in the garden was adorable. Too bad it was hiding venomous fangs below the crusting of sweetness.

“I’ve been here all day, my lady.” I tilted my head to her. “Were you looking for someone?”