AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Myraim sighed. “The both of you have more weapons on you than I’d like to allow into my home. If you want to enter further, I need you to drop everything and leave it in the foyer.”
I snorted. “Do you really think I’m going to do that?”
She pointed a finger at me, the purple-smoke cigarette still hanging between her fingers. “I know you’re after my husband right now. There’s no way I’m letting you take me down, too. You can have that bastard, but you can’t have me.”
Taken aback, I said, “Why would I hunt you?”
Her lips tightened. She looked to Arven. Something passed between them. Arven seemed to grow in size beside me. He became towering, so imposing that fight-or-flight almost kicked in for me. Myriam shrank before him. She became small and lowered her gaze like she couldn’t bear looking at him anymore.
“What is going on here?” I asked out loud because I was tired of standing just outside of the conversation.
Myriam half-turned away from us. “Follow me.”
The defeat in her voice should have told me a lot, but I was missing so many of the context cues that I needed here. It seemed wrong to be here. I should have been out, hunting Locke.
That ogre, the one who haunted my dreams because of the siege on my childhood home, worked for Locke now. I hadn’t expected to see him working for Locke, and the sight of him left me feeling like I was missing a few pieces of a puzzle. While I thought I knew what this puzzle should look like when it was finished, I had a feeling it was going to turn into something completely unexpected.
I would find out here, today. I could feel it, and the anticipation left the coffee curdling in my stomach. I considered tossing it in the potted plant as we passed it, but I couldn’t take my frustration out on a plant that had nothing to do with Myriam and her husband.
Arven passed the wolpertinger to me. I’d forgotten he even had it on him until the small thing burrowed its furry face into the crook of my neck. Its little antlers scraped my cheek, but there was enough peach fuzz on them that the sensation was almost pleasant.
Hands now free, Arven pulled a long red banner from his pocket. My veins immediately turned to ice at the sight of the fabric. Though the paint was smeared, I could still recognize it as one of the flags that’d flown over the siege of my home.
I dragged in careful breaths, trying to steady myself. It was just enough to allow thought to flow again. Now, so many years removed from the event itself, I wondered how the paint on the banner could be smeared. The banners in my own childhood home were embroidered with care. I couldn’t imagine someone being so sloppy as to paint their emblem onto fabric.
Arven tossed the banner onto the table in the dining room as Myriam was taking her seat. At the sight of it, she dropped the rest of the way onto the chair and seemed to deflate. Her eyes remained trained on the banner as if it held evidence of all her past sins.
Then Arven procured a small, blue wax seal. He dropped that onto the banner for Myriam to see.
“I was wondering when this would come to light,” she whispered.
I swallowed hard. The wolpertinger lifted its head and sniffed my cheek, leaving a trail of wet little kisses as if it wanted to help me. I imagined it could feel my thundering pulse from its position so close to my throat.
“Your husband had something to do with the fall of the Eveningwind Court,” Arven declared. “Didn’t he?”
Myriam pressed her eyes closed like she expected Arven to lop off her head right then and there. When it didn’t immediately happen, she cracked open an eye and glared up at him.
“And if I say I had nothing to do with this, what then?” Her voice shook ever so slightly.
Red flashed in Arven’s eyes. His anger would get the better of him soon. It only ever seemed to be over me, I realized. He’d lost control and became a full beast when Locke dropped me with a poisoned bolt. Now, as we questioned the fate of my people, Arven strayed close to losing control again.
I reached out without thinking and put a hand on his arm. His attention flicked to me for an instant. That was all we needed for the world to pause so we could have a silent conversation.
Don’t lose control for me, I wanted to say.
And his gaze said,Only for you.
I abruptly looked away, my heart hammering a new kind of beat. It was wholly unexpected, especially when butterflies unfurled in my stomach.
“Tell Delphine what really happened,” Arven commanded.
Myriam sighed and slid deeper into her seat. “I want you to know I had nothing to do with this.”
“You’ve said that once already,” Arven snarled.
I reached out again, nails digging into his skin to remind him now was not the time. I yearned to know what had him so disgruntled. Why was he so quick to anger here? It had to do with the banner and the wax seal, but I had no context as to why. He must have gone back to my ruined home for the banner. Had he found the seal there, too?
Myriam had all the answers I needed; she was just being stubborn about sharing them.
