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“What’s going on? What’s happening?” I asked Liath.
“Shhh,” he shushed me, though I hadn’t been speaking that loud. “When the Shadow Throne is roused to anger, it takes some time for it to become inert again. Great Aunt Acosta was a poor fit for it and it takes exception to being offered such a bad candidate.”
“I didn’t know it was alive,” I whispered.
“It is and it isn’t…the whole thing is fucking complicated,” Liath muttered. “Oh look—it’s stopped. Thank all the gods that ever were.”
He was right—the fist-sized ruby set in the upright back of the Shadow Throne had stopped glowing and the writhing lines of blood that filled its carvings were moving much more slowly.
As soon as the deadly red beam stopped shooting through her eye, Great Aunt Acosta slumped. Slowly, her body slid out of the throne and down the steps of the dais, coming to a rest on the ground in front of it. The Shadow Throne had rejected and killed her in the space of less than a minute.
I had never seen anything like it.
Liath started towards her inert body but I put a hand on his arm to stop him.
“Is it safe?”
“It is now,” he told me. “Gods, I’ve only seen it do that once before—when my sister tried to sit the throne and take it from my mother.”
“Wait…what?” I exclaimed. “You had a sister? And she tried to usurp the throne from your mother?”
Liath sighed.
“Yes, though I’d rather not fucking talk about it. It’s one reason my mother abdicated. She loved my sister, you see—even after Gelenta tried to take the Shadow Throne from her. It broke her heart to lose a child and so…she left.” He looked down at me and barked an unhappy laugh. “Do you see now why I didn’t judge you when the Pool of Seeing showed us your cousins fucking? I’ve got no room to judge—my family has its own sordid past.”
As he spoke, we finally reached the foot of the dais where Great Aunt Acosta lay. Her right eye was open but unseeing. Her left was nothing but a charred black hole in her head.
“Gods…”
Liath shook his head and ran a hand through his hair.
“I can’t fucking believe she tried that! She’s never been a candidate to sit the throne! Back before she went completely mad, she knew that.”
“I’m sorry, Liath,” I said awkwardly as he gathered the old Fae’s body into his arms. Even if she had tried to kill me, she had been his last living relative and I felt his pain.
I could see his pain too, I suddenly realized—there were black motes clustering around his head like a swarm of gnats. I wished I could wave them away, but I knew his sorrow wouldn’t be so easily dismissed.
I walked with him as he left the Throne Room and carried his Great Aunt down to the family crypt in the basement of the Winter Palace. It was cold down there—freezing in fact. I could see my breath coming out in white puffs but I said nothing as Liath laid his Aunt to rest on an unmarked gray marble slab.
“The mortuary attendants will come to tend her later,” he said in a low voice. “I have done all I can for her.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “If only I could have stopped her from trying for the fucking throne!”
“That wasn’t your fault,” I told him. “She was mad, as you said. And clearly her madness had been building for some time.”
“Yes, well, that’s clear enough.” He sighed and looked at me. “I’m sorry, little bird—she tried to kill you. I should have protected you better—I should have known.”
“How could you?” I asked reasonably. “She wasn’t in her right mind, Liath. None of this was your fault.”
He shook his head.
“I should have seen it—should have known the madness had eaten her mind enough to make her dangerous.”
“The only thing that’s really dangerous here is the Shadow Throne,” I said seriously. “I know you think I should be able to sit it and take the crown of the Winter Court—”
“Not now—not for many, many years, little bird,” he said quickly. “Your magic is coming along nicely, but you’re not ready yet—not nearly.” He took me by the shoulders and crouched down, to get to eye-level with me. “Swear to me now you won’t try to take the throne until we both agree you’re ready. I know all the prophesies say you should be able to, but I don’t want to take a chance on losing you. I couldn’t fucking bear it!” And he crushed me to him for a long moment.
I put my arms around him and hugged back, inhaling his warm, masculine spice and feeling safe and protected. I felt something soft on the top of my head and realized he had kissed me there.
