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“Debatable.”
“. . . and I know Valen told you to hide our faces if anything goes awry.”
“Feel honored to be trusted by Kase and the king,” I added, sneaking another sly grin at Elise. “For there are more fearsome, more—how should I say it—intimidatingwarriors who might’ve been chosen. Like Prince Sol, or what is his consort’s name?”
“I am just as fearsome as Torsten Bror,” Ari snapped. “In fact, before I knew who Valen truly was, I was king, and Tor, Halvar, even the bleeding king weremyprisoners.”
“You don’t say?” I knew this, of course. In moments alone, Kase had filled in gaps of what he knew of the Northern uprising. The brief reign of Ari Sekundär had made me like the fae even more. His immediate abdication to Valen proved he cared little for titles, and more for what was best for his folk.
Ari huffed, spinning on his heel, so he walked backward to face us. “I do say. I was incredibly formidable. Elise will tell you.”
Before the queen could deny or affirm, a squawk echoed in the trees. The incredibly formidable former king jolted and whipped his gaze back to the trees.
In the same breath, Elise and I let out muffled laughs behind our hands.
Ari glared at both of us. “We’re going to walk in silence from now on,my queens.”
“Oh, you do not know the meaning of the word silent,” Elise began, but stopped when Ari held out an arm. “Ari, we’re only—”
“Quiet.” His voice was gentle, but firm. The sort of tone that lifted the hair on the back of the neck.
Only when Ari drew the short blade from his sheath did I realize the head of our small caravan had halted. From this distance, I could not make out Kase in the darkness. Something had brought him to an abrupt stop.
My teeth clenched. I reached for the dagger on my thigh. Elise already had two stiletto throwing knives in her hands.
Sound seemed to die. Not even the rustle of wind shivered the few dried leaves in the trees. I swallowed, and the sticky sound of the gulp seemed to reverberate like a bellow against the web of dead, frosty branches overhead.
I inched to Ari’s side. The ambassador hadn’t taken his eyes off the front, he hadn’t blinked. His height would give him the advantage, and I could not stomach another silent moment when my husband was the one who faced threats first.
“What do you see?” I said, moving my lips only enough to get the sound out.
“Someone is approaching.” Ari’s grip tightened on the hilt of his sword.
Expected. This was expected. I repeated the words in my head, heart racing. No doubt guards or Southern warriors would come to inspect visitors. Kase knew we’d be questioned. Whether he would admit it or not, that was the exact purpose Ari was placed near the queens. To shield us in illusion if needed.
Confident as I was in Kase’s ability to convince even the shrewdest skydguard to bend to his will, my pulse hammered in my head like a smith bludgeoning hot steel on his anvil.
“I think it’s another guard,” Ari said. His tone lost a bit of the fear. I almost breathed again when a small grin cut across the ambassador’s face. “Thought it might be one of the blood fae. We wouldn’t want to—”
Ari’s words were drowned out by a wretched scream. The sort of sound that pierces the bones and rattles the skull.
Chaos surrounded us. Darkness devoured any light from the stars overhead in thick, murky shadows. We were swallowed up, shielded from the front of our caravan. I hadn’t caught my breath before the earth swayed and shifted, knocking me to my knees. Unbidden, a scream ripped from my throat when the scrape of stone on stone echoed through the trees as deep scars of shattered soil split beneath our boots.
Somewhere in the darkness, Ari gripped my upper arm, pulling me into him. Elise was there with us. As the world shattered around us, he did not forget his two charges.
“Kase!” I screamed his name until a deep burn dug into the flesh of my throat. This was his work. Something happened at the front to draw out his suffocating darkness.
The shattered soil could only be Valen.
My screams faded beneath the pitch of animalistic screeching. Hisses, roars, bellows from men. The night was enveloped in cries. I could see none of it.
A cool wind rushed past my head.
“Malin!” Elise called my name. I couldn’t see the queen, but her sharp, rapid breaths brushed over my cheeks. “Hells. Oh, hells, what was that?”
Whatever had touched Elise slithered across the skin of my arm. Wet, hot, the sensation oozed down my skin, coiling around my wrist, threading between my fingers, licking up my neck. Slow, methodical, and almost sensual.
Afraid to slash my blade with Elise and Ari so near, I clenched my eyes and stiffened against the disgusting touch.
