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15
LONNIE
THE OBSIDIAN PALACE, THE CITY OF EVERLAST
Only a short time later, Thalia’s prediction came true, and an entire war council worth of hungry vultures descended on my bedchamber.
Prince Scion paced angrily around the tower, a veritable cloud of incandescent rage. Shadows seemed to erupt in his wake as he walked, materializing and fizzling as quickly as they’d come. The shadows fell over Gwydion and Aine, who were seated on the silver braided rug, but seemed to avoid Thalia, who leaned against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Well?” Scion demanded finally. “What the fuck happened?”
I sighed, annoyed with his erratic behavior, and shifted where I sat on the bed. “Starting when?”
He paused his pacing, seeming to consider that question. “I don’t know. Whatever you deem important.”
That gave me more leeway than he should have, and I might have abused it had the topic not been so dire.
I explained the beginning of the attack in Inbetwixt with as much detail as I could recall, and they all stared at me with rapt attention. I squirmed, uncomfortable with their scrutiny. It seemed impossible that not only were they listening to me, but no one had yet interrupted, threatened me, or asked me to leave. Like they’d all forgotten to hate me in the face of more pressing issues.
“I don’t understand,” Aine said finally. “The earth tremor was first?”
“It’s always first,” Scion replied. “The afflicted carry so much Wilde magic it disturbs everything around them. Tremors, storms, enormous waves. We’re lucky it wasn’t worse.”
I nodded in agreement. I hadn’t been old enough to fully understand the impact of the disaster in Aftermath when I lived in the North, and certainly not when it first occurred, but I could recall the tremors and the smell of death and flames.
“Who sent them?” Gwydion asked.
I froze, feeling as if I were caught. Could I—should I—say I feared it was me? No, of course not. If there was ever a time to heed my mother and lie, it was in this moment. “I don’t know.”
“How many were there?” Scion demanded, still pacing.
“I don’t know. Dozens, perhaps?
“What do you know?” he snapped.
I gritted my teeth. “I know you have afflicted moving into the south,my lord. What the fuck are you planning to do about it?”
He glared at me. “I don’t know,my queen. Isn’t that your decision now?”
His temper was more tempestuous than a summer storm, and I had no idea what to make of it.
When he’d left my room after our—admittedly intense—row, things had seemed to be heading in a calmer direction. However, when he’d returned some thirty minutes later, he took one look at me, still sitting at the vanity with Thalia, and scowled, his mood immediately turning blacker than the shadows now literally leaking from his fingers. The only good thing about his return was he’d brought his enormous raven, Quill, who now sat perched on my knee, preening as I stroked his feathery head. Most of the court seemed to despise the bird, but I’d always liked him. Far better than I liked his master, that was for damn sure.
“Personally,” Aine said lightly, reclining backward on the rug, “I would like nothing to do with the decision-making, but I do suggest that we not leave it exclusively up to either thehumanor thefoolwho lost Ambrose mere hours before the afflicted appeared.”
My ears pricked up at that. They’d lost Ambrose? As in, AmbroseDullahan. If they’d ever caught him in the first place, it was news to me.
“Fuck yourself,” Scion growled. “I wouldn’t have told you if I knew you were going to go on about it for the rest of our damned immortal lives.”
“Just as you deserve, frankly,” she quipped, examining her long, painted fingernails. “I don’t know why we’re arguing about this when we all know exactly how the afflicted got here—”
My heart stopped.
“—obviously, Ambrose summoned them,” Aine snapped.
My heart beat again.
“Be quiet, both of you,” Thalia said, pushing off the wall. “This is exactly why you are having these problems. You are relying too heavily on physical strength from a few individuals while ignoring every other aspect of your government and allowing yourself to be weakened from within by petty infighting.”
