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“I won’t succumb.” My voice was hoarse. “I won’t let it change me.”
“Good.” Nua squeezed my shoulder before letting go and taking a breath. “Anyway, yes. You deserve a day off. You’ve worked so hard. Far harder than the Brid ever did.”
A tiny kernel of pleasure let me smile at my brother. At least it was all worth it. At least I was making a difference. And surely it would become easier with time. It wouldn’t be like this forever.
“Thank you,” I told Nua, the relief audible in my voice. “I’ll be fine after a day. I just want to spend some time with Lonan. Do something relaxing.”
“Tomorrow?” Nua offered. “You only have one meeting, with the royal merchant overseer, but we can reschedule that. It won’t be anything pressing.”
I snorted. “Just asking me if I want brass or gold eyelets on my boots?”
His mouth quirked. “Most likely.”
“Okay. Tomorrow then.” I sat up straighter, smiling as excited warmth filled my stomach. I couldn’t wait to tell Lonan that we’d get a whole day together to do whatever we wanted. I could finally teach him archery. Or we could spend all day in bed, answering the door only for Jora to bring us food.
Whatever made him happy, I would do it.
Chapter Fifteen
Ash
I ended up working even later than usual thanks to the chief spy appearing in the palace that evening, saying he needed to speak with me urgently.
“We have seen the unseelie prince lurking at the edge of seelie land several times now,” he told me, which made me sit up straight in my throne.
“What?” I barked. “Lonan has been going to the forest?”
“Not him. The eldest. Balor.” The chief spy, Morrin, couldn’t keep the disdain out of his voice, his lip curling. He was a tall, lanky fae, and with his deep brown skin and glittering eyes, he reminded me of an insect. “Often alone, but sometimes with a small retinue of guards. Your serpents can get closer than we can, my king. Perhaps it is time you call them back to speak with them.”
Fear skittered through me. I knew that as seelie ruler, I had dominion over all cattle and serpents—excluding Mol and Gadleg—and could apparently converse with them. But how the fuck did that work? Morrin had been telling me for weeks to call back the serpents who acted as spies for the seelie ruler in the forest so they could tell me what they’d heard and seen. I hadn’t done it yet because I didn’t want to look like a fool when everyone expected me to be able to magically understand snakes, yet no one was actually telling me how. I was reminded, much to my distaste, of constantly being told to “shed my mortal skin” when it turned out that no one had any fucking idea how I was even supposed to do it.
“Maybe,” I muttered. “But it’s not like he can get onto seelie land. So what danger is there?”
“He is planning something,” Morrin said bluntly. “He has to be. Perhaps he only wants to kill the exiled prince, but it could be something more.”
I gritted my teeth at that statement, at the flippant way he referred to Lonan’s brother potentially planning to murder him as if that wasn’t a big deal. A fucking enormous deal.
Except I already knew that wasn’t what Balor was skulking around for. He wanted Lonan for himself. And he wanted Lonan to help him kill the Carlin. “Well, Lonan isn’t going to leave, so he’s safe. Keep watching them.”
“Of course, Luad.” Morrin inclined his head. “And as I said, perhaps it would be wise to call back your serpents to—”
“I will,” I snapped, embarrassment setting me on edge. “But I’m asking you to watch them too.”
The chief spy paused, then nodded once. “Yes. Of course, Luad.”
I took a breath to try and calm down. “Is there anything else?”
“The north shores remain free of unseelie,” Morrin said in his flat, matter-of-fact voice. “No one has attempted to cross the fingerstones. The Carlin has not left unseelie land, nor have her other two sons. We heard some unseelie visiting Orna’s market say that Prince Bres has not been seen for many weeks.”
I tensed. “But he definitely hasn’t tried to reach Hybra?”
If the Carlin had figured out that Gadleg’s venom could kill me and was going to send any of her sons to try and retrieve it, it would be Bres. Cethlen may have been cunning and wholly capable, but he was still blind, and the journey over the fingerstones was treacherous. Balor was too important to her to risk his life. Which left Bres.
“No, he hasn’t attempted to cross the fingerstones. He hasn’t been seen in the forest at all.”
I frowned, wondering where Bres was and what he was doing, but unless he was trying to hurt Lonan, and until I decided to go and kill him alongside the other two brothers, he wasn’t a major concern.
“Keep an eye out for him,” I told Morrin. “But Balor is the bigger threat. He’s the worst of them.”
