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I put a hand on Fife's arm, wincing a bit at the wild sizzle of magic that crawled over his skin. I had a feeling he would gladly continue to taunt our fae captive out of pure spite. But I just wanted to get this nightmare over with.
"We have more than enough evidence and suspicion to arrest you and any co-conspirators and pack you off to the capital for trial." I glanced at Gambol one last time, my heart breaking. "I doubt the royal inquisitor, the jury, or the king will be lenient with a case of attempted assassination."
They would be swiftly and severely punished. Probably in some public fashion. King Wolfsbane would make an example of them. I would be very surprised if they weren't executed. The thought settled heavily in my chest as I looked at my oldest friend.
Gambol glanced between me and his sister, his face pale and his breathing uneven. “Jig,” he breathed, half-pleading, half-demanding.
She just narrowed her eyes at her brother. “Shut up, idiot.”
"Get her down and secure them both for transport," I ordered, truly hating the weight of my steward position for the first time in my life.
Fife whispered and made a graceful gesture with his hands, spooling his magic back inside himself. The net spell dissolved, shifting to some sort of immobilization spell that allowed the royal guard to secure enchanted cuffs to Jig's wrists. They did the same to Gambol. Once they were both secured, Fife dissolved his magic completely, his features fading back into his normal, unfairly pretty, appearance.
I stared at Gambol in confusion as the enchanted cuffs stripped away his personal magic. His ear points had vanished, leaving behind rounded, human ears. The full-blooded lowborn appearance he had worn for as long as I'd known him was…a glamor. Fife was right. Gambol had been hiding who he really was.
He must have mixed human heritage, then, like me. But why would he hide it? It was no crime to be a lowborn fae, even if you didn’t have the pointed ears of a full-blood. And I certainly never would have judged him for it. We were the same…so why would he hide this from me? None of it made any sense. Jig’s ear points also vanished when her magic washed away, which was ironic, given the slurs she had flung at me moments before. But it was Gambol who mattered to me. I wouldn’t expect his sister to tell me her secrets. She had always hated me. But Gambol…
As the guards passed by with Gambol and Jig in tow, I reached out and grabbed my friend’s upper arm, halting the procession. "Why, Gambol?" I whispered. "Why did you help her? What was the purpose of any of this?"
His hazel eyes met mine, full of sadness. "I didn’t know,” he insisted. “I…suspected, maybe. Knew that she was getting involved with people and things she shouldn’t be. But…I never thought she’d actually try to hurt you, Kat.” His shoulders slumped. “Jig…and some of the rest of our family. You know how they are. And they started saying…that Larkwood deserves a better leader. Someone who understands how powerful our territory could be. And,” he glanced ahead, to where the guards were manhandling Jig into a carriage. “Well, I knew their attempts to make things difficult for you wouldn’t stop you.” He gave me a sad, wry look. “You’re far too stubborn to give up your position. Then…things got worse and…even after you almost died twice in a row, you wouldn't just step down or abdicate your stewardship. I knew that. But Jig’s never had the same faith in you that I did." He scoffed. "She always told me I was meant to be more than the bumbling friend of a small-minded steward who simpers over every order from her dear, sweet monarchs."
I stared at him in confusion. But his eyes flicked behind me, to where my mates stood silently at my back, and he closed his eyes as if the sight pained him. "You've brought strangers in to take over Larkwood. Our home. Some part of me started to think maybe Jig was right all this time." Then, for just one brief second, I saw the bitter pain before his expression snapped back into place. It seemed like Fife was right about more than the glamour where Gambol was concerned. "You never really cared about us at all."
Us. As if he was talking about Larkwood and its people. When really…he was talking about himself. I had broken his heart when I came home from the capital with four new highborn mates.
“If you truly cared about me,” I said softly, “you never would have let things go this far.” I met Gambol’s eyes and felt a hole opening up in my heart. “You knew she was trying to get rid of me. You said you didn’t know she’d try to hurt me, but you had to suspect that was what was going on after the fire, and the rockslide. And yet, you never spoke up.”
He swallowed hard. “I wanted to. I meant to. That day I came to visit you a the manor. But my jealousy got the better of me and…she’s my sister, Kat. They’re my family. I wanted to tell you everything. But doing that would probably mean they would be imprisoned, banished, or…probably executed. I thought I could get her to see reason and back off.” Tears stood in his eyes now, barely held back by his rapid blinking. “How was I supposed to choose between the people I love?”
My throat ached. I wanted to say that choice was simple and obvious, since I had never done anything to try to harm anyone. But I knew it wouldn’t feel that way to him. “You weren’t just protecting your sister, then,” Bach said as my mates joined us. “You said your family. Why does your whole family want Kat dead?”
But I didn’t need to hear Gambol’s answer. Because I already knew. “So they could take over the stewardship,” I said flatly. “The king and queen passed them over decades ago, when they chose Lady Rose to be the steward of Larkwood. Gambol’s grandmother complains about it all the time.” We had passed them over in our search for noble suspects, because Gambol’s family were mostly middle-class now and had no high-stakes business reasons that might motivate them to want a new steward. And because Gambol was my friend.
Gambol pressed his lips together, like he had more to say about the matter, but didn’t dare implicate his family any further.
“And I suppose the miner who stole mage dust will turn out to be one of your relatives as well, won’t he?” I said tiredly. “I hope this grudge and a little dwarven coin was worth it to your family when they stand trial before the king and queen, Gambol.”
He gave me a confused look. “What do you mean? No one in my family has stolen anything.”
But I waved him away. I didn’t need to hear any more lies, or denial, or weak excuses from him. The inquisitor would get the whole story from him and Jig soon enough. It wasn’t my problem any longer, no matter how much it hurt. “Go on,” I told Currant and the others. “Get him out of here.”
"I told you so," Fife whispered smugly as the guards hauled my ex-friend away.
I turned to glare at him in disbelief. "Are you gloating right now? I just lost one of my oldest friends!"
He shrugged and lifted his aristocratic highborn nose in the air as he adjusted his immaculate jacket. "Clearly he didn't think he was just your friend. So sad, when a male can't handle rejection."
I shook my head in disbelief. But Fife's nonsense distracted me just enough to ease a bit of the tension that had held me upright during the entire debacle. "You're ridiculous," I hissed at him in a whisper as the Queen's Hands came to stand before us and the city guard dispersed to patrol the area. Fife just smirked.
"Thank you for your help," I told Steel and his companions with a respectful nod.
His serious expression finally cracked, and he gave me a small half smile. "It was our pleasure to do our duty to the queen and her honored daughter."
I didn't think he was referring to Amaryllis with that daughter bit. And it made me tear up. I blinked rapidly at the reminder of the affection the royal family displayed toward me for all to see. Gambol was wrong about the monarchs and my devotion to them. It wasn't a blind or one-sided thing. I knew they could be terrifying and harsh, mercurial and enigmatic, but I also knew the king and queen had the best interests of their people at the forefront of everything they did.
I half-turned toward Fife to include him in the conversation. "Did you know about Gambol the whole time? And why wasn't he caught in the net?"
Fife shrugged. "I knew something was off with him. Like I told you, I sensed duplicity in his aura the first time I saw him. But…Kat, you were never going to listen to me, not when he was your oldest friend. And…I admit, my own jealousy was every bit as toxic as his.” Then he gestured toward the area where his net spell had been moments before. “The net was crafted to target the magical signature I got from the sites and from that sniveling worm who tried to make you into hippogriff food. Gambol must not have been present during those specific events. And the spell was only meant to ensnare those with intent to harm you. As much as it pains me to admit it, if Gambol’s heart and his motives held the desire for harm, he wouldn't have been able to leave the square. The spell had elements to sense intent. And yet, he had to be caught and held here by Jasper and the others. The fact that he could have run away means that he didn’t want you dead."
