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But now, there was a reason. “Gather the troops,” I said, swallowing, “I want them ready within a fortnight.”
Silas snorted, “Your Majesty—”
“The queen has decided,” Tiernan said, standing. He had been so silent, I’d almost forgotten he was there. “Send your scouts, and see what you can find, and get our forces mustered.”
Ourforces. The looks on the faces of my council members at Tiernan’s use of the word was hard to miss. In their eyes, he would never be a part ofoursorus. A Day Court Fae couldn’t ever be.
I shook my head solemnly, “Do as I’ve asked. Tell them only what they must know and nothing more,” I implored Silas. “If I’m wrong, each and every soldier in my army will be paid handsomely for their wasted time.”
The baron of finance choked on the wine in his chalice and looked as though he might faint. But he said nothing, just stared at me in horror. The baron might pray I’m right just so we don’t bankrupt the kingdom.
But I pray I’m wrong—that itwasa bluff. That we can find the Mad King and kill him before he’s able to raise an army or cause any more harm to the denizens of my court.
Praying has never gotten me anywhere.
Chapter Two
Liana
The chill evening air pricked like ice against the furnace of my flesh. “That’s it,” Kade said, “Slowly.”
We were training as we’d been doing each day since our return to palace nearly ten days past. And my Graces were becoming easier to control. Fire was still the most difficult, but that was why we trained next to the ocean shore, there was nothing to burn and it was far from anyone who might happen upon us.
The land was wild here. The trees growing in the sand far in the distance gnarled and moss-covered. The shores littered with shells and petrified wood, softened by the eternal tumbling of the ocean’s currents.
I pulled at the fire Grace in my core—but gently. As though it were a rabid animal I were coaxing from a dark corner. Afraid it might bite. I lifted my hand and with a small flick of my wrist, a curling orb of flame seeped out from the pores in my skin. Rested, hovering just above my palm.
Kade nodded his approval, “That’s it. Now, just alittlebigger.”
This was the part I always struggled with. Once the fire had started, it was quick to grow out of control—just as a forest fire would be. Coaxing miniscule amounts of my Grace forth from my core, I bit down hard on my bottom lip to keep it in check.
The orb swelled as I channeled the heat down through my arm, into my wrist, and out my fingertips. But then the floodgates were open, and I couldn’t find the crank to shut them again. My eyes widened at the sudden rush of power, and I aimed my palm away from Kade and Alaric. Blasted the water with a horse-sized ball of leaping, turbulent fire.
The ocean swallowed it. The water simmering and then sputtering, spitting out steam from its surface.
Kade puckered his bottom lip, “Well, it’s better than yesterday.”
I groaned in frustration, “How long did it take you to control it?” I asked Kade, falling back onto the sand to stare up into the darkening sky.
He clucked his tongue, and Alaric came from where he was watching a safe distance away to sit down next to me, “You really don’t want to know,” he said.
I rolled my eyes and heaved a great, loud sigh. “Why does everything have to be so damned difficult?”
“Speaking of difficult,” Kade said, blocking my view of the red-stained sky with his fat head, “I was thinking,” he started, glancing toward Alaric as though the captain may not like what he was about to say, “I think you should train in hand to hand combat. There are times like—like what happened with the bindstone that—well,” he stammered, scratching at the back of his head, “What I mean to say is there are times when having that skill is necessary.”
And there it was again—that look in his eyes. As though he was hanging from the end of a rope.
Alaric told me to let it be. That he would come out of it and realize the truth on his own—that what happened in the ruined palace wasnothis fault.
Kade wouldn’t look at me, and he’d hardly touched me in the days we’d been together since… since I’d died. And if I wasn’t mistaken, he’dthrownour last game of chess. I had even tried to let him get ahead. Give him a better chance to win, but he’d put himself in a corner—had practically begged me to check his king so the game would be over.
I wanted my Kade back. And he better hurry up because I wasn’t sure how much longer I could stand to see him this way.
I turned to Alaric, finding him staring into the wispy clouds on the horizon in pensive, taught, silence. After a time, the tension in his face lessened, and he turned to look at me and Kade, “He’s right. It’s important that you learn how to defend yourself without the use of your Graces.”
It had been months since I’d last trained with the seven sisters on the Isle of Mist. Della had been a weapon embodied in woman-form, but she’d only taught me the basics. What need would a queen have to use that sort of skill? That’s what Thana said. Little did I know she was only trying to keep me from growing stronger, so she could do the Mad King’s bidding without me putting up too much of a fight.
“It’s a good idea,” I told Kade, “Will you teach me?”
