Piper (Queen's Birds of Prey #4) - Kathi S. Barton Page 0,66

each other, the humans would be fighting with us. It turned out that one of my own kind was the one that ended my reign. I was fed iron. So was my lady wife. She was with child when she was poisoned, to the point of her losing the babe. Then her own life was taken before it was figured out what had been going on. My own brother—he wished to be king in my place.” Piper asked him if this bother was still alive. “Nay. My Rose killed him while taking her last breath. He is no more. But what he did beforehand, it’s taken everything that we have held dear from us.”

Piper got up and began pacing the room. He could feel the touch of her magic. Basil wasn’t sure he could have stopped her, so he didn’t try. She might well hurt him, and he just couldn’t let that happen. Things depended on him telling them what was going on. When she stopped suddenly, he watched her.

“May I touch you?” He put out his hand, and she said she needed to touch his heart. “It’s there where the iron is. I wish to see how much there is.”

“Plenty, I’m told, to have killed a lesser fae.” Basil stood up and opened his shirt for her. “I’m to understand that iron does not affect you. I wish I had thought of making that a reality for my family as well. Things would have been so—”

“Hush. I need to hear.” He did so and watched her face. She had a lovely face, but expressionless too. She would defeat all with that look. No one would be able to tell if she was bluffing or that she had—

The pain took him to the floor. Crying out with it, he had to stay conscious enough to tell his guard to stand down. There wasn’t even enough of his strength left to do that, as it turned out. Basil lay on the floor, his body aching so badly with each breath he took that he knew he was surely going to die. Begging for Grant to come to him so he might pass the magic on to him, the younger man stood over him and his mate to protect them. His guard stood down when Piper told them to get out of the room.

Basil woke. He didn’t move for fear it would drain more of his strength away. There was so much to do right now, and he knew time was wasting. When a movement caught his eye, he turned toward it to see who was in the room. The candle being lit was all it took for him to see Piper sitting in the room with him.

“You’re a fool. I’m sure that if you have good advisors, they have been telling you the same thing.” Basil told her he thought they might be a little more afraid of him than she appeared to be. “I’m not afraid of you. Not at all. However, there are a few things you should know and a couple more that you need to worry about. Your brother isn’t dead. He will be as soon as I find him, but for now, he’d still alive and kicking.”

“No, I saw him die.” Piper just cocked her pretty brow at him. “All right. For the sake of argument, he’s still alive. Where has he been these past years? I’m sure you have an idea.”

“I do. But I have other things to tell you first. You’re not dying. At least not if you don’t piss me off anymore. I’ve removed all the iron from your blood. Had you asked earlier, I could have done it a while ago.” He asked her if she was sure. “Are you going to question my every statement to you? Or is it all right if we have question and answer time in a little bit? Your brother wasn’t the only one that was poisoning you. It was someone in your household. Also, this is part of the things you need to know—your wife isn’t dead, nor is the child. It’s not your child, but your brother’s.”

He nearly told her she lied, but he had a feeling she’d hurt him. Basil sat up on the side of the bed and tried to work through what she was telling him. Thousands of questions went through his mind at one time.

“My wife, she was killing me as well.” Piper said that was right. “And the child,