Crown of Moonlight (Court of Midnight and Deception #2) - K.M. Shea Page 0,105

felt like, but why? Do crest animals frequently extend their thanks?”

“Not as far as I know.” Rigel glanced at the black-haired fae, who was approaching her king. “But if you still want to leave before Fell regains consciousness, I’d suggest we go.”

“Yeah, that’s important. Let’s move out!”

Rigel offered me his now freed arm. I took it, patted Eclipse as we passed her, and then entered the gate again, where my thoughts strayed from the griffins to the attack on the Autumn Realm.

Why would my would-be assassins attack Fell? Unless the other monarchs have been fielding assassination attempts from this shadowy magic all along? But I would have thought they’d spill their guts at the tea party if that was true.

My problems had just gotten a lot bigger. And as long as the other Courts were fighting, it was only going to get worse.

“I find the entire situation troubling—and dangerous,” the Paragon announced. “A monster that essentially devours magic? Very troubling indeed.”

“The hydra had no problem taking him down. Perhaps the key is that you have to have enough magic to overwhelm the spell that allowed the monster to feed on magic,” Indigo pointed out.

The Paragon shivered, nearly jarring Aphrodite from where she was draped over his shoulders. “Ew. The hydra. I would prefer not to dwell upon such a creature—we do not wish for it to stir again.”

“He—they? Whatever, the hydra helped when we needed it,” Lord Linus said.

“Indeed,” King Solis said. “And it returned to sleep willingly. I believe the creature is to be commended—preferably without reawakening it.”

I fussed with my dessert plate—today Indigo had made unicorn cupcakes and gingerbread cookies decorated like Star Wars characters—turning it in a slow circle as I thought.

We were seated in one of the mansion’s dining rooms—yes, the gaudy place had more than one—and had been discussing the monster since Chase read Solis and the Paragon into the situation about half an hour ago.

We hadn’t gotten very far, mainly because we had so little to go on. The Paragon had busted into the Autumn Realm, but Fell hadn’t told him much more than his crabby citizen told Rigel and me.

The skull monster came out of the woods and attacked the palace. Fell and his people couldn’t fight it off. Rather than call for help, he decided to be a twerp and lure it into the Night Realm.

“I still can’t believe he just dropped that monster on us,” I said. “What kind of creep does that? He could have called for help—we would have fought with him.”

The Paragon smiled uncomfortably. “I’m afraid not all Courts would have responded with such honor, Leila.”

King Solis nodded in commiseration.

“Then that means this probably was an attack by another monarch, right?” I asked. “Solis, have there been any attempts on your life?”

“No,” Solis said. “No monsters have been set upon me. I haven’t heard of anything from the other Courts in our region, but there’s a chance they’d try to cover them up so as to not appear weak.”

I tapped my fingers on the table—which was of course a monster of a furniture piece and had rearing unicorns sculpted into the legs—as Eventide scurried around, distributing tea for the second time since our meeting started.

“Tea, my Sovereign?” Eventide asked when he got to me.

“No thank you, Eventide.”

“It’s masala chai tea.” He picked up a handle-less clay cup and held it out to me, wafting the aroma toward my nose. “Cooked with milk, sugar, and spices.”

Oh, ho, ho—they’re starting to figure out how to make tea appealing to me.

Truthfully, the drink smelled fantastic—an earthy combination of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. But I wasn’t going to drink tea in my mansion until the chef let me buy a coffee maker. If I broke and drank tea now, my tea-obsessed staff and Court would never let me have coffee again!

“I’m sure our guests will appreciate it,” I said.

Eventide gave me a sad look with puppy-dog eyes, but moved on to serve tea to Solis, his goat hooves tapping the marble tiled floor as he scurried along.

“Who else besides royals would have the ability to do something like the skull monster?” I asked.

Solis sighed, and the lines around his eyes that always made him look happy seemed tired and discouraged. “I can swear an oath that I had nothing to do with this skull monster.” He took a clay cup of tea from Eventide and rubbed his thumb on the unglazed exterior.

“You’re not a suspect, Solis, or you wouldn’t be here.” I