She pivoted back to face him. “I am well-aware of what the kingdom thinks of me, you ass. I’m not oblivious to any of it.”
He watched her through the bars, eyebrows slightly raised.
“That doesn’t make me any less of a leader. And, even then, I intend to protect my people at any cost. Now, I need to know. What if the Night Court confirms it was a human who staked Laurent? What will you do?”
Garin frowned, massaging the soles of his now-bare feet. “Ember Court,” he corrected, straightening suddenly. “Why? Do you know anything about what happened? If you do, I’m not releasing you until you tell me.”
“I would have told you if I knew anything. I was just wondering what would happen.”
Garin studied her warily, probably searching for a tell. “They are… interesting creatures, the Fair Folk. Much to their chagrin, they cannot lie—which is why they speak only in nonsensical riddles. If I’m careful, if we ask them the right questions, I’ll be able to get the truth from them.”
“Well then, I’m glad,” she replied, trying to keep the sudden defensiveness she felt from her voice. As far as she knew, no human was involved. “For one of my family to do that to your coven leader would be extremely foolish.”
“Yes. Yes, it would,” he agreed, and his eyes followed her closely as she shifted uncomfortably. “It would give us the grounds to seek retribution against your kingdom.”
She didn’t need to be queen to know that any kind of retaliation meant war. It was a large-scale effort that she wasn’t at all prepared to support or organize—at least, not upon her immediate inheritance of power.
Regardless, she couldn’t let Garin see it. Lilac took a deep breath and spoke as calmly as her nerves would allow. “And? Will you?”
He massaged the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. “I don’t know.”
She wasn’t sure what answer she was expecting to hear, but it wasn’t that. Lilac stood and placed her hands on the bars.
“Please, let me go. I got you in, I did as was asked.”
“You promised me one day,” Garin said firmly.
“Well if you’re going to threaten to attack the kingdom—my kingdom—then I need to go. The faster I get to Paimpont, the quicker I can get back to the castle.”
Ignoring the urgency in her tone, he stood and peeled his bedsheets back from the top of the mattress. “You mortals take everything so literally. I never threatened anything. I said it would give us the grounds to. Whether or not I act on it is up in the air; plus, if I were wanted to retaliate, do you really think I’d lay all my plans out for the one person who should know nothing of them?”
Just then, a knock came at the door. Garin sauntered over and opened it a crack, returning with a tray of what looked like lumpy liquid and a mug of water. He retrieved a small key from his pocket and opened the cell door just wide enough to hand it to her.
She hesitated, half considering shoving him out of the way and escaping. But where would she run? She would have nowhere to go, and very little time before Garin caught up to her—or worse, Bastion. The thought of the vampire guards in the main chamber and the many more probably slumbering in the other shadowed halls of the makeshift crypt made her shudder.
“You can try,” said Garin, following her longing gaze to his door. “I promise, you won’t get far. Plus,” he added dryly, “I wouldn’t give any hungry vampire a reason to give chase, if I were you.”
A jolt of fear rippled through her, but she quickly swallowed it. “You just… ate, though,” she said, wrinkling her nose.
“I’m stuck in the body of a twenty-five-year-old man. I have the perpetual metabolism of one, and the blood of the dead never satiates me for long.”
Reluctantly, she took the tray and sniffed at the suspicious gray-green matter floating in the bowl. She glanced up at Garin in shock. “It smells incredible.”
“Smells like leek soup.” He shut her cell door and took his seat across her at the foot of his bed once more. “They have to keep those people—the cattle, I mean—alive somehow.”
The cattle. The men and women in the cells of the vestibule. Despite the hunger gnawing at her stomach, she suddenly felt too sick to eat and placed the tray beside her and