Grave Destiny (Alex Craft, #6) - Kalayna Price Page 0,111

few days had been a good hint. Yesterday Falin and I had spent the longest night at the festival together, and there was that kiss . . . Then I abandoned him with some bodies on a hill after talking to Death.

Yeah, that looked bad.

“It was the Mender who told me,” I said, trying to keep my voice blank because part of me wanted to wrap my arms around him and reassure him nothing had happened with Death. The other part of me was irritated that he’d made the assumption and wanted to remind him that he and I weren’t together, so it didn’t matter if I had rekindled things with Death. Which I hadn’t. Neutral was better. I pressed my hand flat against the locket, feeling not the expected metal but the cold layers of the land of the dead. “And this isn’t a gift. It is part of the favor I owe the Mender.”

I turned away, leaving it at that.

Thankfully Dugan reemerged a moment later, saving us from further conversation on the topic. Unfortunately, he brought with him something that moved.

Dugan carried a small black goat in his arms as he stalked back into the room. It bleated pitifully, and my stomach tightened into a knot.

“That’s not—” I started.

“There are no trees here, Alexis.” Dugan set the goat beside the bed, holding it by one horn to keep it from running. “Unless you think mushrooms or moss will do as a receptacle, this is the best I can do on short notice.” He produced a shiny red apple from nowhere and held it out to the goat, who calmed and rolled its lips back to munch on the proffered fruit.

I stared at the goat. I wasn’t aware I was shaking my head until Dugan glared at me. “You eat meat, don’t you? In the mortal realm, this goat would be food.”

That made sense. I didn’t think twice about buying a steak at the grocery store—well, okay, maybe for a moment because of the price, but not because it had been alive. There was something completely different about an animal that was literally still walking around and bleating.

In the bed, the king wheezed, his breath knocking in his chest. He didn’t have long. If I was going to do this, I needed to do it now.

“It is just a goat?” I finally asked. “Not a human enchanted into a goat or some higher-thinking being that is more than a simple animal?”

“He is a Faerie goat. They used to be quite common, but like in the mortal realm, most Fae don’t raise them anymore. But he is only a goat.”

I didn’t like this, but he was right about one thing: I didn’t think the fouled magic would take to a mushroom or a bit of moss. Taking a deep breath, I approached the bed again, crawling on it to kneel beside the king. I rolled up the sleeves of my sweater, not because I thought the work would be particularly messy, at least I hoped not, but because I needed to watch the spread of my own fouled magic as I worked.

Opening my senses, I reached out and touched the magic I could see on the king’s face. Serri tensed behind him, her wings spreading, revealing a sharp claw at the top joint. Dugan glared at her and she stilled, not preventing me from touching her king.

“You’ll need to move,” I told her, and her red eyes narrowed, the protest on her lips clear. “The magic will likely try to spread to you. So you can’t be touching him while I work.”

She looked to her prince—because even if I was the one they trusted to heal the king, I obviously had no authority. He nodded his agreement, and Serri ever so carefully slid out from under the king, arranging his head tenderly on a pillow before vacating the bed. She didn’t go far, but hovered a few feet away, pensive and watching.

I plucked at a dark string of magic running through the king’s temple. It tingled where it touched my fingertips, but it didn’t actually hurt. That’s a good sign, right? Probably not. I pulled it, ripping it up and free to leave the skin below spotless. I unraveled it only a few inches before meeting the first point where it had originated in a larger string of poisoned magic that fanned out into several tributaries. I moved to the next small strand, pulling it back to that point as