Grave Destiny (Alex Craft, #6) - Kalayna Price Page 0,116

enemies of shadow?

“Did the gold-cloaked fae enter with the light court?” I hadn’t noticed him for the first time until he’d spoken to Lunabella.

Dugan frowned, shaking his head but not in disagreement, more like in uncertainty. Falin, on the other hand, pursed his lips, the movement slow, as if he was still arranging his thoughts.

“I believe he was already in the clearing, with the independents.” Falin paused. “I didn’t note him until he joined the end of the light court procession as they entered. Which doesn’t mean he didn’t enter with a different court and I didn’t notice, but at the time I remember assuming he was with the independents.”

“Does that happen often? Fae jumping into the back of a procession?” I asked.

Dugan shrugged. “The doors being what they are, occasionally someone gets separated and shows up at the revelry out of the proper order. It isn’t common, but it happens. I had to do it once, a long time ago.”

“But it is also possible the Queen of Light did not allow him to enter with her procession,” Falin said, a growing sureness filling his voice. “If the golden-cloaked figure truly is Ryese, she might not have wanted the Winter Queen to know he had returned to her court. He might be an embarrassment to her.”

Or she might be complicit in everything and didn’t want to be seen conspiring with an ambitious fae still attempting to usurp a throne. I didn’t add that out loud. As Dugan had reminded us frequently, the shadows had ears. And there were a lot of shadows here.

Dugan turned to Falin. “Was Lunabella’s body returned to the court of light yet?”

Falin shook his head. “The queen had retired already when I took the bodies back to winter. I decided not to wake her with such news, so they are under guard awaiting morning.”

“Which even on the second-longest night of the year is soon,” Dugan said, and stood. I had no idea how he could tell dawn might be approaching. There were no clocks here, and the shadows hadn’t changed in any discernible way since we’d been here. “These rooms are mine. I invite you both to rest here. An hour of slumber is not nearly enough, I know, but it would be better than nothing.”

Without another word, he turned and walked through a door in the back wall of the room. I glanced around the small sitting room. At least we weren’t locked in the shadow court this visit, but it wasn’t like I wanted to wander the halls. The furniture in the room was functional but looked comfortable enough.

I smiled at Falin. “I call the couch.”

Chapter 19

The hour of sleep I snagged seemed to make me more tired, but my fingers were completely purple with fouled magic, so I dragged myself up and ate a small breakfast. My sweater was wrinkled and stiff and I grimaced, hoping I didn’t smell as bad as I looked. I’d only been in Faerie a few hours, but I could have used a shower and a fresh change of clothes after untangling the king’s basmoarte. As if in answer to my thoughts—or maybe I really did just look that bad—Dugan dropped a neatly folded pile of clothing in front of me.

I lifted an eyebrow. “What is this?”

“A clean outfit; yours looks rather . . . slept in.”

That was a nice way to put it. I excused myself to change without thanking him. Fresh clothes were hardly a reason to indebt myself, or forgive any of the debt he owed me.

The clothes were of exquisite quality, and fit perfectly, which was slightly disconcerting. Why did Dugan have clothes of my size just sitting around? Of course, they were probably glamoured and possibly enchanted to fit . . . but still. The black leather pants were supple and silent as I moved. The sweater was soft, though also black. The small pile even included gloves. Black. I was sensing a theme. Still, the new clothes were better than wearing my gross ones, so I dressed quickly, aware I was now more or less sporting shadow’s colors in my all-black getup. I frowned at my pile of discarded clothes. Dugan had assured me they would make it back to my castle. I hoped they did. Faerie was claiming a lot of my wardrobe. Then I headed back out to the guys. We had fae to see, murderers to uncover, and a cure to find.

“So do you think the Queen of