could only guess was supposed to be encouraging, or perhaps a show of camaraderie, but it came off as worried. We did not have good news for the queen. It wasn’t bad news either. It was just rather . . . uncertain news, and from everything I knew about the queen, she would not be pleased by the ambiguity of the scene.
“Wait here,” he said, shooting a glance at Dugan. The prince gave him an incredulous look, clearly assuming Falin intended to leave him behind, but when Falin grabbed my wrist and motioned me to the side, not through the door, Dugan simply crossed his arms over his chest, watching and waiting.
“What?” I asked, arching an eyebrow.
Falin shot a conspicuous glance at my wrist, or, more accurately, the charm bracelet around it. “Do you still have that privacy charm?”
I frowned but nodded, drawing the raw magic in my ring and pushing it into the small, lock-shaped charm dangling from my wrist. I hadn’t paid much attention to the persistent soft sounds of music that seemed to drift through all of Faerie until they all fell silent as the bubble of privacy snapped into place around us.
Falin noted the change and began speaking immediately, though he kept his voice to barely a whisper. “The queen is likely to react badly to the Shadow Prince’s presence, even if the guards have already reported that he is with us.”
“Shouldn’t you be telling him that, not me?”
Falin ignored my interruption. “Do not get between the two of them. Do not come to my defense either, no matter what happens.”
My eyes widened. “How bad are you expecting this to get?”
Falin’s gaze went distant, considering the question, and he shook his head. “I’m not sure. The queen is still . . . not herself.”
That surprised me. “I thought she was sane again now that she is no longer being poisoned.”
His wince was small, only visible at the very edges of his eyes and mouth, but I caught it, and for a moment I thought he’d decided he’d said too much and wouldn’t answer. Then he whispered, “She is better, and she is not. The fact that her powers are nearing their peak with the approach of winter helps, but when it begins waning during spring . . .” He grimaced. “I’m not sure she will be able to hold her court, or even that Faerie will allow her to.”
Which was bad news. I’d witnessed what had happened when she’d been poisoned and began losing control of her court. These halls had been a mix of blizzards and slushy ice melt. Faerie itself, at least in the winter court, had been a miserable and discordant place. And Falin had lost a lot of blood fighting duels as nobles noticed the faltering queen and tried to take her throne. When spring came, if Falin was correct, the duels would begin again, and as the Winter Knight, Falin would have to fight them. How long could he continue to win?
“Do we have a plan I should know about?”
He gave a half shrug. “Go in; I’ll report our current findings and that you intend to raise the shades. Hope to get out without bloodshed.”
“Great. I’m guessing that since she summoned me, I can’t skip this?”
The look he gave me was answer enough. “Keep your head down. And whatever you do, don’t mention that you’re betrothed.”
My turn to wince. Yeah. That wasn’t high on my to-do list.
He turned when I nodded my agreement. I followed, dropping the privacy bubble as I walked. Dugan watched us both, his dark eyebrow raised speculatively, but he didn’t say anything as we returned to the doorway.
Falin walked in first, Dugan following close behind. I stepped into the doorway barely a heartbeat later, and emerged into an enormous room lined with shelves upon shelves of books. I’d never seen so many books in all my life, and I’d seen some pretty impressive libraries in my lifetime. The shelves were at least twenty feet high, and every last visible piece of wall space sported books in the enormous room. I was so busy gawking at the sheer volume of books that I didn’t immediately spot the people.
The queen sat at a large table near the center of the room with a dozen scrolls spread across the icy surface before her. Two other tall figures leaned over the scrolls on either side of the queen, deep in discussion about something I couldn’t hear from the doorway. As I