observe the investigation, but he was still my client. As if reading the intent in my posture, Falin’s gaze slammed into me, and he shook his head ever so slightly, a single finger lifting in a motion to wait. I hesitated, the muscles in my legs twitching either in the need to move or simply from holding the curtsy too long.
The queen and the prince stared at each other, and then a ghastly smile spread across the queen’s face. She opened her hand, releasing the sword. It fell less than an inch before dissolving into a fine sprinkling of snow. The sword reappeared in her scabbard a moment later and the breath I’d been holding rushed out in a hiss of relief.
“Are you very brave or very foolish, I wonder, Cousin,” the queen said, leaning back against the table. “Why are you here?”
“To prevent war,” Dugan said without hesitation.
The queen considered him. She tapped her long nails on the tabletop, the quick, staccato beat the only sound in the room.
“War with shadow gains me little,” she finally said, but her eyes narrowed, her cold gaze slicing into Dugan. “That does not mean I will not take this war to your doorstep if need be.” She turned to me. “Lexi, question the shades. Find out who is at fault for my noble’s death.”
I nodded because I was still in the same damn curtsy I’d been in since we walked in, and my legs were on fire so I wasn’t going to attempt to dip any deeper. I’d been hired to raise the shades; it was what I planned to do anyway, but it was good to have permission.
The queen turned back to the scrolls on her table, dismissing us. Lyell and Maeve turned toward the table as well, instantly focusing again on whatever they had been discussing before we entered. Well, that went better than I’d feared. Falin stood in one graceful motion. He made the movement look effortless. I, on the other hand, didn’t land on my butt as I tried to straighten, but that was about the best that could be said for my effort as I tried to get my trembling legs under me. My muscles were stiff, seeming stuck from my overdrawn curtsy, and I wobbled, taking too wide a step sideways. Dugan caught my elbow, supporting me. I gave him a polite nod and stepped away from him as soon as I got my feet under me. The muscles in my legs felt like rubber bands that had been pulled too tight too long and now were the wrong size.
“Oh, Cousin,” the queen called from behind us.
Crap. We’d almost been out.
We turned. The queen hadn’t moved, her attention seemingly fixed on the scroll she’d unfurled across the table. She didn’t look up, but her voice reached us across the room as if she were right beside us.
“If you compromise or attempt to steal my planeweaver, Cousin, next time I will not stop my blade from tasting your spine.”
Chapter 5
The bodies were waiting for us by the pillar of ice that marked the exit to the Bloom. They had been placed in black body bags and dumped unceremoniously on the floor. Nori hovered nearby, the bagged weapons in her arms, but no one else was in the hall. No one living, at least. The guards must have carried the bodies this far, but they’d vanished back to wherever they waited to ambush anyone who entered the court.
“The healer said that while the damage was not great, she could do nothing,” Nori said, and while she might have still considered Kordon—or at least the shadow court he came from—a possible suspect in Stiofan’s murder, there was sadness in her voice as she delivered this news. Fae didn’t die often, and they didn’t like death.
Dugan nodded, but he looked like he’d already been resigned to that outcome.
I frowned. There was no sign of any kind of stretcher or gurney to carry the bodies out on.
“How do we—” I started, but the answer became apparent when Falin leaned down and scooped the closest bag off the ground.
“Time to make yourself useful, Shadow Prince,” he said, nodding to the second bag.
For his part, Dugan didn’t protest, he just leaned down and scooped up the second bag—which totally would have not been my response if I’d been asked to carry a dead body. He had the smaller of the two bags, which I guessed must contain the goblin—it was rather jarring