Grave Destiny (Alex Craft, #6) - Kalayna Price Page 0,62

good idea to him—not that we wanted to do anything more than leave. Or at least that was all I wanted. I had no idea what secondary agendas Dugan and Falin might have. The king waved a hand in the air and a faun trotted over.

“Take them to the exit,” the king said, and the faun bowed, a movement that looked very awkward with his thin hoofed legs. As we turned to follow our guide, the king called after us, “I will see you at the revelry tonight, and, planeweaver, I shall contact you soon about your extended visit.”

An angry flush burned the tips of my ears, but I didn’t turn back or make any other indication that I’d heard him. I’d agreed to the visit, so I would have to do it. Even though he’d tricked me and we’d gotten little from this trip, I couldn’t go back on our bargain. He was right about one thing: I had to learn to be much more clever.

* * *

• • •

We parted ways with Dugan in the grove that connected the seasons. As he would be attending the revelry with his own fae, he needed to return to the shadow court before all the doors moved to winter. He walked into one of the shadowy patches between trees and vanished.

“Well, that was . . . different,” I said after he was gone.

“Sometime soon, in a very brightly lit room with no shadows and maybe your little privacy spell, you are going to tell me all about this betrothal,” Falin said, his voice sounding very dangerous, though the venom in it was aimed at Dugan. Not me.

“Are you jealous?” I teased.

He glared at me, and while those ice-blue eyes did hold perhaps a touch of jealousy, it was nearly buried under worry. He was concerned for me.

I dropped my teasing leer and shrugged. “I’m not marrying anyone. Pretty sure I was born under a bad star or something because relationships just don’t work out for me.”

He reached out as if to take my hand, but I stepped away. We’d had our moment once. Well, maybe a few moments. One rather memorable one being at the last revelry, when he’d told me he loved me and in the same breath pulled daggers on me and told me never to trust him as long as he was the queen’s knight. Yeah, our relationship was complicated. But that was par for the course with me and relationships these days. A cursed bad star at my birth seemed pretty damn likely, if such a thing could happen. I was a witch, not an astronomer, so I wasn’t sure.

We reached the door to winter and Falin paused. “She isn’t going to be happy. Let me do the talking unless you can’t avoid answering.”

Neither one of us had to clarify who “she” was. In the winter court, there was only ever one “she.” The queen.

Falin pushed open the door and stepped into the frozen halls to learn what misery our ill-begotten trip to summer had earned us.

Chapter 11

“She wants to see you,” a gravelly voice said from behind an icy cowl as soon as we entered the halls of winter. There were twice as many guards in the entry as when we’d left, so clearly the queen had noticed.

Falin only nodded. “Lead the way.”

As I expected, a full half of the guards that had greeted us broke off to escort us to the queen. I stuck close to Falin and watched our escorts from the corner of my eye. I’d long ago given up trying to memorize halls or count doors in the winter court. There must have been a secret to how to navigate the court, but I didn’t know it.

After the sunshine and thriving plants in the summer court, the icy halls of the winter court seemed sterile and cold. Not temperature cold; even the flurries that fell from the cavernous ceiling and vanished before reaching our heads or the walls that appeared to be carved from pure ice didn’t lower the temperature to uncomfortable. Faerie tended toward pleasant, never too hot nor too cold. No, the frigidity of winter was in the decor, which, while beautifully carved, seemed too controlled and monochromatic when compared to the chaotic explosion of life in summer.

The lead guard stopped in front of a large archway and stepped aside, gesturing for us to enter. Without a word, Falin stepped through the threshold and I followed on his heels.

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