Grave Destiny (Alex Craft, #6) - Kalayna Price Page 0,64

demonstrate her dominance. He was her bloody hands; she wielded him like a tool against both her own fae and the other courts, but if the bond that made him obedient to her were removed, would she actually be able to intimidate him? She’d won her throne centuries ago, so she was a force to be reckoned with, but she’d made him one as well.

“The goblin Kordon was killed inside the shadow court, not here. He smelled honeysuckle moments before his throat was cut. After his death, he was taken somewhere outside Faerie—most likely the mortal realm—before he ended up in our court.” Falin delivered the words without inflection or acknowledgment of the slender hand on his head. The queen patted his head idly, making a small, uninterested sound, and Falin continued, “Stiofan was murdered in his bed by at least two people but possibly more. He did not see any of his attackers, nor could he confirm their identities, but he heard a voice he thought might have belonged to a former wife. We tried to interview her, but discovered she’d left the summer court a fortnight ago and we are not sure yet to which court she now belongs.”

She slipped her fingers into his hair and grabbed a fistful, using his hair to steer his face up to look at her. I clenched my own fists, fighting my urge to tell her to let go of him. He wouldn’t have thanked me for my intervention, and it probably would have made the situation worse.

“So you have a lot of nothing?” she asked, leaning down to loom over his still-kneeling form.

“We know someone went through a lot of trouble to try to blame the goblin,” I said, stepping forward. I might not be able to stop her from mistreating Falin, but I could perhaps deflect some of the abuse. “But we are still investigating whether the goblin was simply an easy fall guy to disguise the true identities of the killers, or if he was a plant to cause a deeper ripple of trouble.”

The queen glared at me for a moment. Then she released Falin’s hair, stepping away from him.

“Then I will have to assume the worst while hoping for the best,” she said with a sigh that made her entire body droop. “My power peaks with the solstice. Perhaps I will simply declare war on all the other seasons and shadow. My dear sister will surely side with me. We could dominate all of Faerie and be done with this foolishness.”

I gaped at her and Falin’s head snapped up, focusing on her. Her eyes were bright, full of power, but her gaze wasn’t focused on anything in the room.

“My queen?” Falin said softly.

The queen blinked and looked around the room as if she’d forgotten for a moment that her attendants were hovering, just out of the way, waiting to finish their work on her hair. She frowned and the glow of magic that had been leaking from her skin dimmed. She returned to her stool and motioned her attendants forward. The three female fae didn’t dawdle—that could have been hazardous for their well-being—but they didn’t exactly rush back to the queen, considering her current mood. For her part, the queen returned to regarding us in her ornate mirror.

“Knight, I’ll want you by my side tonight. If there are designs against our court, I should show my strongest front and remind them that the ice of winter kills all their precious greenery.”

I fought the frown trying to claim my lips and bit my tongue, because while winter could kill, definitely, life had a way of reasserting itself, like daffodils poking up through a late-spring snow.

The queen’s gaze moved to me, and for one long moment, I was afraid she somehow knew what I was thinking, but what she said was, “Planeweaver, independent status or not, you are a part of my court. You cannot be allowed to represent me in those reprehensible clothes.”

I took a step back, sure she was about to enchant my clothes into some sort of impractical ball gown. The fear must have been clear on my face because the queen laughed.

“Do not fret, little Lexi. My knight has explained to me that your mortal realm wardrobe is deplorably limited and does not have any room for reduction—even if my changes would be vast improvements. My seamstresses have prepared something appropriate for you.” She cut her gaze to one of her handmaids. “Go and make sure