in the magic is where the infection will spread from.”
I lifted my hands. The smallest blot of blue was blooming on the tip of my pointer finger. It was barely the size of a pinhead. It looked like I’d touched something.
Like Sleeping Beauty pricking her finger on a spinning wheel.
That thought stopped me. Not the Sleeping Beauty part—I was no princess. The pricked finger part.
“Oh,” I said, my head snapping up. “Then, maybe I know. When I reach out with my grave magic, I imagine it as an extension of my hand, reaching down into the corpse. When I tried to raise Kordon, I received what I can only describe as a magical prick to the finger.” I held out the hand with the small dark spot of poisoned magic.
There was a stunned moment, and then Falin moved. He had a dagger out and at Dugan’s throat before anyone could react. Rianna yelped, ducking out of the tent. Caleb pulled Holly behind him, backing away with her until they reached the tent flap as well. His gaze met mine before he disappeared, and I saw the brief moment of hesitation, the torn loyalty wishing he could get me out of the tent as well, and then he was guiding her out and ducking out behind her.
“It was your fae. Was this your doing?” Falin asked between clenched teeth, his dagger not moving.
“Peace, Knight,” Dugan said, lifting his own hands, palms out and empty. “The sun hasn’t set on the shortest day yet. The truce still holds all of Faerie.”
“Technically your court was only welcomed if you meant no harm,” Falin said, and the heat of anger I’d seen in him had turned cold. It was by far his more deadly condition.
Dugan laughed, but one of his hands dropped, inching toward his own sword. “What is your plan, Knight? If you can slice my throat and Faerie allows it, you will assume that means I meant harm? Isn’t that rather like when humans tossed suspected witches in lakes? If they floated, they fished them out and burned them. If they drowned, they deemed them innocent.”
“I’m willing to take that chance,” Falin replied, but he didn’t move, keeping the blade right at Dugan’s throat. I wasn’t sure if he was hesitating, or if Faerie wouldn’t let him finish the movement.
“Stop, both of you,” I said, pushing up off the bed. I was more pleased than I should have been when my legs held. “Falin, why are you threatening Dugan?”
“Because it all ties back to him. His fae. His dagger. A shadow minion watching the ritual. He keeps insisting he wishes to prevent war, but maybe it was never about war. It was all a setup to ensure you would use your magic on a corpse infected with basmoarte. He approached you to raise the shade before we even knew about the deaths. The scene made no sense so that even if you hadn’t agreed to his request, the queen would have made you raise the shades. The ultimate result was that you would be infected.”
“I think that we have all been nicely played in someone else’s game,” Dugan said, frowning. “I swear on the very essence of Faerie that I mean Alexis no harm. In fact, her continued survival can only benefit me.”
The two men stared at each other, but after a moment, Falin lowered his dagger and stepped back.
“I think,” Dugan said slowly, as if afraid his words might trigger another reaction, “that we might have been approaching the scene incorrectly. We assumed the murders were committed to start a war between our courts, or perhaps the staging was to cover a personal grudge, but I have to agree with you that it appears to have been a trap for Alexis. Possibly it served as more than one of those scenarios, but surely the last because Kordon did not have basmoarte before his disappearance.”
“I have heard rumors,” Falin said, his voice low, dangerous. “That basmoarte had been resurrected and weaponized.” He looked at Dugan. It wasn’t accusatory, not entirely at least; it was more of an inquiry. If anyone had information on such rumors, the Prince of Shadows and Secrets should.
“There have always been rumors. They have never been substantiated.” He frowned. “Until, perhaps, now. But if someone has weaponized it, and if it is being selectively delivered, then whoever controls it might also have a cure.”
I knew it was only an outside chance, but I couldn’t help seizing on the