“Maybe not,” Maddie butted in. “But I would.”
Apollo stifled a sigh, looked down at her and murmured a warning, “Madeleine.”
She turned her eyes up to him. “She’s not very nice, Lo. The world would hardly be a poorer place without her in it.”
“And you?” Franka’s voice came at them, dripping with scorn. “The woman who uses a dead wife’s charms to enchant her heartbroken husband so she can warm his bed in order to wear his jewels and earn her place on his arm? Is the world richer for your presence?”
Momentarily frozen with fury, Apollo went completely still even as he felt the air in the room turn thick at the same he time he watched Maddie’s face pale and she turned woodenly to Franka.
“Franka,” Valeria surprisingly whispered, her voice cautious. “Take heed, dear.”
Apollo forced himself to turn, drawing Maddie’s stiff frame closer as he did so and caught Franka looking to Valeria.
“I’ll hardly be insulted in the seat of my own family by a whore who doesn’t even have the courage to claim herself as such.”
And that was when Apollo let Maddie go.
A second later, he had Franka pressed to the stone with his hand at her throat squeezing, his face dipped to hers.
“She battled hewcrows this evening,” he growled.
Franka tore at his wrist with her nails, her mouth opening and closing, fighting for air.
“And”—he got nose-to-nose with her—“she has my arm.”
He felt her throat convulse under his hand as strangled noises escaped her mouth.
But Apollo had no patience for further delay.
So he finally got to the point.
“And last, a Keer parcel was found in your brother’s rooms,” Apollo went on and her wide eyes widened further. “You’ve had your play for the evening. You…are…done,” he growled. “Now, we move to my games. Tell me, is it you ensnaring your brother in your schemes or are they his alone?”
“Honey, what’s a Keer parcel?” Apollo heard Finnie ask her husband.
“Wee one, not now,” Frey replied and this reply came close to Apollo’s back.
“There was no Keer parcel in my room.”
That came from Kristian and Apollo looked to his left to see Kristian had come out of his crouch and was staring with wild eyes at Apollo and his sister.
The weak link bends.
“Why do you think you’re here?” Frey asked his cousin.
“I had no Keer parcel,” Kristian whispered, his eyes quickly moving from person to person through the room. “I don’t even know a witch who could conjure a Keer parcel.”
“Kristian, it was found in your rooms this eve when the floorboards were torn up after Madeleine was taken,” Frey informed him.
Kristian frantically shook his head. “I have no knowledge of it.”
“Intelligence came to me that a Drakkar was aligned with a conspiracy involving Minerva, her collaborators, and Baldur,” Apollo informed him and Kristian’s panicked eyes grew wider.
“I have no involvement with Baldur!” he cried.
“Ah…pah…lo,” Franka forced out and Apollo looked to her to see her beautiful face mottled, her eyes bugged out and her mouth still opening and closing as she tried to get air.
So he moved his face again close to hers and whispered, “This night for you is not over. But, if you leave this room intact and you ever again utter a word to or about my Madeleine, or even look her way should you again be in her presence, I will squeeze the life out of your throat, Franka. Do not mistake me. It will be done.”