“Will I get to meet the king this evening?”
She chuckled. “The king? Why would you think that?”
“You said I’d be introduced to the court. I was assuming that would include the king.”
“There can be no introduction to the king when we have none.” She pressed her lips together as if in reproach. “The summer court must have kept you very isolated, but then, they are a patriarchal court. The winter court has always been led by a queen.” She smiled brightly, her pixie-sharp features suddenly overly optimistic. “Eat up, I won’t be long.”
She hurried from the room, and I bolted the door behind her, my heart pounding in my chest. No king? What was going on?
“Raven, where the hell are you?”
As if summoned by my thoughts, the flutter of wings filled the air, and then the Raven landed in front of the window in all his wonderful glory. I ran to him and wrapped my arms around his waist, inhaling his sweet berry scent. He hugged me back, resting his chin on my head and swaying from side to side. “It’s all right. It will be all right, hmmmm?”
And in that moment, with his arms around me, I knew it would be. We’d made it to the winter court—not in the way we’d planned, but still. We’d survived this far.
“You were brave, and you were wise. You lied with aplomb.” He sounded impressed.
I’d lied under counsel. I pulled back to look up into his face. “It was Berstuk’s voice in my head that told me what to do. It happened before, when I was under the ice. I should have mentioned it, but it slipped my mind.”
The Raven’s brows flicked up slightly. “He spoke in your head?”
“Yes. He advised me on both occasions.”
The Raven frowned. “He saved your life, and so it seems he is invested in your survival for some reason.”
The same conclusion I’d come to, but still … “I don’t like him in my head.”
His fingers grazed my neck. “Until we can find a way to remove his mark, there is little we can do. Take what you will from his counsel and discard the rest. All that matters is that you are unharmed.”
“Unharmed, but she intends to keep me as a trophy. This place is a fortress.”
“It’s a stronghold,” the Raven said. “The most powerful court of them all. It’s why the winter king is essential to our plans.”
“Except there is no king. I asked the maid, and she said the winter court has never had a king.”
His mouth twisted in thought. “Yes. I have had the same experience. I dropped into the market on the way here and spoke to a few villagers, asking after Alaron, the winter king, but no one seems to recall his name. They speak only of Rayne, the winter queen.”
“Do you know her? Was she his wife?”
He pressed his lips together. “Rayne is Alaron’s daughter. Alaron has no queen. He brought Rayne home when she was a babe and proclaimed her his heir. Her maternal parentage is unknown.”
“She must know where Alaron has gone.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” He frowned. “There is dark magic at work here, and who knows how entangled Rayne is in its web. Best to avoid asking her questions, best to listen and gather information from the lower-level courtiers.”
“I can do that. I’m supposed to be introduced to them later.”
“Good. Use your judgment and make inquiries. If we do not find answers in a day or so, we will leave.”
I let out a short laugh. “Leave? Have you seen this place? And if you haven’t noticed, I don’t have wings.”
His smile was wicked and mischievous. “But I do, and the longer you remain here, the more our power grows. Leave the escape plan to me and focus on finding answers.” He cupped my face. “We must find out what happened to Alaron, but not at the expense of your safety. The stench of twisted magic is rife in the air. The taint is here. I can feel it. If we fail here, we will find another ally elsewhere, but you cannot be replaced.” His regard was intense, and my heart lurched as tension wound its arms around us. “Do what you must to stay safe, but do not use your power, for if you are discovered now, in this place, then I fear all will be lost. I fear that Rayne may have succumbed to the taint, and for her to discover your true identity is for the taint to be alerted.”
“Rayne doesn’t have the black veins. I don’t understand why the Lady of the Hunt ran.”
He blinked, and the tension was broken. “Strange … Well, we are in the right place to find out.”
There was a knock at my door, and we both froze.
I scanned his face and inclined my head while calling out, “One moment.”
The Raven leaned in and pressed his lips to my forehead, and then he slipped from my grasp and leapt out the window. Wings flapped, and he was gone, a gliding black shape against the sunset sky.
The door opened, and the small woman stood in the doorway carrying a huge porcelain bowl of steaming water. “Well, out of the way, unless you want to wash in the hallway.”
Nia, the maid, was sharp-tongued, but her hands were light as she brushed and braided my hair and then buttoned the flowing gauzy dress the queen had chosen for me to wear. The ice-blue color of the dress brought out the sapphire hue in my eyes and sat nicely against my dark hair and tanned skin.
Nia studied me, turning me this way and that. “Yes. Yes, I do believe you will do.”
I needed to know what to expect at this gathering of the court. “What will it be like?”
She blinked up at me in surprise. “I have no idea. Maids do not attend gatherings of the court.” She sniffed.
Right, she may not have attended, but there was no way she hadn’t inquired about them to satisfy her own curiosity. She just needed a push to tell me.
I sighed. “Maybe you can recommend a confidant knowledgeable about the workings of the court to assist me in my first few days here.” I smiled sweetly. “I wouldn’t want to embarrass myself or the queen by saying or doing the wrong thing.”
Her left eye fell into a squint as she peered up at me. “I know what you’re doing, missy. You’re playing on my vanity. Now wouldn’t it be a fine thing if I had none. Luckily for you I do.”
My smile widened to a grin. “So?”
“Sit.” She indicated the bed and then knelt to slip silk ballet flat slippers onto my feet. “I have heard that the gatherings are varied. If the queen is in a pleasant mood, then there is music and dancing and other pleasurable pursuits. If the queen’s mood is less than pleased, there is usually an execution, or some light torture.”
She said the words flippantly, as if they were of little consequence, which gave them more of an impact. It seemed that torture and death were no strangers to this place. Just another gathering, just a whim on the queen’s mood.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “And what is the queen’s mood like tonight?”
She looked up at me, her smile knowing. “Pleasant … for now.”
I exhaled slowly.
Nia’s eyes widened, and then she quickly stood and backed away from me, her spine ramrod straight.
I reached out to her. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
My question was answered when the door flew open and the queen entered the room, bringing the sting of winter with her.
Her gaze swept over me, and a small smile tugged at her lips. “Yes. Yes, Nia. Perfect. You may leave.”
Nia bowed and scurried from the room without a second glance my way.
“Stand,” the queen said.
Her tone rankled, but I kept my expression smooth and compliant and rose to my feet.
She came to stand in front of me. She was taller by a head, regal and cut-glass beautiful in her ivory fitted corset, ebony britches, and knee-high boots that hugged her calves. Her hair was swept off her chiseled face and fell down her back in a silver waterfall, and her lips were voluptuous crimson pillows slightly parted as they studied me.
“Who knew mortal flesh could look so touchable.”
She tugged off one of her black gloves
and reached up to caress my face. Her fingers were cool tendrils of ice sliding over my warm neck. She hovered at my pulse before sliding lower to trace my collarbones.
“So beautiful. So fragile.” She stepped even closer, her chilled breath raising gooseflesh across my skin. “I could break you with a flick of my wrist.” She tucked in her chin so her lips hovered over mine. “I could flay your skin from your bones with a thought, little one, but what a waste that would be. Like plucking the wings off a butterfly.” She stepped back. “I always loved butterflies.”
There it was again, that look of confusion, but it was gone in an instant, wiped away by the wicked smile I’d become accustomed to.
“You may call me Rayne, but only when we are alone. Like this. In private. Say it.” A strange glow flared in her eyes and tension buzzed between us. “Say my name.”
Not her real name. No, but the one she’d chosen to be known by. I licked my lips. “Rayne.”
She let out a shuddered exhale. “Yes. It has been so long since anyone addressed me so.” She caught her bottom lip between her teeth. “It will be our little secret, won’t it, pet?”
A frisson akin to excitement raced across my nape. “Of course, Your Majesty.”
She arched a brow.
Oh, crud. “I mean, Rayne. Of course, Rayne.”
She touched me again, but this time lower, skimming the swell of my breasts squished uncomfortably into the dress’s boned corset. My breath caught, and a new awareness flared to life in my mind, a possible new purpose for me as her pet. My neck flared with heat and my cheeks grew warm.
Her laughter was a melodic, tinkling thing. “Oh, pet, we will have so much fun together, you and I. Just you wait and see.” She clipped toward the door. “Come, let me introduce you to my court. But stay close. You reek of purity, and for some that is an aroma that cannot be resisted.” She licked her lips. “Not everyone has the self-control of a queen, but this is your home now, and you will learn to blend in, to navigate the rise and fall. You will learn when to submit and when to fight.”
My hands clenched into fists, desperate for the weight of my bone dagger, because my gut told me that whatever we were about to walk into was going to be far from pleasant.
Chapter Twelve
Rayne led me down a marble staircase and onto a checked black-and-white floor. Music drifted on the air—a thumping bass beat at odds with the fancy décor—and then we were sweeping through an arch made of polished, glittering granite and bordered by twisted ice sculptures, into a room shrouded in shadows and lit by amber crystals embedded into the granite walls. The music grew louder, vibrating up my feet to settle in my hips, creating a strange budding sensation. It was as if the music was coming through the floor itself.
Fey filled the room, tall and short, pale and dark, and some that looked less humanoid than others. Smoke hovered in the air, weaving around the room in sweet-smelling tendrils that hit my lungs and filled my limbs with pleasant lethargy. This wasn’t so bad.
Rayne steered me through the room with a light touch to the small of my back, like a protective lover. The crowd parted with bows and inclinations of their heads, but their gazes slid to me, inquisitive, expectant, and hungry. And then a dais came into view, housing a throne hewn from ice. Rayne swept up the steps and seated herself.
“Sit.” She pointed to the step at her feet.
I slid to the ground and tucked my skirts around me. The material clung to my thighs in a way that made me feel naked.
The music ceased, and the room fell into whispers.
Rayne’s hand came to rest on my head. “You must be wondering who this delicate flower at my feet is? Asking yourselves what treasure I have found?”
The crowd broke into excited murmurs.
“Silence!” Rayne tugged on a tendril of my hair, and I grit my teeth. “This human is a changeling, who was, until recently, held captive by the summer court—mocked and mistreated by them.”
A chorus of outraged exclamations filled the chamber.
“But,” Rayne said, “she was brave and wily, and she escaped to find her way into our lands. And now she belongs to the winter court. We will adopt her and make her one of us.”
An excited buzz filled the air.
“Many of you may have forgotten how fragile mortals are. Introduce her to the pleasures of the winter court but exercise control. Break her and you will face my wrath.” Her tone was icy, and the room descended into pin-drop silence. “For make no mistake who she belongs to.”
She stroked the top of my head. The music started up again, and then Rayne’s boot hit my back, sending me stumbling off the step onto the floor.
Laughter rose up behind me, musical and tinkling. “Meet your new family, Wynter. Go and mingle.”
A hand grasped my arm and pulled me up, and a broad, powerful male looked down on me. His hair was silver and so were his eyes, but his skin was darker than the other fey, so dark it was almost bronze.
“Well, hello there, little morsel.” His hand flexed on my arm.
I tried to pull away, but his grip was like steel.
Another arm slid around my waist from behind and warm breath tickled my ear. “Nice to smell you.”
The silver-eyed fey smiled. “She does smell divine, brother. I believe she has yet to be deflowered.”
They were huge and hulking, and fear should have been my primary emotion, but it was bitter anger that I tasted on my tongue.
“Get your hands off me. Now. Or does the winter court not hold stock in manners?”
His lip curled in a snarl.
“Lyrian …” The winter queen’s voice held a warning.
The arm around my waist slipped away, but the silver-haired man held on to me a moment longer before releasing me.
He inclined his head toward the throne. “Apologies, my queen, but in the winter court it is a compliment to be touched, to be desired. We were merely paying your new pet a compliment.”
I looked to Rayne, who sighed and rolled her eyes. “Yes, I suppose she does need to become accustomed to our ways. But as this is her first gathering, try not to overwhelm her with your enthusiasm.”
The man who’d been behind me stepped around to face me; his hair was also silver, but his eyes were a startling violet. “We will keep our enthusiasm in check.” He offered the queen a dazzling smile, and Rayne dismissed him with a flick of her wrist, turning away to speak to a voluptuous female to her right.
I was on my own again, and they were closing in.
Violet eyes gleamed and teeth flashed as they crowded me. Lyrian was the silver-eyed one’s name. Same as the hulking beast who had blocked the alley in the village where Rayne had found me. Could this man and that wolf be one and the same? And his brother … Was he the other wolf?
Find out what happened to the king, the Raven had said. But how could I question these hungry creatures who were wrapped in finery to disguise their debased inclinations.
Rage bubbled up in my chest as my newly found power begged to come forth, but once again, the Raven’s warning reverberated in my mind. Do not let her see who you are. Do not show your true self. I caught a glimpse of the queen’s pale face. She was watching me, her eyes gleaming in the lamplight, assessing. Was this some kind of test? So far, she’d balanced an aloof attitude with intensity. She claimed me as her pet, but then she’d thrown me to the wolves, literally. She was impossible to read.
“How about a dance?” Lyrian asked.
He reached for me, and I stepped back. “No, thank you.”
“Maybe she’d prefer a more private activity?” the violet-eyed man said with a sly smile. “I promise not to be too enthusiastic.” He reached for me, and I slapped his hand away, staunching the bubble of anger that was desperately trying to expand in my chest.
I’d dealt with enough grabby men in my time, and even though these weren’t exactly men, the principle still applied.
I lifted my chin and stared Lyrian right in the eyes. “Do you have a
problem reading body language?”
He frowned. “What?”
“Then maybe you have a hearing impediment?”
His jaw clenched, and his silver eyes hardened. “No.”
I nodded slowly, as if digesting this piece of information. “Then I wonder why you’re standing here pressing the issue with someone who clearly isn’t interested in being complimented.”
His companion snorted. “Lyrian, I think she just insulted you.”
Lyrian’s lip curled and a frisson of fear shot up my spine, but I lifted my chin and glared at him. “I am a guest of the queen, and I’d prefer it if you kept your enthusiasm to yourself.” I grabbed a goblet off a nearby tray as the server passed and held it up like a shield between us. “Now, please, I’d like some space.”
I gripped the goblet hard enough to stop the tremor in my hand. A tremor that was all to do with my effort to hold back the power’s need to put this wolfman in his place. If he didn’t back off soon, I’d lose the fight.
Lyrian finally took a step back, his eyes boring into my face. His companion followed suit with a frown.
“Oh, my dear, you must be overwhelmed.” A rake-thin fey woman cut in front of Lyrian, completely sidelining him.
She didn’t even bother giving him a glance, although from the tension on her face it was obvious she knew what she was doing. Hope bloomed. A possible ally?
“Tell us about the summer court? Was it awful?” she asked. Her pale cheekbones were highlighted with rouge, so they looked ridiculous, but I was grateful for her intervention.
“Did they violate you?” her male companion asked bluntly. He burped indelicately and then sniffed the air. “No. Your aroma is distinctly virginal.” He nodded to himself as if satisfied by his own conclusion.
His female companion slammed his shoulder. “Don’t be disgusting.” She turned to me. “So … what was it like?”
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