Page 68 of The Flame King's Queen

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she says quickly, but I don’t believe her.

I look around for the source of her upset, and feel a bolt of anger as I spy Kane across the other side of the courtyard, lingering in the shadows and glaring at Anise.

Why is it always Kane?

I turn to my sister. “Is it him? Has he been upsetting you? What’s he been saying to you?”

“Well…” Anise begins, but trails off.

“There’s no reason for him to look at you, speak to you, or be anywhere near you. I’ll fix this.”

To my surprise, Anise grabs my arm and holds me back. “No, Isavelle. Don’t. Please.”

Something isn’t right here. This is my home, and my sister is my guest. I’m not going to say and do nothing while Kane is upsetting her. What’s more, Anise only just turned fifteen, and I feel responsible for her. “I’m sorry, but I’m speaking with him.”

With Anise clinging to my arm, I can’t move far, but I call to him, “Will you come here please, Kane?”

Kane saunters over to us, his black eyes gleaming darkly. “There’s something foul in this castle, don’t you think, witch?”

I hate it when he calls me that, almost as much as when he says it to Ravenna. We are witches, but there’s always so much hate lacing the word when he says it. “The only thing foul around here is you.”

“Me? I’m filled with light and empowered by righteousness,” he says, his gaze lingering on Anise as she flinches away from him.

Fiala and Dusan are never far away from me. They close in from either side, glaring at Kane with their hands gripping their weapons.

“That is speaking like a witchfinder, which you no longer are,” I tell him. “You’re an Alpha in charge of a wild flare. Do you have nothing better to do than harass a defenseless girl?”

“You should listen to me. I’m never wrong.”

Anise moans in horror, her arms wrapped around her waist.

I look back and forth between the two of them. “There’s nothing foul about my sister.”

Kane glares at her. “Tell them what you are, witch.”

Anise is a witch? When Biddy insisted that she was part of our coven, I thought it was an honorary place so that Anise didn’t feel excluded. My sister was happy enough to join in, but she’s never shown any interest in spells or plants. A witch wouldn’t be able to help but feel interested, surely.

“Anise…” I begin.

“I’m not a witch!” she shrieks.

I watch my sister for a moment. If she’s so sure, or is so adamantly against it, then I’m not going to insist otherwise. I say to Kane, “You’re no longer a witchfinder, and I don’t want you following my sister around. Let’s leave the matter at that.”

Kane gazes down his nose at me in disgust, and points a finger in Anise’s face. “It’s been my life’s work to root out evil from the shadows and bring it into the light. I know well the stench of danger brewing.”

Anise has turned even paler, and she’s breathing fast and shallow. She looks small and terrified with Kane’s huge black figure looming over her. She’s like a field mouse cornered by a buzzard.

I push Kane’s hand out of her face. “My sister is not evil.”

“She’s awitch,” he growls.

“Haven’t you got it through that thick skull of yours yet that witches are not evil?”

“That’s enough, Kane,” Fiala tells him. “The queen has ordered you to leave her sister alone.”

He takes a long, slow look around the courtyard, a muscle in his jaw ticking. He has the attitude of a wolf who is hunting for a telltale movement or scent, and his attention snaps back to Anise. “I know what I feel. There’s something not right here.”

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