Page 14 of Children of Fallen Gods

“Humans,” he ground out.

Humans?!

As far as I knew,noneof the Houses had had any contact with humans in many hundreds of years. And compared to Fey, humans were so weak. I counted nearly a dozen gutted Fey in those swamps.

That couldn’t be.

“Later,” I said. “We’ll talk about it later.”

Words I couldn’t understand tumbled from the Fey’s mouth.

I leaned closer. We flew through the gates, falling into the familiar, welcoming shadow of the Pales.

“What?”

“I am thirteenth,” he mumbled. “For the crown.”

Then he went slack, falling utterly silent.

Chapter Five

Max

“I’m so glad to see you’ve made it here safely, despite the…excitement. Apparently you didn’t receive our letters at sea. Sit. Eat. You must be hungry.”

Zeryth stood at the head of the table and gestured down its length. Overflowing platters of food were artfully arranged down the center, chicken and fish, rice and breads, diced fruits with wet, crimson meat glistening beneath the candlelight. The table could have easily seated thirty, but the five of us were clustered at one end. Near the other, Tare, Sesri’s Valtain advisor, sat with his eyes downcast. And at the head, Zeryth stood and smiled at us with easy charm.

Zeryth. Zeryth was there, in the same spot my father used to sit, in the main dining room of my family home.

Zeryth Aldris, wearing acrownon his head.

I was so furious I could barely speak.

“Why are we here?” I demanded.

But my words were sliced in two by the sound of splitting air. Three silver blurs whizzed past my ear, so fast I felt my hair rustle.

“Yousnake,” Nura spat.

In a split second, Zeryth was leaning against the table, rubbing his neck and peering over his shoulder — at the three throwing knives now embedded in the wallpaper behind him.

Beside me, Nura stood rigid, her eyes icy with rage.

“Welcome back, my dearest Second,” Zeryth said, sweetly.

“You have no shame.”

“As opposed to… who, you? Who didn’t wait thirty seconds before your first assassination attempt?”

She missed on purpose. I wished she hadn’t. Words still escaped me. That was rare.

“You have many things to explain, Zeryth,” Tisaanah said, quietly but with a deadly edge to her voice, and Zeryth straightened as he smiled at us.

“I do indeed. Sit down, and we’ll talk.”

Sit down.Funny, how out of everything, those two words, were the thing that made a bitter laugh slip between my teeth.

Zeryth’s smile turned to ice.

---