Page 97 of The Queen's Box

“I followed her,” Jace whispered, eyes bright. “After the pond. After she didn’t get what she wanted.”

“And?”

“Maeve, she was so angry. Unhinged angry. She sent Aesra off and stormed back to her chambers. So I followed.”

Maeve stiffened. “You went into the queen’s wing?”

“Well, no, I’m not an idiot. I watched through the window slats.” She grabbed Maeve’s hands. “Do you know what I saw?”

Willow inched closer.

Jace dropped her voice even lower. “She was eating it. The goat. The one from the pond. She’d torn half the hide away and was chewing straight off the bone. Blood everywhere. It was—Maeve, it was feral. Thisqueen—she was crouched over the carcass like a wild woman. It was bloodlust, pure and simple.”

“We knew it, didn’t we?” Maeve said.

“But now, with what I saw...” Jace’s eyes gleamed. “I have to get the message to Brody, that’s all. This is it. Proof. She’s neither fae nor mortal—just monstrous. We send this to the rebels, and the realm changes forever.”

“You have to leave tonight,” Maeve said.

“I know,” Jace said. “I will. After last rounds.”

Willow’s heart pounded because, yes, she’d meant to eavesdrop... but she hadn’t meant to overhear this. The image of Severine gnawing flesh, the gleam in her eye as she tore into raw meat—it was too easy to imagine. Even so, it knocked something loose inside her, and her grip on the magic wavered.

Maeve gasped. Jace jumped around like a boxer, fists raised.

Willow held up her hands. “Sorry, sorry!” In Maeve and Jace’s expressions, Willow saw what they saw: a girl made from thin air, staring at two girls who now stared back.

Maeve’s face drained of color.

“Go,” Jace told her. “Go!”

Maeve nodded and hobbled past Jace, her gait crooked but determined.

“Maeve, wait—” Willow started.

“Let her go,” Jace said.

Willow turned to her. “Jace—”

“Don’t tell me it was an accident,” Jace said quietly. “You did something. You... you disappeared. Like—” she waved a hand at the air, her face wary, awed. “You slipped through.”

“I did.”

Jace studied her. “And that’s... something you’ve always been able to do?”

Willow hesitated. “Not always. Not exactly. It started after I touched the trunk of the Stillwood Tree. But even then, it only came when I was scared or desperate. Or determined.”

Jace’s expression shifted. “Determined enough to spy on us?”

“That’s not what I was doing,” Willow said. “Not really. I just... heard voices. And I was curious. I thought maybe I could help.”

Jace didn’t answer.

“I’m sorry I startled Maeve.”

“She’ll recover.”

A pause stretched between them.

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