Page 3 of Curse of Thorns
My stomach sinks as she draws close enough for me to see what’s in her hand.
A head.
She carries the head of a fae swinging by its white hair, crimson blood dripping onto the marble floor of our banquet hall. Caelynn’s face is impassive, her eyes harsh but glowing with golden light. Her ability to hide the brightness of her eyes long term is a talent I’ve not run across before. She uses emotional pain to hide her power when it suits her.
Right now, she has no desire to hide the massive amounts of magic flowing through her veins.
She’s killed another fae from my court. Jasper, I recognize. He’s been a guard since I was a child. That’s about all I know about him, but still, it’s a strange feeling.
Caelynn stares straight ahead, straight at my father who sits at the center of the feature table, right in line of the aisle. I am only feet from him, but her focus is intense, and her eyes don’t waver from her target even once.
Guards charge in, feet stomping loudly—a bit delayed, I’ll admit—but my father holds up his hand. He holds our intruder’s gaze warily. The guards freeze, swords still held at the ready.
Her march ends only when she reaches our table and drops the dismembered head on my father’s still full plate. I flinch at the squishing sound it makes as flesh meets his dinner. Blood pools, dripping onto his fork. His hooded gaze regards her, his features much more controlled than mine. I wrinkle my nose. How does he block out that putrid smell?
Caelynn leans in, three fingers pressed to the table beside the plate, her long neck stretches over the table, and her blond hair drops into the bloody mess tinging the tips of the strands in red. “Next time you send an assassin for me, make it a better one.” She smiles, eyes alight with wickedness. “Oh, that’s right, you sent two.” Her head tilts innocently. She returns to her upright position and crosses her arms.
Sick amusement fills my belly, and I have to hold back a smirk at the spectacle. One glance down at the grey skin of the dead face on my father’s plate is sobering enough to keep my wits about me.
My father’s eyes narrow, but he doesn’t respond. He doesn’t so much as flinch—is he breathing?
“Don’t underestimate me again,” Caelynn says, leaning back and folding her hands behind her back casually. “Or I’ll be tempted to send the next head to the High Queen and let her know what you think of her ordinances.”
Caelynn’s banishment was temporarily rescinded while the queen searched for a savior, someone designated to travel into fae-hell to fetch the cure for a terrible plague. As runner up, Caelynn is currently under the queen’s protection. Once the cure is secured, her banishment will be reinstated.
If my father were to send assassins to the human world to kill Caelynn once this is all over with, no one would bat an eyelash, but right now? While the queen herself has declared Caelynn to be under her protection? It would end very badly for my father if it were made public.
He wrinkles his nose but otherwise doesn’t speak. His eyes flit down to the head on the table for the first time.
“Yes, the other is alive,” Caelynn says, as if answering the question he didn’t voice. “You’ll find him on edge of your iridescent forest strung up in a tree.”
Caelynn turns on her heel, and my stomach sinks for the third time. Not because of what she did or who she is, but because while she was here, she never, not once, looked in my direction.
***
WE WATCH IN AWE ASCaelynn leaves the banquet hall. I quickly grab a napkin and use magic to scrawl a note. Then, I hand it to the wide-eyed and tense guard standing behind me. “Be sure our visitor gets this before she leaves.”
The guard blinks but then nods and stands up straight, his muscles less tense than before. Apparently relieved at his new orders. Inaction tends to be a difficult task.
The moment the door shuts behind Caelynn, the room breaks into chaos with whispers and shouts. There are close to fifty royal Luminescent courtiers here for our weekend banquet. This was a larger show than I suspect Caelynn expected. Every Friday night, we invite every Lumi-fae of rank to join us for a meal. It’s a weekly tradition. It’s a bit pompous and annoying most of the time, but at least here, my father must keep his sharp tongue mostly to himself.
Lucky for us, despite the number of fae that witnessed Caelynn’s show, the people in this room are privy to many court secrets, and it’s unlikely for this one to get out.
“How did she get in here?” my father shouts.
The captain of the guard scurries to stand before my father, armor clinking erratically. His beard is long and so lacking of color it nearly blends into his shining white armor. “It’s unclear, sir. She snuck by several on-duty guards. We’ll conduct a thorough investigation immediately.”
“I want those guards banished,” my father announces.
The captain winces.
“Without a trial?” my mother whispers. She pulls at her lip anxiously.
“Caelynn is a shadow walker, Father,” I say. “I imagine it would be quite easy for her to get around even our most astute guards.”
“That is no excuse! She is our one and onlyenemy!”
“Clearly,” I mumble, and my father shoots me a glare that could cut through ice. I raise my eyebrows, but then I sit back in my chair casually. Since I won the trials, I’ve earned more power and influence than I ever have before. More than my father is used to just yet. If I can manage to actually complete the quest I’ve been appointed, I’ll be a shoo-in for the High Court. I just have to survive the Schorchedlands first.
