Page 173 of The Poison Daughter
It’s been many years, but I have still not mastered the cold, paralyzing terror of knowing he’s angry. I doubt I ever will.
“I knew about their well, but we didn’t need it,” my father says, his voice wavering with barely leashed anger.
I scoff. “You weren’t curious about what it might do?”
He slams his fist on the table and points at me. “What wouldyouhave done? There was a horde of those evolvedthingscoming at the city. I tried my best to brace for it, but I couldn’t hold the tide of them back myself. Even with Able’s help, it would have been impossible. So I did what I had to do to ensure they headed north. I set part of the forest on fire. You know how fast holy fire spreads. I used all of my magic to force them away from the city. Then I rode out and shepherded them all the way to the wall of Mountain Haven. Once they smelled the blood inside, they stopped trying to fight their way back to the city. I left them there without looking back. I thought the wall would hold. I didn’t realize how much they had evolved, but I’d do all of it again for our people.”
Able is so still, I’m not sure he’s breathing.
After a long moment, my brother laughs—a loud, hysterical laugh. “Yes,” he says between great, gasping breaths. “I’m sure you did it all for our safety and not your own greed.”
He laughs harder, and my father’s aura swirls faster; he’s getting angrier by the second.
Able looks at me. “I didn’t know about this, but I—” He gasps with laughter. “I saw the aftermath. Those things found a weak spot in the wall and they clawed at it over and over. When we went back to investigate afterward, we found the remnants of claw marks in the stone.”
Able can’t seem to stop himself. His eyes tear and he completely comes undone in a fit of laughter.
The dining room door cracks open and Able’s bodyguard, Nick, rushes in with Gaven close behind him. Nick has something in his hand that looks like a syringe. When Able sees him, he just laughs harder.
“Come to shut me up again, Nick?” Able shouts.
Nick plunges the needle into his arm, and Able’s laughter cuts off abruptly. He sighs, and a moment later, he slumps back in his chair, unconscious.
“Get him out of here,” my father says.
Gaven and Nick enlist the help of my mother’s guard, Fallon, and the three of them carry my hulking brother from the room with great effort.
Moments later, the doors open and the servants return to clear our plates and replace our soup with roasted chicken. My parents eat as if nothing is amiss. I pick at my food, knowing that I need my strength, but still too unsettled from the stress of the day to keep much down.
“Why did you summon me back already?” I ask.
My father sets down his cutlery and leans back in his chair. “As you saw tonight, Rafe is becoming a very big problem. He publicly asked for more responsibility. Of course, he framed it as a way to prove to the people and the Divine how sorry he is for his failure last night, but he’d already run the idea by several of the magical houses before he announced it today. He wants his men to take over the full guard duty of the northern half of the city.”
The chicken suddenly tastes like ash. I swallow it down, trying to breathe through the uneasiness.
“He’s coming for us, Harlow,” my mother says.
“So you want me to—what? Kiss him?”
My mother clears her throat. “We know you have as contentious a history with the man as the rest of us, but unfortunately, he’s only become more connected over time. Our hopes to wrangle him have not been fruitful.”
Aidia. She means Aidia hasn’t been able to control him.
“We can’t take him out, but we could possibly spin a story from our history,” my mother says.
I stare at her. “I don’t follow.”
She sits taller in her chair. “If any of us suggested that Rafe somehow influenced the horde all those years ago to attack Fallen Hold, we would seem like we had an agenda with the accusation. But if Henry had reason to believe there was another option—one that we all know personally makes tremendous sense based on his temperament and desire for power here—I think we could not only win your new husband’s trust, but rally him against our common enemy. Not to mention the fact that while our high magical houses may look down on him, he’s not someone embroiled in city politics. His word will carry more weight.”
My brain finally catches up to what she’s saying. She wants me to convince Henry that Rafe is to blame for the fall of Mountain Haven.
It’s not a bad plan. Rafe is blessed by Polm, and his influence is known to be very powerful. Who better to manipulate a horde of Drained to turn away from the city than the man who loves to play the role of savior? I shudder, thinking about the kind of compulsion that could move a mob of beasts.
It’s terrifying to watch my parents work this way, but they haven’t held on to power this long by being friendly. They are diabolical.
I fold my hands neatly in my lap. “How do you expect me to casually bring this up to Henry?”
My father waves a hand dismissively. “You’re a smart girl. You’ll figure it out. We just need the accusation out there at the perfect time.”
