Page 78 of Quiver of Cobras
He folded his arms, an implacable statue. I lunged past but he sidestepped in time to stop me. Gasbudlikins. I wanted to make sure the oath breaker was going to start working. I couldn’t do that from out here.
‘Are you okay, Mads?’ Lunaria asked behind me.
I turned to her. Her face was pure white. ‘I’m fine,’ I said shortly. ‘Rubus isn’t, though. I want to make sure he’s okay. What was that thing that Morgan threw at him?’
She shook her head. ‘I have no idea.’ Her head dropped. ‘Why did you do it?’ she mumbled. ‘Why did you choose Rubus instead of Morgan?’
I could prevaricate and blurt out reasonable sounding excuses to the others but somehow I didn’t think they would work with Lunaria. She was in love with Rubus. I suspected she recognised the same emotion in me, albeit for a different brother. Then I paused. Was I in love with Morgan? What a ridiculous notion. I wanted to shag him senseless, sure. Love was… I shook my head. Nah. I didn’t love him. I probably wasn’t even capable of such a feeling.
‘Maybe the others know what that thing was that Morgan threw,’ I said, ignoring her question. ‘Let’s see.’ With a final, evil-eyed stare at Amellus, I grabbed Lunaria’s arm and whirled back down the corridor.
We entered the kitchen. Faeries of all shapes and sizes were hovering there, anxious looks on their faces.
‘What was Morgan doing?’
‘Has he found a way to break the truce?’
‘If Rubus dies, we’re all lost. We’ll be stuck here forever!’
One by one, the mingling Fey fell silent as they saw me. I glared at them. ‘What? This isn’t my fault!’
I still received several nasty looks. Good grief – what exactly did I have to do to get this lot to trust me? ‘You idiots couldn’t pour water out of a wellington boot if the instructions were on the side,’ I sniped. ‘You were there and you didn’t do a damned thing to stop Morgan. He forced me back but what was your excuse? When Rubus recovers he’s not just going to be disappointed in you. He’s going to—’
Amellus appeared in the doorway, interrupting me in mid-flow. ‘Boss wants you.’
I stiffened. ‘Is he alright then? Has Carduus managed to get that crap off his face?’
‘You’ll see.’ He jerked his head. ‘Come with me.’
My heart in my mouth, I trailed after the lumbering faery. I still managed to give the other assembled faeries a sneer of dripping disparagement before I left though. ‘Rubus wants me,’ I said to them smugly. ‘It’s obvious who he thinks is worthy of him now.’
Several faces blanched in response, Lunaria’s included. I tossed my head and caught up with Amellus. ‘I told you I should have been allowed into the lab. I’m one of you guys,’ I said. ‘I’m not the freaking enemy!’
Amellus didn’t say anything. He shuffled down the corridor and pointed me in. I stuck out my tongue at him as I entered. This was going better than I could have hoped for.
The lab door closed behind me. It took me only a second to realise that there was no sign of either Carduus or Rubus. My eyes narrowed in suspicion. Where exactly had they gone?
‘Hello?’ I called, in case they’d decided this was an excellent time for a spot of hide-and-seek.
No one answered immediately then I heard a groan. Carduus appeared from behind one of the tables, helping a pale-looking Rubus to his feet. Man, Rubus looked like death. He also had a red stain on his cheek where Morgan had thrown the oath breaker. If I squinted, it looked oddly like the shape of the British Isles. I wondered if it would serve as a permanent reminder of the temporary home that Rubus was effectively seeking to destroy. Talk about poetic justice.
‘Are you okay?’ I asked.
‘Does he look okay?’ Carduus snapped.
Rubus raised his head, his bleary green eyes meeting mine. ‘I don’t feel well,’ he admitted.
Blimey. For Rubus to confess to a weakness meant he had to be feeling really off colour. That was good news indeed.
I put on my best sad face. ‘I don’t know what Morgan thought he was doing. How could he hurt you with the truce in place?’
‘For all his selfless posturing, my brother is a selfish bastard,’ Rubus croaked. ‘I don’t know what he’s done to me but I have no energy. I don’t understand why he’s so determined to keep us all trapped here.’
His knees buckled slightly. I rushed to his opposite side to help Carduus keep him upright. It was probably better that way; Rubus wouldn’t be able to see me rolling my eyes every time he opened his mouth.
‘We have to leave,’ Carduus said. ‘For all we know, Morganus is on his way back with an army. He’ll do anything to keep you down. We can’t let him take advantage of you when you’re in such a weakened position.’
I was confused. ‘But the truce—’
