Page 82 of The Last Slayer
“Milady—”
“As a matter of fact, it was so good that if I didn’t have a heartstone, I wouldn’t have been able to tell. Not bad for a two-hundred-year-old fairy dragon.”
Toshi immediately descended to the floor and pressed his snout against it. “Please, milady. I beg you. Pretend you didn’t see anything. If…if…” He began shaking so hard he couldn’t finish his sentence.
“It was Ramiel, wasn’t it?”
I kept my voice soft, but my fingernails were digging into my palms. How dare he lie about Valerie’s condition and manipulate me into acquiring the heartstone? I’d almost died trying to get it. Twice. If that weren’t enough, now I had another demigoddess enemy who most likely wanted me dead. For all I knew, she was signing a pact with the Triumvirate of Madainsair right now to destroy me.
“Milady, I never meant to deceive you, but I panicked when you asked to see Lady Valerie. It was my magic that made her sleep and disguised her true condition. Please. I would’ve told you the truth. But if…if Lord Ramiel…oh dear.” He covered his mouth with his foreclaws. “Please…please don’t be angry with His Lordship. It’s all my fault.” He began to sob earnestly. “If…if you m-must be angry at someone, please—” hiccup, “—please be angry at me. And punish me for my shortcomings.”
Valerie gave me a what the hell? look, but she squatted down and began making cooing noises, trying to comfort Toshi. That place behind my eye began to throb. Knowing how he dreaded pain, I understood the kind of turmoil he must be going through to offer himself as a scapegoat. For that alone, Ramiel should be horsewhipped.
“Toshi,” I said, my voice calm. “I’m not angry with you.” And that was true enough. I looked at Valerie. “I need to go talk to someone now. We can catch up later, if that’s okay.”
“Sure.” Valerie’s voice lacked its usual confidence.
Toshi gulped in air. “But milady, Lord Ramiel is—hic—most likely waiting for you at breakfast. I’m not sure if it’s wise to have a confrontation before eating. It may cause—hic—indigestion—”
“Not talking about it will cause more.” I went down on one knee, scooped Toshi’s tiny trembling body into my hands and brought it up until I could look levelly into his teary eyes. “Toshi, I promise, I’m not mad at you. I just want to understand why I wasn’t told about Valerie’s recovery.”
It took a moment, but he gathered himself and rose into the air. “Please follow me.” He sniffled aloud and bowed to Valerie. “Excuse us, milady.”
He led me down a wide hallway and out into a garden with a gorgeous high arch of pomegranate-red roses and dark ivy vines. The roses had a strong heady scent. A pair of fairy dragons hovered over a blossom. One of them was picking little bugs from the rose and handing them to his partner, who put them in a small bag. Along our footpath, crushed mint added a dash of freshness to morning air still moist with dew.
It might as well have been a garbage alley in Calcutta for all I cared. God, what a fool I’d been! A pretty face and a hot body, and I’d trusted him like some hormonal teenager. Oh sure, I’d protested a bit, but words were cheap. In the end, I’d done everything according to his plans.
Beyond the arch, Ramiel sat at a round table carved out of a single large block of ivory marble. Toshi had outdone himself again. There was enough food laid out to feed a village. If the table hadn’t been made of stone, it would’ve collapsed under the weight of our breakfast.
“Are we expecting company?” I asked, my eyebrows raised high.
“No.” Ramiel smiled at me. He didn’t seem to notice Toshi’s distress. The little dragon was doing his best to be invisible without actually leaving us.
“Really?” I sat down. “Valerie isn’t joining us?”
All expression left Ramiel’s face. He glanced at his fairy dragon, who had dropped to the ground and was cowering.
“My lord, it’s all my fault. Please puni—”
“You may leave. Now,” Ramiel said in a tone that demanded—and received—instant compliance. He turned to me. “So you know.”
“Of course. Did you think you could hide it from me forever?” I leaned back in my chair. The trees around us shielded my eyes from the morning sun.
“I intended to tell you.”
“You intended to tell me. When? Before or after Nathanael killed me in front of my mother? While Nahemah was skewering me with her sword? No, no, I know. You were going to wait until I pissed Enmesaria off too, since four dragonlords after me just isn’t enough.”
“Ashera—”
“How much of what you told me is actually true?”
He gazed at me. With each beat, my heart bled a little until it hardened against anything he could say. He had no excuse. How could he use me, abuse my trust? Worse, how could I not hate him for the things he’d done? I wanted to strangle him, bring him pain greater than what he’d given me. But nothing I felt now could change the fact that my stupid heart beat a little faster when I thought of him or that my breath still caught in my throat when I saw him sitting there, resplendent in the shade. His collar winked in a dapple of light, and I hoped he’d choke. Bastard.
And as much as I hated to admit it to myself, this was my own fault—a huge lapse in judgment. I should never have let him get so close. Never forgotten that he was a supernatural, and thus by definition untrustworthy.
“Valerie was the only…unvoiced truth,” he said finally. “I intended to tell you before we visited Enmesaria, although I would’ve asked that you see her anyway. She has maintained neutrality for eons, even through the Twilight of Slayers, but I believe she will be your ally if you can appeal to her sense of fairness.”
“You mean manipulate her.”
