Chapter 25
25
For a moment, Saskia could only stare. Of course, she already knew most of Fabian’s features—those soft brown eyes, the clean line of his jaw, the sensitive curve of his mouth—but as she took them in anew, the rest of his features, finally revealed, added themselves to the puzzle… along with the vicious magical suppressant that had been bound in his left ear this whole time.
“Oh, darkness!” She lurched backwards, nausea rising within her.
She knew that face .
How many times had she thought those dreamy, beautiful poet’s features were wasted on such a villain?
“You’re the fucking Archduke of Estarion !”
He flinched, but he didn’t drop her gaze. “Felix,” he said quietly. “Not quite Fabian.”
She waved that off with an impatient slash of one hand. “The Archduke. ”
Gods, all these months, when the other Queens of Villainy had been trying so hard to work out where he’d gone, and she’d left it to her sweet, innocent librarian to carry out her side of the hunt…
“You’ve played me for a fool.” The realization came out on a whisper. “Have you been laughing at me all along?”
“No. Never!” He pushed himself up, dark hair falling over his face. “Saskia…”
“Was this your plan all along?” It hurt even to force the words through her lips. “Your forces couldn’t defeat my wall of magic, so you planted yourself as a spy to find another way in?”
“I would never wish to hurt you. Think, Saskia.” His voice was as gentle as ever, but his eyes looked haunted. “You said it yourself—it’s not about the families we’re born into, or who we’re told we have to be. Think about me, the man you’ve known for months. The one you told me about, only minutes ago!”
“I know the Archduke of Estarion. ” Gods, she was going to be sick. “He sent gold flooding into my uncle’s coffers for decades. He paid for my uncle’s assassins to hunt me!”
… Her uncle, whom she’d trusted, too. She’d thought he loved her and her family when she was a child.
How could she have been so unforgivably stupid as to make the same mistake twice?
“No, the Archduke didn’t, ” Felix said urgently. “It was done under my name, but not by my choice. Saskia, you have to believe me. I had nothing to do with any of that!”
She laughed, a harsh, pained sound. “Oh, are you going to hide behind a wall of advisors and pretend all the blame rests with them?”
He closed his eyes, his face tightening as he drew a shuddering breath. “When I first arrived, I meant to fling myself upon your mercy. I came here for sanctuary.”
“ What? ” Another disbelieving laugh might have escaped, but it felt too perilously close to a sob. She wrapped her arms tightly around her chest, holding everything in.
This was why she couldn’t let herself be weak and trust new people. This was what happened whenever she did.
“I was going to offer myself as your hostage against the Empire, to save my life.” He opened his eyes, his expression weary. “You asked who gave me my scars? That would be the Chief Minister of Estarion—my father-in-law—Count von Hertzendorff, along with various lackeys of his and also his son, the current high general. I’ve been under their full control ever since the Count was appointed my guardian fifteen years ago. I was never allowed anywhere near politics from then on, never educated in anything but poetry and languages… and once my wife died, they began to plot my death. You were the only escape I could think of—the only person who’d ever successfully stood against them.”
She had. She would again. And she had sworn to herself, only minutes ago, to kill whoever had left those scars. And yet…
How could she possibly know what was true? Warring instincts made it impossible to think. Curse it, if only the other Queens of Villainy were here to help analyze this conversation! Though, actually, no.
Gods , no! If they found out just how badly she’d been fooled…
“ Ohhh. ” Her eyes narrowed. Someone else had known, hadn’t They?
That damned smirk Divine Elva had given her, when She had asked Saskia not to harm the Archduke… and the way She’d pointed him out to Saskia at Winter’s Turning!
As Saskia’s mouth dropped open in outrage, the Archduke—Felix—continued. “I don’t even know how I managed to escape. I should have been caught a dozen times along the way! But everyone simply bowed me past, and no one asked any difficult questions, even when I finally arrived here. I still don’t understand it, but…”
“I do,” Saskia said grimly.
She well remembered Divine Elva’s list of the powers a goddess could wield in the world. “W E MAY WHISPER A DIVINE brEATH OF PERSUASION FROM TIME TO TIME, IN AID …”
“ Someone had plans for you,” Saskia snarled, “but She didn’t bother to share them—or ask my permission first.”
“I beg your pardon?” Felix blinked.
A rap sounded on the door, making Saskia startle. “Your Majesty?” Morlokk’s voice sounded through the thick wood. “Forgive me for the interruption, but you have a guest.”
“Oh, for…!” Saskia had to squeeze her eyes shut to hold back a curse. At last she managed to call back through the door, “Send them to a spare bedroom for the night, please! I’ll deal with whoever it is tomorrow, but for now, I’m far too busy—”
“That’s not possible, I’m afraid.” Morlokk’s voice sounded pained. “It is your First Minister, you see. She says she absolutely cannot wait—and she’s bearing urgent news about your wall.”
Oh, gods! That wall was all that held out the Empire. If something had happened to it…
Saskia flicked a desperate glance between Fabian— Felix, damn it—and the closed door.
“I understand,” he said quietly. “See to your kingdom first. We can talk afterwards.”
“We will talk,” she said firmly, “so stay right here. Don’t go anywhere! And don’t speak a word of this to anyone else until we’ve finished our conversation.”
He was still naked in her bed. For one excruciating moment, she couldn’t help sweeping her gaze across him, her body flushing with too-vivid memories. If there was any chance at all that he was telling the truth, that he hadn’t been deceiving her about everything after all…
Stop. She had to shut down all of that—the pain, the betrayal, and, most dangerous of all, that single thread of shimmering, desperate hope. She couldn’t possibly hold her own against Mirjana with a clouded head.
“ Stay, ” she repeated, and stalked out of the room to take on the world.
Felix was on his feet less than a minute later, scrambling to collect his scattered clothing. He couldn’t stay still—not after everything that had happened.
Not after seeing the agony on Saskia’s face when she’d realized exactly who he was, remembering everything done to her in his name.
“Are you going to hide behind a wall of advisors and pretend all the blame rests with them?”
He refused to spend a minute longer than necessary wearing the earring that had given everything away… and raised a whole host of new, world-tilting questions.
His fingers shook too badly to knot his cravat; he finally flung it aside, giving up on the whole endeavor and leaving his neck bare. He would have left behind the mask, as well, but he hesitated with his right hand on the door handle, remembering Saskia’s second order: “ Don’t speak a word of this to anyone else…”
He owed her the respect of following that command—and she deserved to choose how to break this news to his fellow staff members. So Felix gritted his teeth, stalked back to the bed, and fought to retie the slippery laces at the back of the mask. By the time he finally threw open the bedroom door, shock and panic had combined so deeply that he felt nearly numb, untethered from his body. He had to press one hand against the wall of the stone staircase to keep himself grounded as he hurried down the long, winding stairs to the underground kitchen, and he still tripped on his way into the room.
For once, the vast space stood empty, with the Snowfest celebration still going on upstairs without him. His wild gaze darted between different hulking stoves and counters.
He had hoped to find an obvious tool, but even in his current state, he wasn’t reckless enough to try slicing through that golden earring with any of the heavy carving knives that he saw.
He was rummaging through random drawers in a frantic search when he heard a quiet, surprised croak. “… Sinistro?”
Gods, what must he look like, crouched like a thief in the kitchen? Sighing, Felix swung around and found Krakk standing behind him, bulbous eyes wide.
“I’m looking for something that can cut through gold,” he said wearily. “You don’t have any idea where to look, do you?”
“Ha!” Krakk snorted with open disdain, and Felix belatedly remembered Mrs. Haglitz’s words from the night of Saskia’s poisoning: “ You think goblins need human help to get hold of gold or diamonds? ”
“You, wait. ” Krakk pulled open a nearby cabinet door to reveal a deep, dark opening behind it. A moment later, he was gone, closing the door behind him to vanish into the depths of the mountain.
This time, Felix had no choice but to follow that command. He braced his hands on the marble countertop and forced himself to slow his breathing and keep his feet planted firmly in place as the endless seconds and minutes ticked by in silence, carrying too many vivid memories with them.
Saskia rising above him, her face fierce in climax…
Saskia lurching away from him in pain and horror…
No! He would only focus on one thing now.
“… A magical suppressant. With that sealed in your ear, you could never access your own magic.”
What magic could it have been intended to suppress? No one in his family had been magical; he couldn’t have inherited it. And his examiners had all cleared him in the standard childhood exam. Imperial law was clear and unbending: no matter what rank in society a child’s family might hold, from the lowest to the highest, they would all lose their children to a school of Gilded Wizardry the very moment those children were revealed to hold even the tiniest sparks of magic.
On the other hand, if he had worn that magic-suppressing earring when they’d tested him…
How old had he been when his parents had ordered it to be implanted? The truth was, he couldn’t remember ever not having worn it. They’d always been so firm that it could never be removed or revealed to anyone else… and the Count had been so uncharacteristically indulgent in allowing him to keep it just so long as it remained carefully hidden behind his hair.
Had all of Felix’s supposed protectors known about his magical abilities?
The cabinet door creaked open behind him, and Felix spun around just in time to see Krakk step out of the darkness, carrying an intimidating-looking tool with two handles and a set of sharp metal teeth.
“ Thank you,” Felix said on a sigh. “I’ll just borrow those long enough to find a mirror and—”
“No, Sinistro.” Krakk shook his head indulgently. “Krakk will do it.”
“But—”
The goblin looked at him with pity. “Safest this way.”
“Ah… you may be right.” Felix’s hands weren’t entirely steady, even now—and he had to admit that it would feel better to do this with a friend, even if that friendship might not last the night.
Sinking to his knees and ducking his head, he drew back his hair and tucked it behind his left ear. “It’s this earring, you see? It was welded together, so I can’t remove it without breaking it.”
“Pah.” Krakk snorted. “ Humans. Can’t see five paces ahead in the dark.”
“I can’t argue with that.” Felix closed his eyes, the better to not see those sharp metal teeth as they approached his ear.
Luckily, Krakk proved as adept with this tool as he had been in carving the detailed wooden figurine he’d gifted Felix for Snowfest. Felix felt only a whisper of cold behind his ear as the metal teeth fastened around the slim golden hoop…
And then they closed with a crunch! that sent a jolt through his whole body. His vision turned black, his mind a sudden void.
“Careful!” One small, strong hand propped him up as Felix blinked back to awareness a moment later. “Now.” Krakk peered into his eyes. “Better take a minute,” the goblin advised. “Breathe deep, drink water. Back soon.”
He left again through the cabinet door, presumably to return the tool, and Felix followed the advice, taking a deep breath through roiling nausea. The earring still sat in his ear, but he could already feel the shifting balance in his body now that its circle had been broken. Once he was steady enough to pull the hoop out…
“Ah, here you are!” Rainbows shimmered through the air, and gauzy skirts in shades of red and gold appeared before his eyes. “Oh, dear, are you not feeling well? Perhaps you celebrated tonight’s news a bit too much?” Queen Lorelei of Balravia batted sparkling eyelashes down at him as flirtatiously as ever, but her blue eyes were hard, and her grin looked nearly manic. “I’m afraid I can’t offer you any time to recover. You see, our dear Saskia is so very protective of her people, even when they’re not so loyal to her—and with events moving so quickly, now, she hasn’t left me any choice but to take charge of the situation myself.”
“I—what?” Head and stomach both spinning, Felix blinked up at her in bafflement from his kneeling position. “Your Majesty…?”
“Shh, Your Highness.” The hand she closed around his shoulder was warm and soft. “There will be plenty of time for conversation once the two of us are back home in Balravia. I’m going to find such good uses for you!”
Rainbow shimmers closed around them, and Kadaric Castle—the first true home Felix had known in years—fell away as the fae queen took him captive.