Chapter 8 Gabe
Gabe
Ichose to meet the Briar Queen in the antechamber of my private quarters. Luc would accompany the Lady of the House of Rose and Lantern, Harald and Jeff would stay as well, ready to assist in any way needed.
There was no reason to be concerned over this meeting. None at all. And yet I found myself pacing the room before this Briar Queen arrived, striding between the window that looked out to a curve in the underground river, all the way to the massive fireplace on the far side of the room.
Large enough that I could have roasted two full steers within it easily, the stone was solid black, so the flames stood out in even greater relief. The heat beat back the natural damp of the deep caves, the smell of woodsmoke curling to my nose despite the strong updraft to the chimney.
I stared at it, thinking back to when I’d seen her far below, the only soul to even think to look up instead of to the left or right.
Luc was right.
Her perception was something I needed in my hunt for the key.
Her perception was exactly why I was pacing. How clearly would she see me from beneath her hood?
I raked my hands through what was left of my hair, digging my fingers into the short-shorn sides—tidied some by Harald at least. Again, I found myself thinking of Myrr’s muttered warning.
“Beware the Queen.”
For all I knew, this Briar Queen could be working for someone else, for one of my enemies…
She was a mere human, hardly a threat to me. Surely, that prophecy referred to Cleona, perhaps. Or maybe a reference to Lilis herself.
I’d press the old woman on it more later. For now, the Briar Queen met my immediate need for someone with a nose to the ground and had knowledge of the Doves in this Territory.
“Sire, is there anything we can do?” Jeff asked from his corner, jarring me from my thoughts.
“No, thank you, Jeff. I am…” I tapped my fingers against the black mantel that ran at chest height in front of the fireplace.
Jeff did not try and fill the silence, for which I was grateful. Of course he wouldn’t try to read the mind of his king, no matter how much leniency I’d given him and Harald.
A knock at the door did not so much as startle me as calm me. The moment was here to face this self-made queen, if what I’d dug up on her was accurate.
Trained as a Dove, it was said that she wasn’t pretty enough to bring in the customers, but a keen mind had allowed her to build the closest thing to an empire within the community. As a female demon that would have been impressive.
As a female human…it was near extraordinary.
I kept my back to the room as the shush of thick skirts and the clicks of Luc’s heeled boots slowed and then stopped.
The Briar Queen’s perfume drifted to me, a blend of scents. Rose, as would be expected, but other things too—something that smelled of the ocean, and a sweetness that could have been a fruit.
A strange mixture.
Somewhat intoxicating which meant she knew her job well.
I turned to see her in a low curtsy, her hooded head dipped, hands holding her skirts wide, which showed a simple slit up one side of the thick gray material.
I wanted to tell her to not bother with that, but I needed her to see me as a king, not an interloper. “You may rise.”
She moved with practiced ease, as if being pulled by a string upward, rather than the awkward grunt Luc gave as he stood from where he’d been on one knee.
“Your Majesty.” She tipped her head again to me, all deference and respect, yet the tone in her voice spoke of something more. Heat. Anger.
“Have I done something to offend you, Lady…?”
“You may call me the Briar Queen, or Lady Rose.”
I had started to move, without really questioning why, circling her slowly. “And if I asked for your true name?”
Her whole body stiffened, not so noticeably that Luc or Harald or Jeff likely even saw, but this close I could almost feel her muscles tense. “I would prefer not, but of course it is as you wish, Your Majesty.”
As I stepped around her so that her back faced me, I let myself truly look at her form.
Not overly slim, there was strength and muscle in her back, legs and shoulders. According to what I’d read on her, she kept to some of the older routines, keeping her Doves in top physical shape, and it looked to include herself in that routine as well.
“Well, for now I will indulge, and call you Briar Queen.” I worked my way around her until I stood in front of her once more.
“With grace, I accept, Your Majesty.”
“Ah, no, but if I will call you by what is by all means a pet name, then you should do the same for me.” I found myself fighting a smile as she stiffened.
She truly didn’t like me, for some reason I could not fathom. Maybe she was a Malach loyalist?
Doubtful, given Malach’s distaste for humans and Luc’s championing of her.
More like she just isn’t impressed with you.
The thought irritated me but perhaps hit Luc at the very same time as he cleared his throat, sounding a bit like he was strangling a laugh back.
I didn’t look away from her, as if I could see into the depths of her cloak out of sheer force of will. Her cloak…a relic passed down to her from a former Lady Dove, magic woven within it that allowed her to see out, but for those looking in they saw nothing but the wearer’s mouth.
Tantalizing indeed, if slightly pinched and a bit thin…
I shook my head to clear it of these ridiculous thoughts. “What would you call me, if not Your Majesty?”
“I would prefer to only call you by Your Majesty. I would not want anyone to perceive more to our connection than king and loyal subject.” Her words were correct, polite, but the tone, the flavor was positively acidic.
I grinned. “You truly do not like me, do you?”
Her hands were clasped lightly in front of her body. Not wringing, not white knuckled as the two young Doves had been the previous night as I’d bid them to drink before I’d sent them on their way.
No, this one was not afraid of me at all. And indeed, she seemed more than put out to be called here, as if she were truly a queen.
Beware the Queen.
Fuck, maybe she did have more power than I’d given her credit for?
“My friends call me Gabe—”
“If you truly wish a pet name then I will call you Demon. Correct, and to the point, yes?”
My eyebrows shot up and, again, Luc choked on whatever breath of air he might have inhaled.
Harald whimpered and Jeff muttered what could have been a prayer under his breath.
I bared my teeth in a grin. “Excellent. Now, Briar Queen, I need your help in a somewhat delicate manner.”
“I have a number of girls, Demon, that may be suited to…whatever it is you have planned for her.”
Her emphasis on Demon was beyond fantastic, but why it pleased me so, I had no idea.
“No, I am not…well I suppose I am looking for a woman, but a very specific woman…” I turned away from her, though to be truthful I found it difficult.
Making myself move, I leaned against the mantel as I had been when they’d arrived.
“You have a description? I can see who might be suited not only in my own house, but in the others. Assuming of course any of us are alive beyond tomorrow, of course.”
Harald sucked in a sharp breath and that same whimper slipped past his lips. If Jeff was praying, he kept it quieter this time.
I shot her a glance over my shoulder and frowned. “What makes you say such a thing?”
She moved then, slowly, as if testing out her legs for the first time, moving to the window at the far side of the room. Keeping her back to me, she raised her voice just enough to be heard even with that distance.
“Are you familiar with human history much, Demon?”
My lips quirked as I found myself walking toward her, drawn in by her husky voice and the need to hear her speak.
Clever, clever human. How had she not been scooped up by one of the Lords as a consort, plain or no?
“I know a great deal, seeing as I lived outside of the territories for most of my life.” I grabbed the back of a wooden chair and dragged it, screeching, across the stone floor, to set it so that I could sit within five feet of her.
I watched as a deep breath lifted her shoulders and she straightened herself further, if that was possible. “Then you know the humans have serial killers? Infamous murderers, known throughout the world?”
“Yes, I am aware, though I have never met one.” I sat back in my chair, spreading my legs to either side, so that when she finally turned around, she would not be able to avoid me.
A tiny voice in my head wondered just what the fuck I was up to, because I was supposed to be convincing her to help me find the key, a key that likely was a Dove. And yet here I was, trying to convince her to like me, of all things.
Ridiculous.
Raven would have a fucking field day with this scene. I just needed wine and a little more time, and I would have her.
“I believe—”
“Wait.” I turned to Harald and Jeff. “Would one of you go and get a bottle of Oasis wine?”
Jeff groaned. “Not me, my knees are aching. Harald, you’re younger, you go.”
With that same whimper of his, Harald bowed and hurried from the room.
“You should be kinder to him,” Briar Queen admonished Jeff softly, “He has not had it easy.”
“You know Harald?” I asked, taken aback.
She turned, her hands still clasped lightly in front of her. I noted that the rings she wore were at the same time delicate and deadly looking. The one on the left was woven metal, and I wondered if it had been created by a demon with a similar magic to my own—control over metals and raw materials.
The other…the pale stone was set in a low-quality material that looked like fools’ gold.
I took her hands without thinking, turning them over to get a better look at the rings.
I rolled her hands over, inspecting the thick vines of her rose briar ring—apt considering her name.
The folds of the petals were finally wrought, but they were not silver as I first thought, but steel.
Hardened, burnished steel. Not all but some of the petals were edged as sharp as any blade.
“Where did you buy this ring?”
Slowly she drew that hand back. “It was a gift, from the woman who trained me the day I took over her role.”
I hadn’t let go of her other hand yet, letting the warmth of her slowly sink into me. Gods, this near to her and I could close my eyes and believe that I stood in a garden, breathing in the scents of spring, of life itself.
I tried to brush my thumb over the second ring, and she pulled back a second time. Before I could ask she covered that hand with the first. “A cheap ring, sentimental, though I know it has no true value.”
Luc cleared his throat. “Gabe…you were going to ask our Briar Queen here for help, correct?”
I’d almost forgotten Luc was here, that Jeff was still here. I forced my mind to circle back.
“I ask you again, Briar Queen. Why would you believe you might be dead before morning?”
Though I couldn’t see them, I could feel her eyes on me, seeming to penetrate my very thoughts.
“Because in a world of monsters, I believe you have a new one hiding in the shadows, pretending to be none other than Jack the Ripper.”