Chapter 2 #2
I stand firm. I crossed Llwyn and the Spires for my grandmother, lost everyone and everything I held dear—only to discover she betrayed me. I loved my grandmother so deeply, it nearly killed me. That love that kept me alive all those years is now a hard, putrid stone in my chest.
Now, I hate her. It’s a hatred that burns so hot, I’d kill her a second time if I had the chance. And this fury has no time for pleasantries.
“Why?” The word tears from my throat before I can think better of it. “Why did you leave me without an explanation? Why torture me like that?”
Behind her, Nalina stiffens, her hand ready at the silver sword on her hip.
The queen studies me through her sheer veil. Slowly, she stands, her bones cracking like popping coals. When she speaks, her voice is raspy and dry. “Sometimes, the path we walk requires great sacrifice.”
I step forward, but Tristan places a hand on my arm.
“Sacrifice?” I balk. “You abandoned me to that monster! To a father who hated me, who made my life miserable.” My voice breaks, but I refuse to cry. “You knew what he was, what he was capable of. And you still left me with him.”
Nalina’s gaze darts toward Tristan, narrowing further. The unspoken tension between them is almost palpable.
My fury burns through me, fueled by years of unanswered questions and bitter resentment. “I loved you. And you left me.”
The Dead Queen’s voice is maddeningly calm. “I did what I had to.”
Bile burns my throat. Suddenly, the weight of the silver moth hanging around my neck feels unbearable. I grab it and tug, breaking the chain. I throw the necklace onto the ground. It clangs and skitters toward her feet. For a long moment, everyone in the room stares at it.
My heart is racing with anger. “Without you, he made my life a nightmare. He—” I choke on the words, the memories too painful to voice.
He disowned me. He made an illegitimate son heir instead of me.
He locked me in a dungeon to die. He sicced his foxhounds on me when Hunter saved me. He will stop at nothing until I’m dead.
Tristan’s grip tightens on my arm. I can feel the weight of his gaze, silently urging me to hold my composure. But how can I, when the woman responsible for my suffering stands here? When she’s wearing the face of the grandmother I once adored?
“Tell me what happened.” My voice is sharp as a blade. I came here for answers. Once I get them, I’ll leave this horrible place forever. I’ll try to find a way to live, after existing in the shadow of death since I was twelve years old.
The Dead Queen doesn’t speak.
“I deserve to know!”
“People don’t always get what they ‘deserve’. You should know that better than most.”
She means my father. If he got what he deserved, then he’d have died a torturous death a long time ago. I can feel her dead eyes studying me from behind her black veil.
“I mourned you for years. I ruined my life just to find out what happened to you.” I take a step forward and speak through gritted teeth. “Tell me.”
“No.”
“No?” I scoff, incredulous.
“You aren’t ready to hear that tale.”
I turn to Tristan, expecting some backup, but he just stands still and stoic. Of course, he isn’t going to help me. He was never my friend. Everything he did was driven by ulterior motives.
I stomp up toward the throne, but Nalina steps in front of me. In one smooth motion, she unsheathes her sword, pressing its silver tip to my chest. I glare past her, at the queen.
“Tell. Me.” My voice has a pleading edge to it that makes me cringe. I’m not here to beg. I’m here to make demands. “I’ll make you.” I press closer, not caring that the edge of Nalina’s blade bites the skin at my collarbone.
“You can’t.”
“I’ll find a way.”
Her tone is curious. “You plan to pry the story from my cold, dead lips, you mean?”
“That can be arranged.”
“It’s not so easy.”
“I’m used to things being ‘not so easy.’ You’ll find I’m rather industrious.”
She shakes her head slowly. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, Granddaughter, but a Dead Queen can’t be destroyed by mere strength of will.”
“I’ve killed corpse beasts. I know exactly what to do.”
“Decapitation, you mean?” She tilts her veiled head like a curious wolf. “It may work with a corpse beast, but it isn’t so easy to destroy a queen.”
I hadn’t thought of that. That killing a corpse beast is simpler than killing a Dead Queen with immense shadow power.
“I’ll learn how.”
“I wish you luck.” The Dead Queen says lightly. “Very few people know that secret. And I’m not about to include you on that list.”
“Then tell me what happened and be done with me. It’s the only reason I’m here.”
The queen sighs, a rattling, hollow sound. “I know you’ve suffered. Believe me, it pains me to see the scars you bear.” Her gaze flicks to Tristan again, and something unreadable passes between them. His grip tightens on my arm.
I grit my teeth, fury rising in me. This woman doesn’t care about my suffering. If she did, she wouldn’t have left me to rot in Caerwen. Enough of this.
“My father. He did this to you, didn’t he?”
The Dead Queen stills, then nods, just once.
My vision becomes a tunnel. I knew it. All along, my father was the one who killed her. The one who ruined my life. Who destroyed my heart and soul. It feels so obvious. I know now what I must do. Why I’ve survived this miserable life and sacrificed so much. This is my destiny.
“I’m going to kill him.”
I will murder the Fox King. And when I’m done, I’ll figure out how to kill the Dead Queen, too. Once and for all.
The Dead Queen’s voice sounds hollow in my ears. “Perhaps. But you can’t go back to Llwyn yet.”
My head snaps up. “You can’t stop me.”
“I won’t need to.” The Dead Queen merely lifts one hand toward the tall, east-facing windows. The glass is darkened with a blanket of snow.
“Storms don’t last forever.”
She clucks as though I’m a silly child. It makes heat rush to my cheeks.
Nalina barely manages to hide a sneer. I glare at her and lean into her blade, daring her to doubt me. A trickle of blood slides over my collarbone. I can feel the trail of its warmth between my breasts.
“You don’t know the north,” the queen says. “But you will learn.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?” I snarl.
Tristan’s voice is low behind me. “It means, in Annwyn, winter is not so easily escaped.”
I turn to look at him, but he simply watches me, waiting for me to understand. I don’t.
“He means, you’re stuck here.” Nalina lowers her blade, her green eyes on me. “He means no one can survive out there until the snow melts.”
“I’ve survived worse than a little snow.”
Nalina outright laughs at that. “It is not just ‘a little snow.’”
The Dead Queen speaks, and Nalina falls respectfully silent.
“In Annwyn, winter means frozen lands throughout the Spires. Beasts grow mad with starvation. Snowdrifts grow so tall, they can cover a fortress.” Once again, she gestures toward the high windows.
From behind her veil, she turns her white eyes upon me.
“It means you are trapped here in Gwyllion until spring.”