Shit. Shit. Shit.
“She is. This is Leesha’s sister.”
“Feckin’ hell,” Tadhg whispered, squatting down next to me. “I thought you killed Leesha’s sister.”
“I did. Two hundred years ago.” And then the Queen had cut out her heart. I’d assumed that meant her body would rot into worm food. Instead, she looked like she hadn’t aged a day.Just like Leesha.
I nudged Tadhg’s shoulder. “Check her chest.” We needed to see the scar to be sure, but I wouldn’t be undressing any women, dead or alive, except my wife.
He shoved me back. “You check her chest.”
“You two are such children,” Aveen muttered, dropping beside me to unfasten the silver clasp at Gilly’s neck. The black cloak fell away, revealing black leather armor I was all too familiar with.
Tadhg must’ve recognized it as well. “She’s one of the Queen’s guards.”
I couldn’t even bring myself to nod. I’d already suspected the Queen, but to have such evidence in our possession meant there was no doubt.
Aveen slipped free the straps holding the armor across the dead woman’s torso, revealing a black shirt beneath, unstained by blood or grime. A silver scar adorned her throat, and sure enough, a second scar marked her left breast.
A human without a heart.
Meaning the Queen had been able to control her the same way she used to be able to control me. And she’d used that power to force this woman to attack her fellow humans. But while the Queen had had my heart, I’d been able to bleed, so maybe the spell she used to reanimate the humans and keep them from rotting was different.
“That’s what she’s been doing with all those hearts,” Aveen whispered, her face paling in the dim light. Her gaze snagged with mine, full of the same icy dread coursing through my veins.
“The Queen must’ve killed hundreds, if not thousands of humans through the years,” Tadhg remarked. “Surely she hasn’t kept them all.”
“Oh, but she has,” I said, my throat as tight as a fist. “And we know where they are.” The creepy hall of caged hearts where mine had been locked away.
Tadhg nudged Gilly’s shoulder with a fingertip.
Aveen stood slowly and pressed a hand to her stomach. “What would happen if we returned their hearts?”
Good question. “The Queen would no longer be able to control them, and they’d go about living their boring lives, I imagine.”
That was what had happened with Leesha, wasn’t it? She woke up not knowing any difference, believing no time had passed, when in reality, she’d been gone for centuries. I’d always known the Queen was powerful, but this…this was unheard of.
Aveen smiled, such hope in her soft blue eyes. “We can save them.”
Forever the optimist. Leave it to my wife to think about rehabilitating those who’d wrought such devastation. “Not while the Queen lives,” I countered. “Even if we managed to enter the Forest without her finding out, she’s strengthened her wards, and there’s no way through without the Queen’s blood.”
After all that had happened, there was only one choice left for us to make.
A weary breath blew through Tadhg’s lips as he stood and said, “Then we find a way to kill the Queen.”
49
KEELYNN
With the familyroom being used to house human refugees, the five of us had retreated to Rían’s room, where he’d shifted the sofa and chairs from downstairs. A fire crackled in the hearth, but I barely felt its heat.
I was too bloody disheartened. Too bloody useless. Yes, I’d helped serve breakfast and lunch and organized enough bedding for those who still had no homes, but that wasn’t enough. Every single person I cared about was preparing to risk life and limb, and I was sitting here like a plod, twiddling my thumbs. There had to besomethingI could do to help them in their endeavors to take down the Phantom Queen.
Tadhg slumped in his wingback, the picture of defeat as he massaged his temples. No matter what any of us said, he continued to blame himself for what had happened last night. He glanced over at Rían where he leaned against the mantle, staring into the flickering orange flames. “You still have the dagger, don’t you?”
“No, I lost it. What do you think? Eejit,” Rían muttered.
Aveen sighed from beside me on the settee. “Let’s save the fighting for the Queen, shall we?”