The Queen’s dark eyebrows lifted toward her gleaming onyx crown. “What do you expect me to do about it?”
The witch had been alive for millennia and knew how to phrase her responses to keep from incriminating herself. If we had any hope of gleaning a genuine reaction, we needed to unsettle her. Force her to be decisive with a lie or the truth. Either one would work at this stage.
I leaned back in my chair as if I didn’t care either way. No sense letting her know how invested I really felt. “We know you’re the one behind the blight.”
Slowly, she turned, glowering down her straight nose at me. “That is an awfully serious accusation,son.”
Why attack her own people, the ones she always fought so hard to “protect”? She never did anything without reason. There was always some strategy or ulterior motive. What would happen if all of Tearmann went black? Our people would be forced to relocate to Airren or flee the island altogether, catching ships to the fae lands in Iodale or the continent. Passage was expensive, so the former would be most likely.
An influx of Danú in Airren would make the Airren authorities uneasy, and tensions were already at an all-time high.
The Queen had always been vocal about what our father had conceded in the treaty. She’d never hidden the fact that she wanted to cull the island of humans and redraw the lines on the map to what they had been before the war.
Hold on.
Could that be why she was doing this? Now that I thought about it, I really should’ve seen this sooner. I was some eejit.
“You’re trying to start a war.”
Her lips twitched.
Feckin’ hell. I was right. The Queen was trying to start a feckin’ war with the humans.
“That is absurd,” she clipped.
The air turned sweet. Absurd or not, I’d caught her out in a lie. “You’re trying to force their hand,” I said, her plan becoming clearer with each passing second. The fire at the Arches? I’d bet my cufflinks that had been her as well. “You’re trying to get them to attack us first.” The Airren authorities would see an influx of Danú as an imminent threat. They’d been building up their military presence for years. If Airren attacked, we would be forced to retaliate, or else the Danú would revolt against Tadhg’s rule.
Hell, with his engagement to a human, his people were already on the verge of revolt.
Tadhg’s hands balled into fists where they rested on the tabletop. “You know we cannot hope to win against a trained army with iron weapons. You would be leading our people to slaughter.”
The Queen’s thin lips twisted in a mocking smile. “You have missed your chance to respond to this crisis. I will handle the issue how I see fit. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be going.” She rose and smoothed down her dress, the veins in her hands as black as the feathers sewn into her skirts. “Oh, Rían. I almost forgot to give you your birthday present.”
If she thought I’d accept a gift from her, she had another thing coming. “I want nothing from you.”
Her teeth gleamed in the candlelight when she smiled. “I think you’ll want this.” She clicked her fingers at the guards. The dining room door creaked open. In stepped a woman with the hood of her black cloak pulled, concealing her features. She lifted her hands and eased back the hood.
Fiery curls spilled out.
The woman smiled a smile I’d kissed on far too many occasions. “Rían?”
My heart stopped beating.
The air evacuated my lungs.
My head began to spin and thump.
I knew her voice as clearly as I knew my own.
I stared dumbfounded at the woman standing an arm’s reach away. It couldn’t be.Freckles across her nose. It couldn’t.Moss-green eyes. An excellent glamour, that’s what it was. A trick of magic. Another feckin’ mirage.
I stumbled to my feet, sending the chair clattering to the stones.
The woman’s brilliant smile left my stomach sinking to my toes as she rushed forward and draped her long, slender arms around my neck. “Oh, how I’ve missed you, my love.”
She smelled like bonfire smoke and pine, like all those times she’d fallen asleep in front of the fireplace with a book on her lap. How was this possible?
Leesha pulled away, her fingertips grazing my neck, making the hair stand on end. “Your mother has been most kind, giving me refuge in her castle until you could return for me.”