Drayce was right about one thing. As a nathair, Queen Melusina could only be killed by someone who shared her blood. It also explained why the wretched monster had no maternal instincts toward her children.
Without any additional prompting, Aengus dropped to one knee. “Your Majesty, I offer you my servitude until we have vanquished Melusina.”
“And then?” Drayce folded his arms across his chest.
Ignoring Drayce, Aengus stared up at me through pleading eyes that shimmered like pools of turquoise. “Then I will have repaid you for my freedom, and I will live out my days in peace.”
I glanced at Drayce, whose gaze hardened with the expression Father made whenever I failed to listen to his advice but turned to him when I got myself into trouble. Perhaps he was also thinking of last night, when I poisoned an entire troop of soldiers with the Keeper’s venom. They had either died or fallen paralyzed and eaten alive by the beasts that roamed the Autumn Court.
Shifting uncomfortably on my feet, I pushed aside those thoughts. If Drayce had told me in advance of his fake plan to sacrifice me to Queen Melusina, I wouldn’t have resorted to mass murder.
Besides, Aengus hadn’t threatened my life and hadn’t shown signs of being a danger to anyone but our shared enemy. Ignoring Drayce’s disapproval, I offered Aengus my hand. “We have a bargain.”
His face broke out into a smile of flushed cheeks and white teeth that made his eyes sparkle like gemstones. “Then we will seal it with a sweet kiss.”
“On her hand,” Drayce snarled.
“Of course.” Aengus pressed his lips onto the knuckle of my index finger.
Light flared from the contact. My brows rose. When I was a human girl bargaining for the life of my father, Drayce had insisted that I kiss him on the mouth. I shot him a glare, only for his lips to curl into a wicked smile.
Aengus scurried to one of the tables, where someone had left a tankard of ale and a heaping bowl of stew. As he devoured the food with his bare hands, I wondered if the mist left the Fomorians in perpetual hunger.
“Your Majesty,” said a voice from behind.
Osmos strode through the doors with Rosalind on his heels. His white hair sparkled a multitude of shades in the colored light.
“Did you deal with the humans?” I asked.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Everybody with family has already left with compensation.”
Dread rolled through my belly like a boulder. “And the rest?”
“That druid insists that you grant him another audience,” he said. “I told him you were occupied with other business, but he won’t leave.”
Rosalind raised a shoulder. “The guards wanted to cut off his legs, but I told them you wanted the humans intact. Was I right?”
Irritation raced across my skin like an army of stinging midges. Not at Rosalind or the callous way she described my desire to keep the humans safe, but at the entire situation. If the faeries hadn’t offered people one-sided bargains, the humans would have enjoyed peaceful lifespans and we wouldn’t be in this mess.
“We must keep them safe at all costs,” I said with a sigh. “Is there any way to find out which faerie bargained with which human?”
Cosmos and Rosalind exchanged glances.
“What’s wrong?”
“There is…” Osmos glanced away. “But the process of unraveling magic from a human is extremely painful.”
“And they’ve had enough salt to dampen their ensorcellment,” said Rosalind. “We’d need to examine their entrails.”
A babbling brook of frustration welled through my insides. “Let’s go and see what Cathbad wants.”
Osmos stepped aside and swept his arm to the doorway. This time, I was happy to take a long route to the throne room. The druid might be long-winded and belligerent, but we both wanted the same thing: justice for the human slaves.
We passed servants in the hallway, who bowed deep and offered me warm greetings. Osmos explained that most of them had been banished from the royal court for not supporting Queen Melusina and that they were happy to return to service.
Aengus joined us with and dipped huge hunks of bread into his tankard of ale. Although Osmos and Rosalind sneered at his behavior, I couldn’t fault him for being hungry. Since that terrible Samhain when Father aged overnight, it had been a struggle to keep ourselves fed while putting aside money for passage out of Bresail.
As we walked through a hallway of walls carved to depict a limp body flying into a crowd of angry faeries, Drayce grabbed my hand.
“What’s wrong?” I whispered.
“Melusina commissioned this to remind me of what she did to my father.”
“I can make the castle remove it.”
Drayce shook his head. “It gave me strength through the bleak years as a reminder of why I should never trust her false affection.”
I was about to ask what he meant when a set of doors opened into the throne room. What was left of the humans stood along one side of the space with faeries on the other. My shoulders drooped. With all these people vying for my attention, when would I get a chance to destroy Queen Melusina?
At our footsteps, everybody stopped talking and turned to the doorway. A group of faeries with skin the color of autumn leaves rushed toward me, but Drayce held up a palm, making them stop. The shadows beneath his feet stretched to create a walkway that extended up to the throne. Everyone in the room cringed away from his magic.
He inclined his head, indicating that I should take my seat up on the podium.
“Your Majesty,” Aengus whispered. “That is death magic.”
I turned to him and smiled. “My consort is the King of Death.”
Aengus scuttled away from Drayce and positioned himself next to Rosalind, who
