I waited.
“The girl, Molly. It was clear she wouldn’t survive to term.”
I stood stock-still, certain if I moved at all, it would be to keel over and dispel the contents of my stomach. I remembered Molly, the days she’d spent with us. She had irritated me inexplicably, though now I could see that it was likely because of my childhood, that constant conviction of my people that humans were detestable. And that we were the same, she and I, as alike as equally as I was to the elves who surrounded me. She hadn’t appeared with child to me. But she had been a human girl, and we had found her with the head of Asher’s guard.
“You knew?”
Chevelle shook his head. “Ruby. The girl had gotten exceedingly ill.”
I glanced at Ruby. She looked a little sheepish. I was finding it hard to breathe, my vest was too tight.
“No one expected her to make it,” Chevelle continued, “and when Junnie showed up...”
“You didn’t want us to kill her,” Steed said.
“Junnie took the girl without request,” Chevelle put in, not sparing a glance for Steed. “But it did seem like an acceptable outcome.” He shook his head. “I never thought she’d allow this.”
“It was the child,” Anvil said. “She said he chose this one. She will not destroy one who can connect with beasts. She will wait and see.”
So Junnie thought the child might carry our ability. And those of the light were morally against destroying it. But there was no way to know, she was risking it merely because Asher had believed this one special.
No.
My stomach twisted at the thought. “She said above all others.”
An image of the small bloodied hands came unbidden. The hands of a human girl. The ruined bodies of her and the guard in Asher’s secret grotto near the castle.
“We believed them all destroyed,” Chevelle assured me.
No one moved, and I had a sudden flash of memory from when I’d been bound, when they’d all thought at any moment I could lose it.
“How many?” I asked.
“It is not known. Council, Junnie, your guard have each dealt with their own.” His voice was gentle, and the “your guard” held a quiet assurance.
I didn’t stop to ponder the details, to wonder if he and Steed had found more when searching for Asher’s guard. There was something else more pressing.
“How long has he been doing this?” I searched the faces of my guard, but I had my own answer. He had taken Vita, had created Fannie and my mother, had stolen me.
“They’re his.” My voice met stony silence. “The others, the attacks. They are his.”
“They are children,” Anvil said. “They are not working alone.”
He was right. But who put them up to it?
We rode straight through the night, and barely rested the remainder of the journey. When we finally reached the castle, I fell into bed exhausted, but sleep still wouldn’t come.
The attacks had been too odd, silver and ice. Though we’d not seen the source of the ice to be certain it wasn’t fey, we had seen the boy. His features were too light, his eyes too dull. He had pulled silver from the air. He might have been old enough, might have believed he could defeat me, but why? What would he gain from it? It was easier to believe that boy didn’t hate me enough to want to kill me, but that he’d been after the throne.
Maybe he’d been abandoned. Maybe Asher had made promises and never returned. Maybe he’d merely come for revenge, or because he had nothing left. And maybe not. The more likely scenario was that someone was still out there, pushing the attempts. Someone had told him he was the rightful heir. Someone had told him that I’d killed Asher, that all he needed to do was kill me.
Was it Junnie? Could she do this to me? Of course she could, she’d turned against council, slaughtered how many of them. She’d had years of experience in underground maneuvers. By all accounts, she had plans to create a new council, she had followers. But would she?
I found it hard to believe. I wanted to think it was true, that it wasn’t emotion driving the conviction. But I had to look at the facts. Council had nearly destroyed the north. They had used my mother as a pretense in their bid for control. They’d been losing to Asher and they dealt with him. Junnie might have split from council, but she still aimed for control. She might have preferred me on the throne to Asher, but there was no guarantee she didn’t want to rule all. Junnie was a match for me in power, but now I had gained Asher’s as well. It was my only edge, aside from my guard. But she could amass a council larger than any of my forces.
And then there was the child. Was Junnie truly keeping Asher’s daughter because she felt it was wrong to do otherwise, or because it would be her ally, her key to the north?