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As the reindeer pulled us up the hill and stopped in front of the huge stone keep, the wooden double doors flew open and Scion rushed out, trailed by a gaggle of servants who seemed to have been trying to make him eat something.

In a flash, he’d grabbed Lonnie out of the carriage and begun stalking back inside without saying a single word to me.

“Interesting,” Cassinda said, a smile in her voice.

I whirled on her. I didn’t care to know what was “interesting,” I wanted to strangle her instead. “You drove slow on purpose.”

She shrugged. “The reindeer needed the exercise.”

My fingers flexed. I couldn’t actually kill her. Right now, we needed Nevermore as an ally, at least as long as it took to find the jewel. Ireallywanted to, though.

“You do understand that she’s the queen?” I bit out. “If nothing else, you should worry about what happens if the capital withdraws support from the island because you tried to freeze her to death.”

“From what I’ve gathered, the capital is in a bit of an upheaval right now,” she replied, still smiling. “I think I’ll take my chances.”

With that, she turned and stalked inside after Scion. I waited a minute before I went inside as well so I wouldn’t have to walk directly behind her.

The Lord of Nevermorelooked down at me from a platform in the center of his great all.

A large but relatively short man, ‘from a platform’ was the only way Bran of Nevermore would ever be able to look down at me and he seemed to be taking advantage of it.

I’d always thought he looked a bit like a bear. He had long dark brown hair and a matching beard that covered most of his face. His eyes were small and dark, and I’d once seen him eat an entire turkey leg in two bites.

“It’s good to see you, Prince Ambrose,” he boomed, loud enough for the entire hall to hear.

I gritted my teeth again. It had been a long time since anyone had called me “Prince” and I didn’t like the sound of it. I never really had, but that was a different story altogether.

“Bran,” I replied, pointedly not using his title. “How have you been keeping?”

He made an exaggerated show of looking around the hall and gesturing, as if to say ‘Look around at all my wealth. Of course I’ve been doing well.”

I forced myself not to sneer at him.

In a technical sense, Bran was a relative. He was my grandfather’s cousin, which made him close enough to our family that he bragged about it, but not so close that we sharedmore than a dash of blood. He wasn’t affected by the curse and neither were his children, which had made Cassinda a good candidate for queen consort. The fact that I hated her had been immaterial to the situation.

“Has my brother already explained what we’re doing here?” I asked.

“Only in the broadest sense,” he replied jovially.

“We’re here because–”

“Wait!” he cut me off. “We can’t have this conversation now. Why don’t you all join me for dinner and we can talk it over then.”

In other words, he didn’t think he had enough of an audience and in case I said something he didn’t like, or tried to attack him, he wanted there to be witnesses. It was all very predictable. Or, it would have been if I’d been able to see anything at all.

“Fine,” I replied flatly, then glanced at the darkening window. I didn’t know what time it was, and the sun set so early here that it might be midafternoon just as easily as midnight.

“We eat at 10:00,” Bran added, seeming to sense my question. “Would you like to rest before dinner?”

“Please!” I said, enthusiastic for the first time.

“Wonderful. Cassinda can show you upstairs.”

No absolutely fucking not.I’d die before going anywhere alone with that harpy.

“There’s no need to bother her,” I said. “A servant can do it.”

To my great relief, he didn’t press the issue. “Whatever you like.” He waved me off. “You’ll see her at dinner, anyway.”