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Olshona’s nose wrinkled again. ‘But that would leave the other location unprotected.’

‘We could just pick a fae isle?’ one of the vampires suggested.

‘None of the fae isles are several hours of flying away from the court.’ She glowered at the map of the archipelago. ‘So that would mean we’d need to lure them to another island. To one ofourislands.’

Deadly silence followed.

‘Well, I damn well hope it won’t be a nymph isle,’ Helenka said with a blistering chuckle. ‘We’ve lost enough of our trees already. Also, the alves and vampires are farther to the north.’

‘Alf isles are arguably easier to evacuate,’ a vampire king suggested, more than a little haste in his throaty voice. ‘If we just pick a small house and make sure to move all the more vulnerable inhabitants elsewhere in time …’

I just caught Tared closing his eyes.

The next moment, every single alf around the circle was standing.

It was hard to make out any particular words, with a good dozen voices bursting out in indignant shouts all at the same time, but the general gist was crystal clear – that there was centuries of history in every fucking wall of even the smallest alf home, that no alf with a single grain of family pride in their body would stand for this madness, and since vampires all insisted on living in dank holes in the ground, why not send the faethereinstead of—

‘That’senough!’ Tared snapped.

Miracle of miracles, they did go silent at that.

‘Sit down.’ He hadn't opened his eyes, a grimness around his lips I hadn't seen there all evening. ‘And pull yourselves together, for Orin’s fucking sake. YouknowI’m not sacrificing anyone’s houses for some smoke screen, and neither is anyone else in this room as long as I have anything to say about it. Do I really need to elaborate?’

The house of Skeire, wiped off the face of the earth in a single vengeful attack. Several of the alves swallowed audibly as they sank back into their seats, hands still much closer to the hilts of their swords than I liked; one or two went so far as to mutter an apology. But their glares at the velvet-clad vampire king who had made the suggestion were as loud as their furious voices had been, and the silence from his side spoke volumes on his opinions, too.

‘May I advise we take a break?’ Agenor politely suggested, as if nothing had happened – still the epitome of well-bred civility in his gold silk shirt and his polished leather boots. ‘We’ve been at this for a while. You could all set matters in motion at home and start the production of whatever poisons or other projectiles you have available. We’ll consider the numbers and come up with a plan that doesn’t endanger anyone’s homes, and we’ll reconveneto discuss once we have a solid proposal on the table. Can we agree on that?’

They did agree, but grudgingly and grouchily, and not without a last few grumbled warnings: that they wouldn’t be sacrificing their people to any reckless fae games, and that we’d better show up with a damn good plan at our next council of war. Those who had arrived with lukewarm greetings left with frigid nods. Those who had arrived with frigid nods left without any greetings at all.

So much for the semantics of the wordalliance.

I sat in my seat and wanted to scream and scream and scream.

Chapter 14

‘I should probably havekept my mouth shut about your brains,’ Agenor mumbled to me as he sank down at the table in the Wanderer’s Wing, sounding uncharacteristically rueful. ‘Should have known jokes wouldn’t mollify them in that state.’

We’d withdrawn to this deserted corner of the Underground after the last of our guests had left, each of us grim and subdued, occupied with our own wretched thoughts. The room itself didn’t do much to lift my spirits. The alf lights over the fields outside the library had gone dark after nightfall, and in the resulting gloom, even the fiery red of Lyn’s hair managed to look cheerless. Naxi, usually the brightest presence in any company, slipped in behind us, appearing equally small and sullen.

Creon was little more than a shadow by my side, hair and wings blending into the night. But his voice emerged unaffected from the darkness as he said, ‘It was the most amusing thing you’ve said in a century, though.’

Tared chuckled, sauntering back and forth between table and window. Naxi let out a high-strung, unnatural giggle. Agenor closed his eyes, sagged back in his chair, and muttered, ‘At least we’ll die diverted, then.’

‘No one is dying yet,’ Lyn said irritably, strutting around the room and flinging small balls of fire into the glass lanterns placed along the walls. ‘Although I hadn't expectedyouto start causing trouble, Agenor. I figured you would have plenty of experience shrugging off the occasional jab during meetings.’

‘Jabs at me, yes.’ He rubbed his face, the tired lines showing again. ‘Turns out I have very little experience with jabs aimed at my daughter. My apologies.’

She glanced over her shoulder, expression mellowing. ‘Ah.’

‘Your daughter appreciates the sentiment, impractical as it may be,’ I bleakly said as I fell into a seat as well. Even without a single wooden block in sight, I couldn’t look at the map etched into the table surface without seeing those numbers in my mind’s eye – that pile of wood eclipsing most of the outlines of the Crimson Court. ‘And I should have kept my mouth shut about the Labyrinth, too. Should have known they wouldn’t understand.’

Creon scoffed. ‘The only reason they don’t understand is because they can permit themselves the luxury of not understanding. They aren’t the ones who would take the blame if the island turned itself into some eldritch horror.’

I shivered. ‘Still …’

He threw me a look.Stop making yourself small, the flicker in his black eyes said, accompanied by something resembling a threat – a gleam that suggested he wouldn’t mind shutting meup by kissing me to the point of wordlessness if I made the mistake of arguing this particular point.

I snapped my mouth shut. My father was sitting in the same room, after all.