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While she preferred being active at night normally, she'd switched things around since the start of their journey; traveling during the day made more sense. During the night, on unfamiliar ground, they sought shelter, away from predators.

Khal sped up, riding ahead of their trio, although until now he'd seemed content to take up the rear. Rissa noticed the change in his expression. Silent and still, he seemed to watch everything, hear the slightest of feathers ruffling in trees, and turn to any sound, his sword hand set on his blade.

The warrior's alert made her wary. Their horses slowed to a trot as they neared the steps of the fortress.

"Who goes there!" a guard screamed from a post.

"Teoran Gaulder. I am known to your queen."

There was a pause, then great iron gates opened with a slow, metallic clang.

Khal was first to ride in, and his horse stopped moments after passing the gates. Rissa followed next, then Teoran.

Like Khal, she came to a sudden stop, gaping as she took in the sight before her.

The city was burning.

Flesh and Bones

"Teo!" a fae screamed from a distance.

Tall and brown skinned, with luscious bone-gray hair, the fae looked like a young girl, but she moved with too much grace, and her deep, dark eyes told a very different tale.

This was an ancient. How ancient, Rissa couldn't guess.

"If you came here for the barbecue, you're too late, my friend." She laughed with good humor as she seized the reins of Teoran's steed, and led them through the narrow streets.

Barbecue? Half of the houses were still on fire, and the other half had been scorched black. Charred corpses were piled up high on the paved ground. She seemed far too cheery for what they saw.

Rissa's eyes slid away from the fae and back to the corpses.

"What are these things?" she asked. They didn't smell like fae.

They didn't even look like fae, although Rissa hadn't had the displeasure of smelling burned folk before today. There was a strange, dark air of magic around them—magic she'd never felt or heard about before.

"Humans," said the stranger.

Rissa frowned, confused. Humans were creatures of nothing but flesh.

"Or something like it. They were too strong, and there was something strange in their eyes. As if their souls had left them. If I'm to guess, humans have been experimenting with dark magics again, in order to best us. It won't be the first or last attempt." She shrugged.

Rissa would kill to have that confidence someday.

"You were attacked?" Khal asked.

The woman sneered. "I do not answer to your kind, southerner."

Teoran smirked, delighted to see Khal denigrated. "What happened?"

"My spies spotted them sniffing about, so I feigned a retreat. When they came to occupy Deanon, we set it on fire and sealed the gates. We burned their bitch asses for a while, and came back to kill whoever was left breathing." She delivered the entire speech with a grin.

Rissa laughed. "That was smart."

The woman shrugged. "Not everyone will agree. It'll take a while to rebuild, and plenty of money, too. Ruling bites." They'd reached the nose of the skull—the entry into the main palace, no doubt. "I'll house you for the night, and you'll have a roof and bread, but don't expect much else."

"A roof and bread are all we need. Thank you, Sura," Teoran said fondly.

So, this was the Bone Queen. Rissa should have guessed as much, but she couldn't picture this woman bearing seven daughters—or killing them, for that matter.