Page 56 of A Promise of Lies (Shadows of the Tenebris Court #3)

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Kat

T he Horror didn’t attack. It just… stood there. A silent sentinel.

I wondered if it was a statue, but its void black eyes followed us as we passed. Good gods, no wonder Cavall looked so fucking pale.

Once it was out of sight, I whispered to them. “What are those things doing in the palace.”

Their mouth flattened, and we went on in silence for several paces. “I don’t know. Only that Her Majesty has the guards confined to their barracks—the palace is theirs.” They gestured at another pair of Horrors flanking the doors ahead. “I’m only here on her direct orders to bring you to her.”

It was bad enough passing those monsters, but when I realised the doors led outside, I balked. “It’s a new moon.”

“Her Majesty has reassured me the Wild Hunt won’t be a problem.”

My skin crawled under the gaze of the two Horrors. Outside, the grey mist shrouded everything, only broken by hazy lights of a pure, cold white.

Cavall squared their shoulders and went first.

My pulse pounded with the wrongness of this. You didn’t go outside on a new moon. Every child in Albion knew that. Dozens of fairy stories warned us about it, and before we could read, we sang nursery rhymes to remind us.

But, what the Night Queen wanted, the Night Queen got. And, for now, I was her subject. I needed to at least pretend to be a loyal one.

So I followed, each step carefully placed to be as quiet as possible.

We met her in the grove, the Great Oak and Great Yew looming up into a fog so thick, I couldn’t see their tops.

“Leave us.” With a twitch of her fingers, she dismissed Cavall. “The Horrors will protect us from the Wild Hunt.”

“Protecting?” I eyed the dim shapes of the four creatures surrounding us, just inside the blanketing mist. “Is that what they did at the Winter Solstice?”

“They can be trusted. They can’t be turned against me. Bribed. Tricked. No one can appeal to their better natures, because they have none. So long as they are appropriately tethered, they are perfectly loyal.” A small frown flickered on her smooth face. “For a time, at least.”

That addition did nothing for the cold sweat covering my skin. How long did we have? I didn’t trust her not to gamble with my life. Maybe that was why she’d brought me here—the canary who would die once her luck with the Horrors ran out, buying her time to flee.

“Then, let’s be quick.” I managed a tight smile. “What is it you want from me?”

“Practical. That’s one thing I like about you, Katherine.” She smiled, as cold as the fae lights drifting through the fog. “You’ve been helping Bastian with his search for the Crown of Ashes. But I get the impression my Shadow isn’t keen on seeing it put to use. You, on the other hand… he’s made it sound like you think we should use the thing. And that puts us in alignment.”

“Who’d have thought it.”

She chuckled, lifting her chin. “We’re actually more alike that you may think. You seduced Bastian to keep yourself safe—a powerful man like that. I can see the appeal. Then, trapped in Dawn, you… well, you went for the seduction route again, didn’t you? No judgement. We have to use whatever tools we’re given.” Nodding slowly, she scrutinised me. “No, if anything, I can’t help admiring you.”

“Such a compliment. I still fail to see how your life has anything to do with mine.” I gritted my teeth. She hadn’t been forced to stab her husband with a shard of glass to stop him from killing her. She hadn’t risked herself to get close to an enemy. She knew nothing of the price I’d paid for safety.

She was a queen. She always paid with other people’s lives.

“I see that judgemental look in your eye. You don’t understand how precarious it is to be a ruler. How close you have to keep your enemies.”

“Close enough to send them letters encouraging them to take the throne for themselves?”

Her eyes flashed wide before she huffed out a little laugh. “A sleuth, too. Aren’t you just multi-talented? I suppose he didn’t burn the letters, did he? Silly little boy, always collecting things.”

I thought I’d get a reaction that I could read the truth in. Not this.

“You understand, then, that I do whatever is required. Which brings us here.” She gestured and the mist parted, revealing the spreading branches of the Great Yew and the soaring ones of the Great Oak. “This is how we reach the Crown of Ashes.”

“‘The way is through the trees’—the Great Trees.” Bastian’s theory was right. I stared up at them—the markers of the covenant that gave fae their magic. They’d grown the tablet, their woods merging to leave a clue about where to find the Crown in case part of that covenant ever needed to be broken to allow a Night Queen to rule by day.

“Once I have the Crown, I can keep you, as my subject, safe. I can keep your darling Bastian safe. None will rise against me once I am free of the Sleep. No more foolish Day Kings with their paranoid ideas or wild plans with so much unnecessary bloodshed.”

“A plan you put him up to.”

“That plan was his own. I merely gave him the nudge. The fact he didn’t give a damn about the collateral damage—that was all on him.” Her jaw tightened, reminding me so much of Bastian, I felt foolish for not noticing it sooner. “Enough about him. We’re here for the Crown. This is the way, but I just can’t get it to open.” She huffed and paced, eyebrows pinched together. “Right time. Right place.”

The new moon. That was why Sura risked the Wild Hunt—the gauntlet would only open on the night of the new moon.

I bit back a curse. Yes, we’d kept information from Braea, but she’d found clues of her own and we had no idea.

“I anointed a servant with royal blood and nothing!” She spun on her heel, spreading her hands. “What am I missing?”

I rubbed my mouth as if deep in thought, but actually it was to hide the flickering smile of relief. She thought the anointed one meant anointed with royal blood.

I was sure it referred to an acorn and a berry from the Great Trees, after all, Bastian had found Sura with those crushed in her hand.

But she did have royal blood too. Maybe it required all three combined.

Shit. If Braea realised, all she had to do was reach out and take an old acorn from the ground and pluck a berry from the yew. She could eat them and then the gauntlet would open for her.

It was no longer a case of if the Crown was discovered, but when… and by whom.

It couldn’t be her. But Sura was dead. Amaya and Bastian were too far away. Braea was going to work out this last piece of the puzzle tonight.

I needed to get into the gauntlet before her. Somehow.

I just needed royal blood.

Shit. Shit .

The queen went still. “What is it? You’ve just realised something.”

Bastian had royal blood, and he’d given it to me. Technically , I had royal blood. And, thanks to my poison and Elthea’s medicine that had stabilised it, the yew and the oak’s power ran through my body.

I only hoped it counted for the gods or trees or whoever the hells determined how the gauntlet worked.

No time for hope though.

I shoved past the queen and stepped into the shadows between the trees. “I come here for the Crown of Ashes. I am the anointed one and I call for the gauntlet to open.”

The air split with a ground-shaking creak.

I planted my feet on the ground, but Stars above did I want to run from the sound of something whistling through the air.

I needed to face this. I needed to be first through the gauntlet. That Crown was Bastian’s. Not hers.

Braea stumbled backwards, eyes round and fixed on something behind me.

A doorway. It had to be.

I let out a little laugh of relief. She wouldn’t be able to follow me—not without the trees’ fruit.

Something slammed into my back. Air whooshed from my lungs, hot and metallic. I reached out, ready to catch myself on hands and knees, but I didn’t fall.

I blinked down.

I blinked again, trying to make sense of… of…

Red. Bright, bright red.

Bark. Sticky and dark.

Pain. Just starting. Radiating now, from my shoulder… where a branch had pierced my body.