Page 111 of Embrace the Serpent

She tapped her gold-tipped fingers against her lips. “That is fine. Our soldiers will take him down, eventually. And perhaps it will be easier to annex this kingdom if they see their king fall.”

My hands were fists. “And then what? Will you ever be satisfied with the amount of blood you’ve spilled?” It was dangerous to speak my mind, but I couldn’t stop. I felt like I’d swallowed a crazed birdthat was fluttering, clawing, trying to fight its way out of my throat.

Incarnadine’s eyes narrowed, and for a moment, her pupils seemed to flicker with flame. “I will be satisfied, very soon.”

A threat lingered in the air, and then she smiled. “You hate me, but it is because of me that you still live. The Emperor would have had me kill all the children. How I begged to keep you all, to raise you as my own. You have never thanked me.”

Thank her?

She sighed. “Go back to wherever you were hiding. It won’t be long now. I don’t wish to take a life that I once spared. It would make me start to believe that I am not the master of my fate.” There was a bitterness to her tone, one that made me think.

Grimney tugged at my ankle. I planted myself firmly, my feet digging into the plush rug. “I know what you are,” I said. “My mother told me you were a djinn. And you’ve served the Emperor for a very long time.”

She reared back, like I had spat on her. “Serve? I do notserve.”

Quietly, I said, “What do you call the one who takes orders?”

Heat seemed to build in the air around Incarnadine as she stared me down. “What impudence, for one who knows little.”

“I know that you want to be free.”

“Of course I do,” she snapped. “And I will be free. Once the seventh kingdom falls, I will be free.” Her gaze had turned inward by the end, as if for a moment she had forgotten I was there.

It was confirmation: she was one of Darvald’s victims, bound to the Emperor. Between one blink and the next, something shifted. Incarnadine seemed suddenly less the towering villain from my memories, made of pure evil, unknowable and formidable, and shebecame simple, understandable, vulnerable.

I bit my lip. “Will he really let you go? I gave my power to someone, too, and he would never have let me be free. Will he really stop at seven kingdoms? What about the lands across the sea? Beyond the northern mountains?”

“Enough.” She turned her gaze, dismissing me.

Desperate, I asked, “You would make all the divine peoples share your fate?”

“Why not?” she said. “Who saved me?”

I looked into her eyes and thought,Maybesomeone should have.

The tent flap swished open, and then came the whisper of sword being unsheathed. “My lady, what would you like me to do?”

There was something pointy at my throat. A pressure around my neck loosened, the tourmaline collar fell, and I caught it at my waist. The clasp had been sliced through once again. So much for my repair work.

Lady Incarnadine sighed. “You took your time, Mirandel.”

“My apologies,” Mirandel said. “Two idiots were screaming about a fire. Caused something of a fuss.”

I swallowed, and something scraped the skin of my neck. “Mirandel—”

She let out a piercing shriek, right in my ear, and I jumped. I clutched my neck, thanking the fates that I hadn’t jumped into her blade.

Mirandel shrieked again. Grimney had latched on to her, biting her calf. She shook her leg. “Stop it! Call it off!”

“Bad Grimney,” I said mildly, putting several feet of distance between me and her blade. “Let her go.”

Grimney paid me no attention.

Incarnadine spoke. “How does he not obey you?”

“Grimney?” I said, surprised. “He does what he wants.”

Incarnadine had a considering look on her face. “You’ve trapped his soul in stone, and yet you do not control him?”