Page 98 of Embrace the Serpent

I thought quickly. The jewel made it a compulsion to obey the wearer’s commands. But to be influenced, you still had tohearthe command.

Beeswax candles flickered on the table.The wax.

When her gaze shifted to Rane, I grabbed a candle, pinched the flame out, and poured the wax onto a napkin in my hand. It was hot, even to my well-callused fingers, but in a second, I had four little ear plugs.

I met Rane’s gaze, and he understood. He moved to me, speaking with her all the while, and laid his hands on my shoulders. I reached up and slipped him two lumps, under the guise of holding his hands.

Rane took them, even as he asked, “What is your purpose here?”

“To conquer.” Mirandel smiled. “We have secured the ways into your kingdom. My lady’s soldiers are inside your borders, and every second that passes, more enter.”

My heart dropped. I twisted, seeking Rane, and saw the same horror in his eyes.

Soldiers inside the borders? But how?

But it was too dangerous to keep listening to her. I pressed the wax into my ears. All sound disappeared, save for the blood rushing in my head.

Mirandel’s mouth moved. She stared at me.

Rane stuffed the wax in his ears. He moved like lightning, holding a carving knife to her throat.

Mirandel laughed. She raised an arm, her lips moving, and pointed to Vanon.

That same cloudiness was in Vanon’s eyes as he held a dagger to his own throat. A thin red line dripped down his neck. Rane was a tense coil, fists at his sides. She had him.

I leapt over the table and shoved a napkin in her mouth, andmomentum carried us both to the ground. I reached for the tourmaline collar, and my fingers brushed the clasp—

Mirandel bucked under me, tossing me to the ground and pinning me under her. Her eyes were wild, and her lips pulled back in a snarl. She reached for the wax, her fingers jabbing my ear, and I thrashed, trying to throw her off.

The collar fell from her neck, landing on my chest. I grabbed it as Mirandel was pulled off of me. Rane gripped the back of her neck, and she fought him.

But she no longer had the collar. I ran my fingers along the two sharp edges where Rane had sliced cleanly through the clasp.

She met my gaze, and the fight went out of her.

I pulled the wax from one ear.

Mirandel hissed at me and Rane both. “You can kill me. That will not stop Lady Incarnadine. Oh, I can see what you’re thinking. She won’t care if you take me hostage. She is not burdened by sentimentality. But she will take it as a declaration of war. She will come, and she will raze you. Or, you can surrender and spare us all the river of blood. It’s your choice. She expects an answer no later than dawn.”

19

I was going to lose him.My mind latched on to the thought, letting it carve a groove through me like an oxcart carving a path on a dirt road.

A pair of huntsmen marched Mirandel in front of us, back across the bridge, into the courtyard where the bodies of a dozen huntsmen lay on the ground. There was no blood, no gore.

Rane knelt beside one, his long silver hair brushing the flagstone, and let out a relieved breath. “They’re just asleep.”

Mirandel sniffed.

It wasn’t mercy. Mirandel wasn’t capable of mercy. It was probably that it was faster to command them to fall asleep than it was to kill them.

“You will be kept in rooms as befits a messenger,” Rane said. “And released at dawn.”

A pair of huntsmen marched Mirandel away. She shot me an oily, triumphant look. Her choker was in my hands, but she had a right to gloat. The damage was done.

“Where is she going?” I asked quietly.

Rane kept his gaze on her until she was marched into the palace. “To the lower levels. There are some lovely rooms with no windowsand only a single barred door.”