Grave Dance (Alex Craft, #2)(110)

“What do you think you’re—” I didn’t finish because suddenly I was wrapped in warm, strong arms.

Falin pul ed me tight against his chest, holding me close.

“I was so worried,” he whispered, his breath dancing through my hair.

He was worried. So he told me here. In a hal way. Away from her. “Don’t. Touch. Me.”

Falin jerked back, as if my words scalded him. “Alexis . .

.” “No. Don’t.” I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at him. A nerve twitched under my eye. “Just don’t, okay?

Now tel them to let go of Caleb.”

Falin’s shoulder sagged. “I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t?”

“My queen commanded I bring you to her.”

Wel , that proved it, didn’t it? If I’d needed any further proof of where I stood, he’d just provided it. That conclusion proof of where I stood, he’d just provided it. That conclusion must have shown on my face because Falin stepped forward again. He lifted his hands as if he was going to touch me, but then he dropped his arms by his sides.

“Try to understand. I must obey her commands. I have no choice.”

He couldn’t lie, I knew he couldn’t, and yet the hurt part of me couldn’t believe him. I glanced at Caleb, who’d final y stopped struggling with the guardians. He wore a sour look, but he gave one curt nod, confirming Falin’s words.

He has to obey? I shook my head. The rules seemed to keep changing, and I barely understood the game. But the stakes were high. Deadly.

Falin stepped forward until the hem of my dress brushed his legs. “Alexis, I would reorder al of Faerie for you if it were in my power.”

The “but it isn’t” went unsaid everywhere but his eyes, where I could almost see the words echoing. He reached out, his warm hands sliding over my bare shoulders. I didn’t pul away, but I didn’t move toward him either. He leaned forward, closing the distance between us. Stil I held my ground, and his lips grazed mine, the touch light enough to be a kiss from the wind.

“Forgive me,” he whispered. He meant the words, meant them so much that the imbalance that swung between us made us both flinch. Then his hands slid from my shoulders to my wrists. His fingers locked around me like manacles.

What?

“Oh, now isn’t this touching?” a crisp female voice said, and I jumped.

Falin released my arms and whirled around, dropping to his knees in the same movement. “My queen.”

The Winter Queen stood in the middle of the hal , her hands bal ed into fists at her waist. PC, who had apparently fol owed her, rushed past the ice guardians. I scooped him up and clutched him tight as the queen strol ed forward, holding the skirt of her long dress. She stopped directly in holding the skirt of her long dress. She stopped directly in front of Falin’s kneeling form.

“Did you real y think you could keep secrets within my own hal s, knight?”

Falin didn’t answer, and she slid her hand into his hair.

The movement started as the caress of a lover and ended with her fist clenched in the hair at the back of his skul . She jerked upward, and he rose with the motion. She was petite, so she had to release him before he reached his ful height. She stepped around him, dragging him by the front of his shirt until he faced me.

“I had wondered,” she said, running her hand down his chest. Not a muscle in his body twitched. “I cal ed my knight home, and he came, as he should have, even though he knew I was angry that he’d failed to kil the body thief in a timely manner. And then, when he knew I would have forgiven him soon, he went and broke out of my prison, at great personal expense to himself.” She jabbed her fingers into the side where he’d been sliced open when I’d found him. The edges of his eyes betrayed his wince, but he gave her no other reaction. “We had just heard rumor of a planeweaver. I thought that perhaps he’d gone to retrieve the planeweaver himself. Perhaps to present her to me as a gift to regain my good graces. But that did not happen.

Now I can guess why.” She rounded on me.

Falin was injured escaping the winter court? To get to me. I didn’t know what to say, so I met the queen’s eyes, saying nothing.

She hissed under her breath. Then she turned to Falin.

“Take yourself to Rath.” She glanced at me over her shoulder. “That would be the court torture chamber. Since you have no interest in my banquets, perhaps a visit there would interest you more.”

“My queen—” Falin started, and she dug her fingers into his side again.

“If you beg for yourself, knight, I wil forgive you. But if you beg for her, you wil not like the results.”

beg for her, you wil not like the results.”

He glanced at me, and then he squeezed his eyes shut and remained silent.

The queen turned toward the guardians holding Caleb.

“Take him to the dungeons with the rest of the resistant independents. You”—she pointed to two more guardians

—“take her to a chamber where she can await the return of my patience.” She turned to me, the frost in her glare deadly, hateful. “You should hope it returns quickly. A planeweaver who wil not join my court is of limited worth.”





Chapter 31


I struggled to keep a safe grip on PC and not trip and fal over the damn gown as the ice guardians dragged me away from the queen, Falin, and Caleb.