Grave Visions (Alex Craft #4)(26)
I frowned at her. “It doesn’t work like that. The land of the dead doesn’t touch Faerie. You want me to raise a shade, that body has to be moved to the mortal realm.” I left no wiggle room in the statement. If she wanted me to raise the shade, we’d have to move the body. With the thought, my gaze flickered to the skeleton. How are we going to move that? I shuddered. I definitely didn’t want to be anywhere near it. I might have an affinity for the dead, but I didn’t do decaying bodies or blood. Or, apparently, skeletons.
The queen released a strangled sound and Falin took a step toward her, his face betraying his concern. “My queen?”
I caught her movement only out of the corner of my eye, but it was fast. Much faster than I would have assumed the aristocrat could move. By the time my head whipped around the queen had a large blade of ice pressed against Falin’s jugular.
“Are you behind this, Knight? You are the only member of court with blood on his hands.”
Falin tilted his head back, but he made no attempt to defend himself. The queen was shorter, but that made her no less deadly. A trickle of blood welled around the frozen blade, trailing a red line down Falin’s throat.
My gaze shot around the room, to the other fae present. All were focused on the conflict, but none moved, offered to help, or even objected. While I saw some startlement in their expressions, the overall impression I got was that they were each relieved the queen hadn’t turned her accusations—and blade—on them.
Falin lifted his hands, palms outward in supplication. “My word, I have no part of this and no knowledge who is behind it.”
He couldn’t lie. The queen knew he couldn’t, but she didn’t immediately lower the blade. She stared at him, the blade pressed against Falin’s flesh. My hand crept to the slit in my gown. My fingers brushed the hilt of my blade. It buzzed against my flesh, emitting a confidence that we could take the queen. I had my doubts, enchanted blade or not. Falin’s eyes flickered to me, and I wasn’t positive, but I thought he gave the smallest shake of his head.
The queen took several deep breaths and then stepped back. Her blade dissolved into mist and she rolled her shoulders, taking on a regal posture once more. I eased my hand away from my own hilt. Ryese was watching me, a knowing look in his eyes.
I ignored him.
“That is reassuring, I suppose,” the queen said, and from her tone, you’d never known she’d just considered slitting the throat of her knight. “Then we’ll have to move the body. I don’t want anyone to see it. Pack it as discreetly as you can.” A large leather knapsack appeared at her feet. “Be quick about it.”
I glanced at the knapsack and then at the skeleton. A chill that had nothing to do with all the ice around me ran down my spine. I pressed my lips together and turned to Falin.
“She wants us to . . . ?”
“I’ve got it,” he whispered, scooping up the bag.
In another situation I might have insisted on helping. Not this time. Losing my lunch on the queen’s throne wouldn’t be helpful. So I relinquished the job to Falin, with only the slightest tinge of guilt at leaving him to the grisly task. Not surprisingly, none of the council members made a move to help Falin.
As Falin approached the corpse, Ryese pushed away from the pillar and turned to the queen. “Dear aunt, are you sure about this? Perhaps we should destroy the body. If rumor of this . . . display were to be whispered about court, you will look weak. And there will be no keeping it from other courts if even one whisper escapes.”
“Would I not look weaker letting this action stand? I will find who is behind it and make a very public example of them.”
Blayne’s eyes cut to me, the move slow and exaggerated. “What if she cannot get that information for you? She is . . . untested. Is it worth the risk?”
As if her gaze were tied to his by a string, the queen looked at me. The frown that tugged down her red lips was uncertain. Half of me wanted to defend my credentials as a grave witch, but another part knew that getting tied up in this likely wasn’t good for my continued health and freedom. Unless, of course, I could swing this to my advantage.
The queen clenched her fist again and began to pace, just as she’d been doing when we’d first entered the snowy clearing. Her movement was jerky, her anger and worry barely contained. Her lips pursed, and she turned at random moments and just stared at me. I straightened my shoulders, trying not to squirm under her assessing gaze.
Finally her pacing brought her directly in front of me, and she stopped. “Can you do this, Lexi? You can question this corpse if we take it to the mortal realm?”
It took all my will to keep my gaze locked with the queen and not let it wander to the skeleton Falin was packing away. A skeleton I couldn’t actually feel.
“If it’s real, I should be able to raise a shade.”
“Should?” Her perfect eyebrow arched.
I left that alone. I’d never actually raised a fae before, not a full-blooded one at least, but I knew it was possible. “As long as the corpse is really a corpse.”
The frown tugged her lips down farther, until it dragged at the edges of her eyes, but she nodded. The body looked real, but Faerie often accepted glamour as real. If it had never truly been alive, there would be nothing I could do.
She started to turn away, but I took a step forward. I pasted on a smile I didn’t feel, trying to look confident. Not an easy task in the froufrou gown. Still, I was about to take a gamble, and confidence was key.