Rise of the Seven (The Frey Saga, #3)(20)

“You knew?”

Chevelle shook his head. “Ruby. The girl had gotten exceedingly ill.”

I glanced at Ruby. She looked a little sheepish. I was finding it hard to breathe, my vest was too tight.

“No one expected her to make it,” Chevelle continued, “and when Junnie showed up...”

“You didn’t want us to kill her,” Steed said.

“Junnie took the girl without request,” Chevelle put in, not sparing a glance for Steed. “But it did seem like an acceptable outcome.” He shook his head. “I never thought she’d allow this.”

“It was the child,” Anvil said. “She said he chose this one. She will not destroy one who can connect with beasts. She will wait and see.”

So Junnie thought the child might carry our ability. And those of the light were morally against destroying it. But there was no way to know, she was risking it merely because Asher had believed this one special.

No.

My stomach twisted at the thought. “She said above all others.”

An image of the small bloodied hands came unbidden. The hands of a human girl. The ruined bodies of her and the guard in Asher’s secret grotto near the castle.

“We believed them all destroyed,” Chevelle assured me.

No one moved, and I had a sudden flash of memory from when I’d been bound, when they’d all thought at any moment I could lose it.

“How many?” I asked.

“It is not known. Council, Junnie, your guard have each dealt with their own.” His voice was gentle, and the “your guard” held a quiet assurance.

I didn’t stop to ponder the details, to wonder if he and Steed had found more when searching for Asher’s guard. There was something else more pressing.

“How long has he been doing this?” I searched the faces of my guard, but I had my own answer. He had taken Vita, had created Fannie and my mother, had stolen me.

“They’re his.” My voice met stony silence. “The others, the attacks. They are his.”

“They are children,” Anvil said. “They are not working alone.”

He was right. But who put them up to it?





We rode straight through the night, and barely rested the remainder of the journey. When we finally reached the castle, I fell into bed exhausted, but sleep still wouldn’t come.

The attacks had been too odd, silver and ice. Though we’d not seen the source of the ice to be certain it wasn’t fey, we had seen the boy. His features were too light, his eyes too dull. He had pulled silver from the air. He might have been old enough, might have believed he could defeat me, but why? What would he gain from it? It was easier to believe that boy didn’t hate me enough to want to kill me, but that he’d been after the throne.

Maybe he’d been abandoned. Maybe Asher had made promises and never returned. Maybe he’d merely come for revenge, or because he had nothing left. And maybe not. The more likely scenario was that someone was still out there, pushing the attempts. Someone had told him he was the rightful heir. Someone had told him that I’d killed Asher, that all he needed to do was kill me.

Was it Junnie? Could she do this to me? Of course she could, she’d turned against council, slaughtered how many of them. She’d had years of experience in underground maneuvers. By all accounts, she had plans to create a new council, she had followers. But would she?

I found it hard to believe. I wanted to think it was true, that it wasn’t emotion driving the conviction. But I had to look at the facts. Council had nearly destroyed the north. They had used my mother as a pretense in their bid for control. They’d been losing to Asher and they dealt with him. Junnie might have split from council, but she still aimed for control. She might have preferred me on the throne to Asher, but there was no guarantee she didn’t want to rule all. Junnie was a match for me in power, but now I had gained Asher’s as well. It was my only edge, aside from my guard. But she could amass a council larger than any of my forces.

And then there was the child. Was Junnie truly keeping Asher’s daughter because she felt it was wrong to do otherwise, or because it would be her ally, her key to the north?

I rolled over, kicking the bed sheets away. It could be the rogues. It could be the fey. It could be anyone. But I really didn’t want it to be Junnie.

My thoughts turned to Fannie then, betrayed by her own father. He had essentially disowned her, choosing my mother over her as his second, and then me after he’d all but driven her insane. Fannie had turned to council to protect them, a birthright, their kin, and council had betrayed them as well. When her bonds began to break, she thought Junnie and council had entrapped her, and she went for revenge. It had cost her life.

My thoughts floated in and out of those images, of Fannie razing the village that had been our prison, of the fires that burned my mother. It was hard to say when they morphed into dreams, but I could see my mother in a gown of azure and lilac, leaning forward to whisper secrets.

“It was the bond,” she said softly, “that was why my mother couldn’t leave him.”

“But–” I started, and her finger came up to silence me.

“It isn’t right, my Freya. I cannot let him destroy her family so he might lay claim to more land.”

And then she was burning. The flames licked at her white gown, beaded and lacy. Screams surrounded us, but I could hear her whispering, “Others will come. Others will come.” The flames engulfed her and I was suddenly under water, struggling for air. Others will come.