56

I blinked. Within the palace walls?

Then, Corinne left the room.

Without me.

I was alone in her quarters for the first time in what felt like an age. I stood up, shook out my pelt, and then glanced around.

When I was sure I was alone, I closed my eyes, then tried to find my human form under my wolf’s wild nature. She was there still, pacing irritably—but I couldn’t shift back. Corinne’s magic still had a hold on my abilities, and I was locked in this form until she loosened her hold. In Daybreak, my tutors had always instilled in me that one was not to spend too much time in her wolf form, lest the wolf take control and the human couldn’t re-emerge. I’d thought after five days shifted, I’d feel less like myself, and more like an animal. Perhaps that’s what all the recent runs had done, though—made it easier to be myself while in my wolf shape.

My paws itched at the thought of a run. Gods, that was what I needed now. A long, moonlit run, moving quickly through the trees with Elias on my heels, just waiting for the right moment to tackle me, to land in the soft moss and shift back, wrap my arms around him, bury my face in the familiar curve of his neck—

I stopped the thought in its tracks, and shook my head as if dispelling it. If I thought too hard about Elias, I’d get sucked down into the cavernous despair threatening to open up inside me. I couldn’t risk getting lost in my emotions. I had to focus on my newfound freedom.

Corinne had seen how bored I was in the meetings, dozing off sometimes against my will as she went over more tiny inconsistencies in the accountant’s ledgers. But why would she release me now?

She’d suggested I go to the courtyard. I paced around the room, unsure. My hackles were up, attention newly sharpened. My instincts were telling me there was a reason she’d put some distance between us. She’d had me at every meeting she’d been to thus far—why now?

Something was different. There was something to which she didn’t want me privy. I slipped out of her quarters then padded through the empty banquet hall, ears forward and nostrils tuned attentively to the scents of Fae in the air.

I’d spent so much time with Corinne, it was easy to follow the faint ozone-scent of her power in the air. I padded through the banquet hall, then the main courtyard, and up the stairs to the top level of the palace. This part was sparse, without the fine ornate décor of the lower floors. Simpler. I’d only cut through here on our way to have rooftop drinks. I’d never attended a meeting in one of these cold rooms.

I padded slowly down the hall, careful to keep my nails from clicking on the stone floor. I approached a closed wooden door, and behind it, with my head pressed to the wood, I could make out the voices behind it.

“And you’re sure this will work?” Corinne asked.

“I’m sure,” an unfamiliar voice said. “We’ve had all the royal sorcerers working night and day on this spell. With your power, it will execute flawlessly in Shianga.”

“Hm.” A pause in the conversation. Then Corinne said, “Will it force a shift?”

“It will not,” the voice—a sorcerer, I assumed—said. “But it will be able to entrap King Draunar in either dragon or human form. Once activated, it will draw power from here in Faerie and forcibly cage him. You will be able to manipulate Draunar as easily as you manipulate the she-wolf.”

“Good,” Corinne said, pleased. “And will it affect the other dragons?”

“No,” the sorcerer said. “We have only focused on the king, to ensure the spell is as strong as possible. He is strong, Your Highness, and he may have some resistance to Fae magic, due to his proximity to you for so long.”

“That’s less than ideal,” she said, “but I understand.”

“The other dragons will be easily dispatched once they see their king trapped,” Eodwin’s voice said. “They are nothing without him.”

“I hope you’re right,” Corinne said coolly. “Ideally, I’d like as little bloodshed as possible in Shianga.”

“After what they did to you?” Eodwin said. Rage tinged his voice. “We should slaughter them all.”

“We could,” Corinne said, “but we won’t. We’ll do better to convert as many dragons as we can to our side, and then execute those who resist. But remember our plan, Eodwin. We need time to build our strength in Shianga. It is not just their kingdom we will be taking.”

“Of course,” Eodwin said.

“If this appears to be a simple act of revenge, we will not inspire retribution from Shianga’s neighbors,” she said. “Better to build our strength in peacetimes, and take the remaining kingdoms when their defenses are down.”

“Wise as always,” the sorcerer said.

“It was not only the dragons who did this to our people,” Corinne said. Her voice sounded in a low, cruel hiss. “Every leader of that realm who drove us from their lands will pay for what they have done.”

A door at the far end of the hallway swung open. I leaped back, still quiet on the stone. A servant Fae girl walked unsteadily down the hall with her arms piled with folded, clean laundry, so high it appeared she couldn’t even see around them. I scurried back toward the staircase and slipped out before she saw me.

I made my way back down to the main courtyard, ears back, my hackles trying to rise as I kept forcing them down. It was a gorgeous day, as every day was in Faerie. There was a strange hypnosis to my settings. The weather never seemed to change, the sun never seemed to move much in the sky. The breeze carried the clean scent of the lakes and the sweet scent of the pink flowers bursting into bloom on the branches of the pale tree in the center of the courtyard. I lay down in the shade under it and exhaled heavily.