Chapter 22

Kaelan

Iwas skeptical about the possibility that Seraphine could ever enchant me and take over my mind.

It wasn”t arrogant of me to say that I wasn”t weak-minded like those Fae who became thralls. Since childhood, I had taken various kinds of natural poisons. I”d been subjected to experiments and attempts to take over my mind, to ensure that I could never become an easy victim. Edric hadn”t realized he was laying the groundwork for my friends and me to hide parts of my mind from him.

It was hard for me to believe that Seraphine could succeed where so many others had failed.

I was curious about the possibility that she might have won some of my servants over to be loyal to her. It was bad enough that there were so many servants who were loyal to Edric. And I had my own servants who were loyal to the rebellion and to myself.

Some of them had alerted me to questionable behavior on the part of some of my people, and those named were not enjoying my curiosity.

”Thank you,” I told Fiora. ”I”m taking him out of the city to interrogate.”

”Our village is at your disposal, as always,” Eline began.

”Of course. I understand that. But if my father learns that you”re loyal to me, you will all be at his disposal.”

I could find a way to tell my father about how this man had come under my suspicion without alerting him to the help I received. After all, my father was much quicker to torture than I was.

I carried the man off with me back to the castle. The fortress was so vast, it was not hard to find privacy even with the thousands of people who lived within. Dare, Azora, and Jaia helped drag him from the blistering gale outside into the deep quiet of an empty passage in the castle, and then down one of the many twisting corridors to a room I had requisitioned.

I had also enchanted it so no one”s screams could be overheard.

They forced him into a chair, then moved away.

”Now,” I drew off my gloves slowly, and the man watched me, the color of his gaze flickering at my every movement as if his life depended on it. And of course, it did.

I laid my gloves to one side on the table, even though I didn”t need to have them off to freeze someone. It was mere dramatic effect.

And since this guy looked like he was about to shit his pants, it was clearly working.

”Do you know where Seraphine is?” I wasn”t going to waste time.

He blinked at me in surprise. ”The Snake Queen”s emissary?”

”Yes. Dark hair, red lips, fancies herself beautiful.” She probably was, but no woman held much interest to me since I laid eyes on Hanna.

His surprise was a little overacted, in my opinion. Everyone knew that she was missing, so it was no surprise that I would be looking for her. He was trying to throw me off his trail.

Even if he hadn”t deserved to be hurt for lying to me, he deserved to be punished for being such a bad liar.

I raised one hand in an almost desultory fashion, my fingers white and blue at the tips, ice magic swirling around them. He jolted back in his chair, but there was no escape.

”Tell me where Seraphine is,” I said pleasantly.

”Your majesty, I have no idea, I swear---”

”But you were working for her.”

”No, I swear---”

Still unconvincing.

My ice magic jumped from my fingers to him. He let out a scream as the cold hit him, sinking deep into his flesh, searing it white.

”Now we”ve both learned something,” I said. ”I”ve learned that you”ll lie to me, which is disappointing. You learned how I”ll react to lies.”

”Please,” he pleaded.

”Please, the truth,” I agreed. ”How did she recruit you?”

”She threatened my family.”

”And why wouldn”t you come to me? Or to my father?” After all, the Snake Queen had long been a threat.

Why were we just now encountering her spies in our court?

Unless . . . the thought struck me that perhaps this was not the first, and my father simply hadn”t bothered to tell me.

And perhaps he had had his own depraved reasons for not doing so.

”I couldn”t,” he stuttered.

”Why not?”

His lips sealed shut, resisting. I leaned back in my chair and gave him a long look. I didn”t want to hurt him again. I could pity someone who thought their family was in danger and was trying to protect them.

”I need you to tell me.” Just because I didn”t want to hurt him didn”t mean that I wouldn”t. I would do whatever I must for Hanna.

Her face rose in my mind. Hanna was pragmatic, of course. I loved her for it. But she was never quite as pragmatic as she liked to think herself to be. She never wanted to hurt anyone, and it was easy to imagine how she would react now.

”Have mercy,” the man begged, as if he”d mistaken my silence for weakness.

Hanna wasn”t here. And even if she had been, I would never prioritize my desire to please her over my desire to protect her.

”Mercy is in short supply in the Ice Kingdom,” I responded.

Then my ice magic burned through him again, and he screamed. He clutched at his hand, looking down in pain and shock and horror.

”There isn”t long for me to undo that spell before the damage becomes permanent,” I told him. ”So I certainly hope you”ll be forthcoming. Before you lose the hand.”

He screamed and babbled then. Barely coherent, he sobbed to me about how his family had been enthralled by Seraphine.

I tensed at his description of how they had come under her mental power. His wife, carrying the baby in her arms, had waded into the lake, into the break in the ice the villagers broke for fresh water.

She”d walked down the ice steps until the baby”s head was submerged, and he had screamed and begged. Finally Seraphine had relented, and she had climbed back up with the baby, who sputtered and screamed.

Jaia leaned forward, and I had a feeling she would have been out and hunting down Seraphine in a heartbeat if I had let her.

”We can protect you,” I said, and Azora gave me a quick flicker of a look that said we didn”t know enough about what we were doing to protect anyone, let alone make those kinds of promises. ”Jaia, Azora, find his family. Make sure they”re safe.”

That kindness wasn”t all that Hanna would have wanted from me. But it was as much as I was willing to do right now.

”I want to protect your family, but I have to protect mine.” It was the first time I”d called Hanna my family. It felt right, even though I felt Jaia”s gaze jump to me. ”I need you to tell me where Seraphine is hiding.”

Hidingdidn”t seem like quite the right term, given all the chaos she had unleashed.

The man told me that I would find Seraphine in a mansion on the borders, the castle that had once belonged to the Gully family. They had been wiped out by monsters long ago.

Seraphine had been so close all this time. I would”ve flown over the Gully mansion while I was tracking Hanna.

Apparently, the monsters had moved in.

Jaia

”Are you alright?” Azora asked as we moved toward the small house in the village.

”Of course,” I said, as if I didn”t understand what she was asking.

Once we got inside, the house was starkly empty---the kind of empty that feels like a grave.

”She never really came out of the water,” Azora said suddenly, so she could see it as clearly as I could now. ”He”s under thrall too, even now.”

Ice swept through me as I remembered the weight of my own daughter”s body in my arms, long ago, the way her head had nestled into my shoulder. I pushed it away. My memories of her only ever made me weak.

This was magic with which we were unfamiliar, secret magic slithering out of the Snake Kingdom.

”And that means Kaelan is headed into a trap,” I finished.

The two of us ran, becoming desperate to get to Kaelan before he could be hurt.

The door to the empty cottage banged shut behind us with a thud.

There would be many more empty houses if we didn”t stop Seraphine.