“Yes, yes, just a moment.” He walked back and forth a few more times. “Ah.” He lifted his finger into the air, then walked over to his map, wrote something along the side, and finally turned to me. “Business as usual,” he gruffed. “I’ll cut to the chase, Temir. I don’t want to waste either of our time today. I have a job that needs to be done. I think you’re just the male to do it.”
I had known this was coming. I was surprised it hadn’t happened sooner. The rebellion planned to test me. But what was the point of being in the rebellion if you didn’t do anything?
“Is someone hurt?”
“No, no. Nothing like that this time.” He went back to his pacing, and I waited until he had all of his thoughts lined up. “There’s a high fae in the castle that I need you to kill.”
He dropped that truth like an anchor and waited for my reaction, watching me carefully.
I hid the surprise. “As you know, it’s my nature to heal and help others. I cannot take a life.” I swallowed the bile rising in my throat as I said the lie aloud.
“I thought you’d say that. Let me tell you a bit about this fae, and we will take it from there. His name is Arol.” He halted his march to raise an eyebrow. “Heard of him?”
“In passing. I don’t know him personally.”
He rubbed one of the curved horns atop his head. “He’s been abusing the servants. Last week, a rebel who works at the castle found the body of a sprite crammed into a box and shoved in a wardrobe. The sprite, we believe, was working within the castle.”
“Sick,” I answered. “How do we know it was Arol and not his wife? She has quite the reputation.”
“Has she now?”
“Indeed. She goes to dinner in the hall nearly nude, she snaps at the servers and has been caught by her husband with both male and female faeries. I’ve not heard much of Arol, but she is fairly well known for her antics. I believe the king finds her entertaining. I wouldn’t be surprised if she has visited his bed a few times also.”
“I see. I suppose we can’t say for sure if it’s the husband or wife, so you might need to do some digging. Either way, we need the problem taken care of. It’s time to prove yourself, Temir.”
“It won’t be easy. Especially within the castle.”
“If it was easy, it would have been done already.” He walked back to his maps in dismissal.
I started toward the door but he stopped me.
“There’s one more thing. We need Oravan.” He jutted his chin toward my hand. “I need more of those rings.”
“You want me to reveal the rebellion to another member of the council?”
It made sense. I knew why Oravan would be a good fae to have on our side, but he’d been approached and denied the recruiting attempts from the Marsh Court. If that didn’t persuade him, I doubted a small gathering of angry northern fae was going to do the trick. He nodded as he reached for the map, lifting it as if he was looking through it by the light of the sconces scattered through the room, rather than at it.
“And how am I supposed to do that?” I asked.
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” He folded the paper, turned, and left the room.
I wasn’t sure how to read Rook. Sometimes he seemed approachable, at other times it was a hard wall of demands and orders. I supposed that’s what a good leader was though. He had to give the jobs to those he saw best fit for them. I could respect him for that. I met Roe in the tunnels, and we made our way back to the castle.
“Wanna talk about it?” he asked.
“Not really.” I let out a deep breath. “Let’s just say this is going to be a very interesting week.”
“Iva’s been askin’ ta come see you. Think you’ll have some time?”
I shrugged. “I might need her help getting into another room later today.” I rubbed my temples, lacing magic within the touch to push the budding headache away.
“That bad, huh?”
“The king is in a dangerous mood, and I’ll have to be careful.”
Later, in my rooms, I pulled the truth serum from its hiding place on the shelf. Mixed in with all the others, it looked like an ordinary elixir. I had told Roe to have Iva meet me in the hall just outside Arol’s rooms. I tucked the vial into my pocket and walked out the doors. I came around the corner of the long hall and expected to see Iva waiting for me. What I did not expect was to see her pinned to the ground with Arol covering her mouth so she couldn’t scream.
I ran for her. “What the fuck are you doing?” I tackled him to the marbled ground.
