Page 43 of Devoured

My heart stutters, stops, as I freeze. I glance down, but—but I’m going to make this worse on myself. I need to act natural. I can’t react. I force myself to look up again, and it’s not just the bishop anymore.

A line of corpses sits along the wall beside him. Splayed at odd, brutal angles. Hunched like broken dolls. They crane limp necks in unison, each empty gaze falling on my face. Then they smile.

Hallucinations, I realize, swallowing the cry that burns my tongue.

Cora scrapes a nail along Evie’s throat, up toward her chin. “Darling Alchemist, what poison renders its victims conscious but sleeping? Doomed to listen but never speak, to see but never move? What flora smells like a corpse buried in fresh snow? What flora,” she enunciates, harsher now, “creates useless undead?”

Without hesitating, without even blinking, Evie says, “Ghostbane.”

My claw extends, little by little, threatening to draw blood. But if I draw blood now, they’ll smell it. And if they smell it, they’ll know.

Sucking in a deep breath, I force myself to look back at Evie and Cora.

Cora lifts Evie’s chin higher. “And where would one find this ghostbane?”

“In the Realm of Superiority.” Evie sounds as bored as her expression. “Instructor Bhat taught us the only requirements for its growth are pure winter breezes and fresh blood in the soil. Of course, those seem to be more common in less populated areas, and no one has ever fully defined what pure winter breezes mean, but the flower is rare. She couldn’t even find one herself to show us.”

“Healer?” Cora calls over her shoulder for confirmation. When the healer confirms with a shaky nod, Cora gives Evie a patronizing smile. “Jae and Zhiyu would be so proud to know their daughter inherited their alchemical gifts. You always were smart, weren’t you? Though, I suppose they were as well. May they rest in peace.”

Evie tenses. The bones beneath her skin begin to shift and pop, but before Evie can do something stupid, Cora releases her. The Wolf Queen slides her gaze past Evie and fixes it upon Dalla, who still stands with her soldiers on the dais. The Wolf Queen’s tone sharpens further. “Well, Princess Dalla? What do you think pure winter breezes means?”

Dalla goes very still. Her fingers tighten on her spear. “You can’t truly insinuate that we’re responsible for this. My sister and my soldiers have remained in your presence for the entirety of our visit.”

“Not the entirety.”

“Ask your Truthseer, then.” Valja steps beside her sister, expression fierce as she gestures to me. Shit shit shit. “I don’t know the procedures of your new court, but inside the palace of Mount Vinson, such unfounded accusations are considered treason.” A muscle feathers in her jaw. “We previously reached an agreement. Let’s stick to it.”

Slowly, so slowly, Cora ascends the steps of the dais. “Interesting you should mention Mount Vinson. Duke Petre Montgomery of Canada once categorized every rare and endangered flora in the Northern Hemisphere for this very court. I don’t need my Truthseer to tell me what I’ve read with my own eyes.”

“We did not poison your courtiers,” Valja snarls.

“Then, where did the ghostbane come from?” Cora asks, a gleeful lilt to the obvious threat underlying her words.

Sensing the animosity and tension, Dalla jerks her chin. Her soldiers come to attention. Spears across their chests. Fangs at the ready.

But it’s too late.

Cora is already moving, already reaching, already sinking her claws into Dalla’s temples. Though Dalla lurches backward, Cora follows, and in the blink of an eye, Dalla’s face crunches in Cora’s grasp.

Her skull flattens.

Cora twists her wrists, her claws still embedded deep, and severs Dalla’s head. Ripping it clean off the princess’s shoulders.

It happens in a single breath. Not enough time for Valja to react, for the soldiers to attack.

A second of silence follows.

A second in which Dalla’s body slumps, falls, and spills blood down the steps of the dais.

Then Jasper transforms, shredding through his clothing and lifting his muzzle high. A chilling howl splits the silence, followed by another. And another. Until the entire hall fills with ear-piercing cries of triumph, until the ceiling trembles with them. They drown out Valja’s scream as she collapses beside her sister. Cora’s army surges forward, and I swallow bile.

They pin Valja down.

They pin her soldiers too.

“Antarctica.” Cora smiles, unsheathing her claws from Dalla’s crushed skull and dropping the head at her feet. It rolls and rolls, following the path of Dalla’s blood. “Ghostbane is most commonly found in Antarctica. It is, in fact, their preferred method of torture. Poison from a pathetic flower.”

I almost collapse too.