Page 214 of A Touch of Poison
I tightened my grip, the edges of the book digging into my fingers as I pulled a sudden flush of purple to my thumb before making it disappear just as quickly. That I could do with my attention divided.
This passage explained that the Underworld was ruled by the Kings of Death, which sounded very dark and dramatic. It said there were seven, but I’d seen another book mention nine. These accounts were written by fae of this realm who’d probably never set foot there, so no surprise their information wasn’t accurate—or perhaps had been accurate at one time but wasn’t anymore.
They might’ve divided over time or some had united. Knowing what people said about the unseelie, conquering seemed more likely.
The next paragraph talked about how the Wild Hunt was loyal to one of those kings, which made me sit back and frown.
Loyal? The Wild Hunt?
In all the stories I’d heard, they were described as nothing more than wicked, ancient entities cursed to ride and hunt forever, single-minded and wild. Hence the name.
But this made it sound like they served a master.
I made a thoughtful sound before moving on to the next line.
And blinking.
And bolting upright in my chair.
I re-read the line.
“My gods,” I breathed, heart pounding as I scribbled in my notes, starting towards the door.
I needed to show Bastian.
79
Bastian
My eyelids drifted and I had to force myself to re-read the line.
Supplies in from…
If I had to read another report about suppliers for the royal wedding, I was going to pluck out my own eyeballs.
I sat back and massaged the bridge of my nose.
There was a very real danger of Ascendants trying to sabotage the event, so I had spies on every supplier and guard, the city gates—anything and everything I could think of. So far there was no sign of Sura’s people trying to infiltrate the city.
That didn’t mean they weren’t, though.
Kat was convinced they weren’t behind the Horror attack but she didn’t know our courts like I did. She didn’t know Sura. She wasn’t there for her coup attempt.
So many would’ve died—not just that night, but all the nights after in the war that would’ve followed the queen’s assassination. Some would’ve stood by Sura as the heir, but others would’ve rejected her for killing her own mother.
A subject I knew plenty about. I grunted and scratched the rash on my wrist.
Damned hemlock. I’d been wearing gloves as I’d worked with it, but my sleeve had ridden up and the plant had brushed my skin. I thought I was fine, but later the sun brought out red welts.
They’d calmed over the past couple of days but still itched like mad. Poison wasn’t an area of expertise for Asher’s healing—he was better with injuries—and no way was I giving Elthea another chance to extract a favour from me. So, salve it was. I pulled out the jar from my desk and smoothed it over the pink marks.
How had Kat enduredconsumingpoison when I could barely stand touching it?
The door flew open, and there she was, so breathless I was on my feet in an instant. She had an appointment with Elthea tomorrow, but had she brought it forward? Had Elthea hurt her again? “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head, panting like she’d run all the way here, and held up a book. Gold lettering glinted against a deep forest green cover.
I let my muscles relax and chuckled. “Nothing wrong, but you forgot how to knock?”
