Anwen
"...So I haven't discovered anything solid, but we're making progress," I report to Kieran the day after my failed lunch with Estrella. Raven sits next to him, nodding.
He taps on the arm of his desk chair. "All right. Would-"
'Got him!' Baz roars to all of us.
'Finally,' I reply.
'How close are you?/ Kieran asks. 'And is the assailant alive?'
My heart skips a beat. I forgot to worry about Baz's fucking restraint.
'And kicking,' Baz answers.
I exhale sharply.
'Bastard took off toward the castle when we caught up. He'll be in the dungeon in ten.' Baz closes the mind-link, likely to focus on making sure his prisoner doesn't escape.
Kieran scrubs his hands over his face. "Thank the Goddess, this will finally be over."
Not something King Isai's killer would say. My confidence in him strengthens.
I stand. "Send for Cristofer. Luna Estrella prefers news from her own people's mouths, so he should monitor the interrogation."
Kieran stands as well. "And I'm happy to come help."
The second he finishes, he twists toward Raven, and mind-link distraction clouds them both. I'm getting pretty fucking tired of people having conversations without me.
"I don't need the help," I say loudly.
Kieran looks back at me. "Ah, If you're sure."
I snort and start to leave. "Enjoy your privacy."
"Wait!" Raven calls.
I pause.
"It wasn't my intention to leave you out, it's just"-she looks at Kieran, who nods-"I know we haven't been the closest, even since your father's death."
I hate the way she says "your father," like he didn't raise her too.
"But have you been in the dungeons, Anwen?" She meets my gaze and holds it. "They're cruel, inhumane, and your brother hasn't had time to clean them up yet."
I frown. "They're dungeons. I've seen them once or twice, but I can't exactly imagine a kind dungeon."
She takes a step closer. "Please just be careful down there. They twist people."
"Yeah, sure." Talking to her is just like talking to Mother: agree, and you get to leave.
Raven still looks worried, but neither of them say anything as I exit the office.
Baz reports that they've arrived just as I set foot on the top stair down to the dungeon. A thick, musty, underground smell drifts up, and I wrinkle my nose once. That's at least half the reason I've never spent a lot of time down here. Candace can't even walk down this hall without getting sick. But I am mere minutes from proving to Estrella that Dun's Crossing had nothing to do with her father's murder, so I square my shoulders and march down the stairs.
A heavy-jawed guard named Rohan I remember seeing down here nearly every time I've come greets me at the bottom of the stairs. "Catch of the day?"
I scowl at him. "I'm not here to waste time."
He scoffs, then turns and leads me deeper into the dungeon. My stomach churns until we pass the turn for Mother's cell. I really should visit her sometime.
"There." Rohan jerks his chin at a solid wood door and holds out a key. "Delivery team already cleared out, and the Sundrop motherfucker is in there. You want advanced tactics?"
He means torture. My stomach churns all over again.
"Do you really think I need those to get results?" I unlock the cell door and stride inside.
A wiry, raw-boned man peers through a nest of dark hair and two black eyes at me. He's manacled to a metal chair-silver, perhaps-and flanked by another prison guard and the bulk of Cristofer. I bow briefly to the Beta, and he does the same. Rohan follows me and locks the door behind both of us.
"Come to dirty your knuckles, pretty boy? Catch a little scar to impress the bitches?"
My mark throbs. Estrella will be impressed, but not for any reason this monster can understand. I roll up my sleeves slowly.
"Do you have a name?"
Cristofer closes his eyes as if wincing very slowly.
"I'd say I do." He snickers. "First interrogation, pretty boy?"
Yet another answer he doesn't need. I channel the snippets of Kieran's lessons from Father I overheard and grab the back of the chair he's chained to, tilting it back and forcing him to look me in the eye. I wear gloves around the castle this time of year, but I can feel the dull sickness of silver even through them. This close, the assassin is obviously injured, but pity is the last thing on my mind. He killed a king.
"Tell me your name," I growl.
His smile grows. "Tell me yours."
Whoever gives ground first loses, Father says in my mind.
I drop the chair back to the ground so he's sitting upright again. "Kill him, dump the body somewhere the Goddess will never find him."
The assassin chuckles. "Pretty boy's got some balls. I like that. You can call me Birsha. But you need me too bad to drop me in the ground just yet, so let's keep playing."
One of the guards flanking him seems to smother a smile. My pulse pounds in my ears. I am failing, and I'm doing it in front of an audience.
"What pack do you belong to?" I demand.
"Packs are for sissies like you." Birsha puffs out his chest as much as he can in the chains. "I live wild, like a real man ought to."
A rogue. Fuck. Anybody could hire a rogue, even someone in Dun's Crossing.
"Did you kill King Isai?" I lean close again. His scent, wet mulch and sweet rot, chokes the air.
"I don't like you enough for that." Birsha leans back like he's avoiding my gaze, then whips his head forward.
A thick, hot glob of spit lands on my cheek. I scrub it away and lurch back. That same fucking guard chokes on a laugh. My temper rages in my chest.
I grab the laughing guard's chin. "Name."
He pales. "Kyle, Your Highness."
"Rohan, if Kyle laughs again, kill him," I say directly into Kyle's face.
"With pleasure," Rohan replies.
I release Kyle and turn right to Rohan. I don't want to see Birsha's fucking smirk.
"Tell me more about those tactics," I grit out.
Rohan pulls out a thick dropper, half-full of a bluish-gray liquid. "How's a truth serum suit you?"
"Pretty damn good." I grab the dropper.
Kyle grunts. "He really is King Gavin's son. Goes straight for his favorite."
"Don't be too quick on the draw," Rohan says. "Even the king and Albatrose swore a single droplet sufficed, on the skin just after you ask something."
'Don't tell me what to do,' I snap over the mind-link before turning to Birsha, whose eyes have gone wide.
"What is that?" he asks.
"I second the question," Cristofer intones.
"Did you kill King Isai?" I squeeze a single drop onto the bare skin of Birsha's arm.
Birsha throws back his head and howls like he's in his wolf form. His skin sizzles, and an acrid stench fills the air, underpinned by something familiar and sickening. Cristofer vomits in the corner of the small cell.
Once, Mother took me into her private greenhouse, pointed me toward a stalk of blue flowers, and made me promise never to touch them or tell anyone about them. I agreed, as always. Though I didn't understand what she showed me until much later, I never forgot the smell.
Wolfsbane. In tiny doses, it hurts like a bitch and weakens a shifter's powers, even limiting their access to their wolf. In bigger ones-
Memories of my brief trip into Escuro flash through my mind. I turn to give the dropper back.
"Yes!" Birsha yells.
Everything slows. I turn back to him. "What?"
"Yes, I killed the fucking king!" he says. "Fuck, just stop that."
"How did you do it?" If he answers wrong, I'll know he's just agreeing to get me to stop.
Birsha rocks in his restraints. "Let me go. I'll tell you everything if you let me go."
"Tell me how you did it." I squeeze another drop onto his arm.
"Silver arrow!" Birsha screams as his skin melts. After a few breaths, he continues. "I've always been a crack shot, and the balcony was a dream. Please, just stop. I'll answer anything."
"I won't stand for this." Cristofer steps forward. "He may be a prisoner, but he's still a person."
I stare up at the massive Beta. Father was right about more than anyone's willing to give him credit for. With this, Birsha is putty in my hands.
"No," I say evenly. "He's not while he's in here. If you don't have the stomach to solve your Alpha's murder, listen from outside."
Something in Cristofer goes taut. He storms to the cell door, where a guard lets him out, and closes the door behind him. I have no way of knowing if he's still outside, if Estrella will believe anything I learn without him backing me, but I can't miss out on this opportunity. The thrill of the hunt sings in my veins, and I feel more alive than I ever have in my human form.
I turn back to Birsha. "Did you do it for yourself or because someone hired you?"
His eyes nearly bulge out of his skull. Rohan chuckles.
"Ask me anything but that."
"Tell me their name." Another drop.
"I don't know!" Tears roll down Birsha's face, cutting lines of paler skin through the layer of dirt. "I met this motherfucker in the woods, and he handed me a note."
"When did you meet him?" I've spent days tracking down the whereabouts of everyone in this Goddess-damned castle the day of the ball, so if we can narrow down the window, I can start ruling people out.
No answer. I move to his other arm and splash another droplet onto him. He screams.
"Day of the ball." His voice is ragged. "Sun was still up."
"Good." I take a step back, out of the wolfsbane fumes. Candace and Ingrid started getting ready four hours before the ball, and a dozen different servants report they didn't leave their room after they started.
"Was it before or after noon?" I don't wait for Birsha to hesitate before dropping more wolfsbane.
He writhes. This is no more than he deserves. He's a contract killer, and King Isai was a good man.
"After," Birsha finally gasps. "At lunch at the... I don't know, the fucking pub with the sign. Ask around."
I mind-link with Baz. 'Take a team into town. Ask for a wolf meeting Birsha's description at all the pubs on the day of the ball. I need to confirm his timeline.'
'Get a new Beta,' Baz replies tiredly. 'After this.'
I smile down at Birsha. Once Baz has that information, Ingrid and Candace will be cleared. Now, for the rest of us.
***
Huge, gray-red welts cover Birsha's now bare chest by the time I'm done. I ran out of skin on his arms before I even cleared Finn, and then I realized none of this would mean anything if I couldn't be sure about our Betas as well. But I've done it. With only a few drops left, I've cleared just about everyone.
Everyone except Kieran. Because Harper's still in the wind, and no one knows what they talked about.
Rohan claps me on the shoulder. "Hell of a job, kid. We'll make sure he lives through the night."
"I don't really give a fuck." I can't force the smile off my face. The rest of us are cleared, and I know Kieran didn't do it.
I have to go tell Estrella.