Jessamine
I hurry down the stairs, making my way over to the library to catch Renae's next message before it gets taken. In the days Kier has been away, I have barely been able to keep tabs on the woman.
More worried that she might have eyes on Az and I, all of my energy had been focused on not being followed. Or caught in Kier's study. It was difficult, but Mikkel and Camilla helped ensure they didn't miss us while we were away.
It wasn't a very difficult job, because Renae had planned it all so terribly well. How best to kill her son and cover up his murder. Beta Randale received a message the next morning, apparently handwritten by Kier that there had been a fire in the villages and he took a handful of my men along with him.
Forged, the letter was, but the fire had been a lie until it wasn't. An entire village burned to the ground, oddly the one with the largest supplies of weapons. Barely fifteen families survived, and it had been Randale who handled the wreckage after. The deaths. The ceremony to aid them crossing into the After.
And indeed, a handful of my men were gone the next morning, their bodies discovered in the wreck by Randale the day after. I suspected what Renae's plan had been, but it wasn't confirmed until Camilla found a note hidden in the dress Renae gifted me for the ball. I hadn't worn it. It wasn't quite my style. I gave Camilla and in the process of adjusting it to her size, she found it.
It only had three words on it. "Kill The Alpha."
She was going to have Kier killed, frame me for it, pitting our forces against each other, and it just might have worked if the key element in her plan hadn't gone missing. His body would've been found along with my men in that village and the note would have been discovered in my dress.
Renae shot herself in the leg with that letter she sent to Randale. Her plan might still have worked if she didn't. She could've pronounced him missing. My men would have been missing as well and they'd have had the opportunity to still search and find the note on me. But she couldn't pronounce the Alpha missing after forging a letter in his name and sealing it in his blood and the official stamp.
It didn't mean she didn't look for him, howbeit secretly. Having him show up at the breakfast hall this morning hadn't been a part of my plan, but it had been satisfactory to see her blanch and tremble with fear.
My skirts swish across the floors, my heels clicking too loudly for comfort. Outside the library, two scribes whisper to each other.
"She'll cut out your tongue if you tell, Lana."
"What if--"
"Scribes do not see, hear, nor speak--"
The younger one makes an impatient sound, her robes of soft blue shifting about her tightly as she steps in closer. "You said the same thing years ago before the king's execution, and she didn't hesitate to kill your son when thought you would speak up."
My heels click too loudly and their eyes jerk in my direction, their fingers tightening around the books in their grip. They lower their heads in greeting and before I can respond, they hurry off in different directions.
I eye the woman named Lana for a moment longer before entering the library. It never did occur to me to just ask the scribes. They might have an idea of who collects Renae's notes.
There's only one woman in here today. Anna. A middle aged woman with a constant sneer on her face, and said sneer is currently directed at me. I don't bother with her, going straight for the shelf. I feign searching for one of my favoured romance tomes. I take out one, set it on the table and begin my search for the next. I turn back once and when I'm certain the woman isn't staring, I take out Renae's book and flip the pages.
It's...empty.
A soft laugh cuts from the darkness, and I jump, nearly dropping the book.
"You've been spying on me," says Renae as she emerges from the darkest corner, light blocked out by the shelves. There's no way I could have seen her there, clad in all black.
I try to calm my wilding heart as I snap the book shut and wave it in the air. "I never really did fancy myths. Too much digression, too little facts." I slide the book back in place. "But did you know? The tomes in my father's library tell stories of how the Moon and Sun Goddesses were the closest siblings of all other gods. There's a saying there were torn apart by a man. They say the Moon Goddess eyed her sister's consort."
Folding my hands behind my back, I approach her, silently reaching for the dagger in my sleeve as I recall one of Glenda's most bizarre history lessons. "But the consort wouldn't look at her. The Moon Goddess was quite devious, you see. Spoiled. Unused to not having her way." I start a slow circle behind her. Renae doesn't turn or fret. There's no fear rolling off her either. She doesn't think me capable of killing or harming her. The weight of my dagger in my palm suddenly triples and I feel rage coursing through me. I steel my spine and stop behind her, leaning closer until my lips are a few inches away from her ear. "Do you know what she did?"
Renae shivers, her shoulders tightening, but when she turns to look at me, there's a nasty smile on her face. "Murdered her adversary?"
Bitch.
I laugh, even as tears threaten to spring to my eyes. I laugh heartily. "Of course not. You see," I whisper, my voice dripping of dangerous sweetness. "The Moon Goddess has a cruel sense of humour. The consort was a kind man, a contrast from his ruthless other. The Moon Goddess decided all she needed was make to make their differences even more stark, creating a rift too great to repair."
An uncomfortable silence falls, in which Renae observes me with unflinching intensity. Her eyes are cold. Too cold. They remind me of Slyder's as he struck me. There's a carnal delight in them that's abnormal, and for the first time, I think that my mother wasn't mad. No, Renae is the crazy one, something far worse. "You piqued my curiosity, Jessamine. What could be worse than killing her sister?"
Her words send an icy tremor through me.
I don't let her see it. Not as I smile and coo, "Feeding her son poison and framing her sister for it. The boy conveniently died on his visit to his aunt's home, and the Consort found the poison in the Sun Goddess's possession."
Renae's lips stretch into a predatory smile. "Utterly brilliant--"
My dagger is against her throat in the next second. "One word from me and you're finished."
She leans back, eyes flicking between mine and my grip on the dagger. "You won't kill me. If you are anything like your mother, then I'd assume you are no fool."
My jaw locks and my muscles stiffen. I press the dagger against her skin until I smell blood. She lifts her chin, her face contorting with displeasure as I grip the tail of her braid and pull her head back. "I quite like it when you underestimate me and delude yourself with thoughts of what and who I am. You must not have learned very much about me. I'm an unpredictable lunatic."
I drag the dagger slowly across her neck and warmth spills down my hands. I'm surprised to find that she bleeds red. Renae's blood should be a vile blue. She's an unrepenting witch.
Fear flashes in her eyes and her fingers fly to her throat. The cut isn't fatal, but she'll bleed for sometime before she heals. She stares at the blood on her hands and her expression freezes with horror. "You'll die for this."
It's a promise, one that settles deep in my gut, and when she lashes out, claws inching for my chest, I press the dagger deeper into the colomn of her throat. "You move and I fucking cut you. I dare you to try me and see if I'll hold back."
Something hits the shelf and my gaze snaps up. Anna stands by the table, eyes wide. "By the Goddess, what are you doing?!"
"Get the Alpha," Renae orders, her breath raspy.
Anna's gaze is fixed on mine and I tap into Nyx's offered strength as I compel her, "Return to your desk. The Luna and I are discussing books. You do not hear or see anything until we leave."
The woman's eyes glaze over almost immediately, unseeing. She turns, even as Renae screeches at her again to get Kier, and she walks to her desk, sitting and resuming her work.
"Who receives your notes?"
No answer.
I ball my fist and ram it into her nose. Her head snaps back and she growls striking blindly at me.
Catching her hand, I twist it behind her and she spins to reduce the pain. Shoving it higher until it is nearly reaching her neck, I repeat, "Who receives your notes?"
"You worry for such useless, inconsequential things," she says, her fragrance of lilac nearly choking me. "It really doesn't matter who receives my notes, child," A dark giggle. "How ironic. I had Madeline in this same position when my dagger plunged into her neck."
I still, and it costs me. Her head rams back into mine, and my vision darkens momentarily. Her fingers are in my hair, and she hurls me into the shelf, my head smacking hard against the wood as I crash. "You are but a child. A little mouse, playing in a den of lions," she grunts, dropping into a low crouch. "This is a fight you cannot win, one you're much too young to understand."
My head throbs painfully, every sensation hazy. "It has to be Atticus. What I don't understand is why." I starting to push myself up, but a sharp piercing sensation on my neck stops me. My dagger glints in the dark and I pause. When did I drop it?
She angles her head at me. "Where did you hide Kier?"
I lick my canines, lazily, feeling the subtle shift in my body as Nyx attempts to crawl out. I can't let her. I may be a princess, but killing Renae right now will cost me too much. I struggle to keep her at bay as I purr, "Up your ass."
Her gaze drops to my hands and the claws growing out of them. She notes them retract and lengthen, again and again, and her eyebrows arch, amused. "You remind me so much of her. Like you, she was no killer. Ever met a righteous whore? Your mother, the Queen, she was too good, too bright for this world."
My hands shake. My heartbeat pounds in my ears. "Do NOT--"
"She was going to kill me, you know," Renae cuts in, a twisted emotion I refuse to acknowledge as grief tightening the corner around her eyes. "I've never been much of a fighter, but Maddy, she was a strong bitch. She had the dagger over my heart, but she wouldn't do it. She couldn't do it. I think..." Her voice trails off into a reverent whisper. "I betrayed her, and she still wouldn't hurt me, the wretch."
"Why did you?" I grit out, past the chaotic pounding of my pulse.
Renae blinks slowly, a tenderness shivering across the cold muscles of her face. "She stole my life. It was only fitting that I took hers."
"She stole your life? All my mother ever did was suffer for a crime she didn't commit--"
My dagger clangs to the ground, and Renae rises to her feet. "She deserved every misery. Were I not in a rush, I'd have ensured she suffered through every moment of her death as well. She betrayed me first and I do not regret killing her." Her head tilts and her eyes rakes over my face. "Her eyes looked much more beautiful without the light in them, don't you think?"
I snarl, springing to my feet, and she laughs at my reaction. "I'll let this slide, Jessamine. Just this once. You keep following me around, then I will not be held responsible for your death. You tell Kier I poisoned him, I'll have your pretty little entourage buried six feet under, and I'll start with your guard. I'll rip into him until there's nothing left."
"Bold of you to assume I care for them," I say as cruelly as I can, but my voice falters. "And you'd be dead before you can make do of your threat."
The corner of her mouth lifts in a grim, satisfied smirk. "I think you do care for them, and you're unwise if you think Kier will ever kill his mother. I have a hold on him you can never break. I am his mother and you are just another hole for him to fuck and sate his desires. Eventually he'll grow tired. Surely, your mother taught you that much."
I flinch, hating the burn of her words. "You keep treating him like a pawn, one day he'll lash out, and I'll be right there to watch him impale you on his sword. I'll be the devil perched on his ear, giving him all the right reasons to. I have not one but two reasons now to make your life a living hell until your death, and I'll take every opportunity I get to make it so." My voice is a deadly whisper as I speak the last words, "I promise."