“I should go check with the healer,” Laurie said.

  “Go, then.”

  With him gone, she rocked Tori back and forth until the baby slowly settled into a shallow sleep.

  “I’ll keep you safe,” she whispered. “Always and forever.”

  She returned to her own room, summoning her servants. Her arms tired, she passed Tori over to Lily, then waited for the inevitable. After an intolerable length of time, one of her servants came to her, as ordered.

  “They’re here,” she said.

  Madelyn went to the front parlor, her servants in tow. From the window, she could see the entire front yard, including the gate. At least fifty mercenaries lined the surrounding wall, many of them unfamiliar to her. On the other side stood a contingent of the city guard, and they seemed not at all surprised when Torgar refused to unbar the gate. Madelyn had a servant open the window so she might hear the exchange.

  “Not happening,” Torgar said, his deep voice carrying easily. It helped he was shouting, as if he wanted all of Angelport to know he couldn’t give two shits about the city guard. “A few money-grubbing peons come saying one thing, and I got Lord Keenan of the Trifect saying another. Who you think you should be believing?”

  The leader of the guard looked flustered, and he tried to match Torgar in both volume and depth. He succeeded at neither.

  “We come only to search the premises for murderers wanted by Lord Ingram. Even if your master is uninvolved, those we seek might be hiding within.”

  “You brought a whole lot to be just searching.”

  The guard sneered at him. “It’s a big mansion.”

  Torgar was hardly one to be outdone.

  “Well, then, let me help you out. My asshole’s pretty big too. Think they’re hiding there?” Down went his trousers. “Here, take a look. See anything suspicious? Come stick your hand up and search—you look like you’d enjoy that sort of thing. Or maybe have Ingram come on down instead. He’d probably enjoy a poke.”

  Even from her distance, Madelyn could tell the guard leader’s face was beet-red. Beside her, one of the servants blushed and looked away. Madelyn, however, wished she could throttle the big idiot. She wanted them to leave without incident, not be provoked into an unnecessary fight.

  “You dare insult—” the guard started to say before Torgar interrupted him.

  “Stop it, already. You want in? Well, you aren’t getting in, not unless you come back with a shitload more men than what you got. We got walls, gates, and enough swords in here to cut you all down in seconds should you try breaking in. So either draw your blade and actually do something… or get the fuck out of here.”

  Without even waiting for an answer, Torgar put his back to the guard leader and returned to the house, buckling his pants as he did. Behind him, the guards stood looking strangely helpless. Madelyn held her breath, waiting for their response. Several of them were swearing, and none looked happy, but they marched back toward the castle in formation.

  When Torgar stepped through the front doors, Madelyn was there, and she slapped the lug across the face. He smiled down at her with a wolfish grin.

  “I wouldn’t do that again, milady,” he said.

  “Are you out of your mind?” she asked him, hoping her harsh tone would hide her discomfort. Torgar shrugged as Laurie appeared, having watched from another room.

  “There’s no way Ingram gave them orders to fight their way in,” said the mercenary, shooting a glance toward Laurie. “They came all show, no teeth. I figured I’d call them on it, and sure enough, they went running with their dicks tucked between their legs when I did.”

  “They’ll be back,” Laurie said. “And you insulted Ingram.”

  “He’ll get over it. Now’s your turn to talk your way out of this.”

  “And if I can’t?”

  Torgar nodded toward the window. “Then those boys out there will kill themselves a whole lot of city guard. You ain’t even seen a scrap of how many we’ll soon have. Sounds like Ingram tossed the mercenary guildleader into his prison. What I’m hearing, half the sellswords in the city are volunteering just to get some free food and a shot at payback.”

  Madelyn thought of open warfare filling her gardens and walkways with corpses, and blood running like rivers across the carpets of her mansion.

  “Like Veldaren,” she said. “Just like Veldaren. She did this. She brought them here, and now we’ll suffer the same madness.”

  Laurie swallowed hard. “Do what needs to be done,” he told Torgar. He looked to Madelyn. “I’m tired and shall take a rest.”

  She knew what that meant. They’d be sleeping in separate rooms that night, which was fine with her. Knowing that her best time to act was now, she went searching for Alyssa. She found her in the room with the two wounded troublemakers, sitting at Zusa’s side.

  Madelyn smiled sweetly at her. “How do your cousins fare?”

  “Well enough,” Alyssa said, standing. “May I help you?”

  “You can,” Madelyn said. “You can leave. Go back to Veldaren, where you belong. My husband doesn’t need your help to handle the likes of Ingram and the Merchant Lords. And take these two wretches with you.”

  “Watch your tongue—”

  “I will speak as I wish in my own household. You are guests, and I am being gracious calling you that. The city guard has left for now, but they’ll come back. Go to Veldaren where you’ll be beyond Ingram’s reach. Don’t treat me like a fool, Alyssa. I know no Gemcroft blood runs in either of their veins. I won’t have you destroy my household just because of some crude attachment to your pet killers.”

  Alyssa did not back down, and more shocking, her hand fell to the hilt of a dagger attached to her belt.

  “Do not presume to give me orders,” she said. “I will not go running like a coward, nor refuse the protection your husband offered me. Now, if you please, Haern and Zusa need to rest.”

  Madelyn went to the door but could not resist one last parting shot. “You should be responsible for your own actions, your own errors. Too often the rest of the Trifect gets dragged down with you.”

  “You stupid woman,” Alyssa said. “I’m the one who faced the thieves while you fled. It was my servants who died, my coin that paid for the mercenaries to stand against them. I earned our current peace with blood and gold while you stayed down here in Angelport, so eager in your safety to tell me everywhere I went wrong. Why do you think I’m here, Madelyn? It was your sole task to keep the Merchant Lords in line, and you and your husband have failed spectacularly. You once owned every boat sailing from Angelport, yet now hardly a ship bears your crest. The Merchant Lords have taken your boats, your trade, and now take aim at the last lucrative business you have left. I’ve come to help clean up your mess, and now you accuse me of being the cause of it?”

  She reached into her pocket and flung a small bag at her. Madelyn caught it out of pure reflex, but only after it softly smacked against her chest. She was so stunned that she barely felt it.

  “Try some Violet,” Alyssa said. “It’s stronger and more potent than even the best crimleaf your farmers can grow. Bite down on a leaf and breathe in deep, and when you do, imagine what will happen when the value of your crimleaf trade dwindles to nothing because of it. When I open my coffers to keep your family afloat, we’ll see who drags who down.”

  Madelyn crushed the bag in shaking hands, and she heard the sound of crinkling leaves. “All three of you deserve nothing but the noose,” she said. “One day, my husband will see that.”

  Alyssa slammed the door in her face.

  At first Madelyn wanted to find Tori and hold her to her chest, to cry out all her anger and frustration, but she knew she could not. Not yet. Despite Laurie’s subtle request for privacy, Madelyn went to their room. It was dark inside, heavy curtains blotting out the little light given off by the setting sun. Laurie lay half-naked across the bed, staring up at the ceiling. He didn’t look at her when he spoke.

  “I wish to be alone.”

  “I know.”

  Her dress fell to the floor. When she climbed into the bed, he tried to resist. She grabbed his wrists, pressed her mouth to his, and straddled him, ending the protest. She let the fire within her take over, riding out her fury as her husband moaned. When he climaxed, she lay atop him, her lips beside his ear.

  “We’re losing control,” she whispered in the dark.

  “I know.”

  “How did it happen? You were feared even among the Trifect. Your cruelty was legendary.”

  “Twelve long years happened. I’m sorry, Madelyn, I really am. The Merchant Lords were always a nuisance, a lowborn bunch pretending at wealth and power. But I gave them too much slack. I ignored their threat, kept my eyes on Veldaren instead of on my own home. Now their influence has spread, our fleet is a shadow of its former glory, and only our crimleaf trade keeps us afloat. I’ve failed us, all of us.”

  She nestled closer to him, resting a hand atop his chest. “It’s not too late. Your cruelty was a tool, and we need it back. Everyone is against us: Ingram, the Merchant Lords, the elves, that murderous Wraith, even Alyssa. We can’t trust them, not any of them. We were meant to rule. You were meant to rule. Can you not do so again?”

  Laurie sighed, and she could tell he was staring at the ceiling, searching through his thoughts for the right words to say. That alone told her she wouldn’t like what she would hear.

  “Alyssa is one of the few left we can trust, Madelyn. And the elves are helping us, just as we are helping them. Did you not know?”

  Madelyn felt her blood run cold. “We help the elves? How?”

  “Alyssa paid for the buildings, but I secured places for the elves to stay within the city. We need their aid in stopping the Violet from spreading across Dezrel. If the merchants ever gained access to their forests and started growing it in crops…”

  Madelyn felt a chill run through her as she thought of what Ingram would do if he ever discovered their involvement. Harboring fugitives was one thing, but to be aiding the elves? Ingram would never forgive it, never forget it. Elven arrows daily slaughtered innocent men, so much they approached war. What they did now could count as treason. She thought to challenge Laurie over this, but then bit her tongue. Her hand reached under her pillow to where she kept her dagger.

  “You’re not the man I married,” she said.

  “I suppose not, but neither are you the wife I once loved.”

  She plunged the dagger into his throat. He caught her wrists when it was an inch in, blood pooling about the tip. His neck tightened, and his eyes flared wide as he fought against her.

  “Just stop,” Madelyn said as she flung all her weight into the thrust. Tears ran down her face. “Please, stop, just stop, just let it go.”

  The tip sank farther in. He tried to scream, but all he could do was let out a quiet gurgle as he choked. He shifted his weight, but if there was any part of her stronger than her husband, it was her thighs, and she straddled him as she had only moments ago. His whole body began to shake violently. His eyes met hers, and she refused to look away despite the horror she saw. Despite the betrayal.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered as his strength faded, and he could no longer stop the blade from sinking another inch. Her lips brushed his ear as blood smeared across her bare breasts. “But you aren’t strong enough to save us. Tori needs better. I need better.”

  She stabbed again and again, turning and shredding flesh. I do this for Taras, she thought. I do this for his child. When her dagger revealed bone, she finally stopped. All at once, it seemed the room was painfully quiet. Only her breathing broke the silence, that and the soft patter of blood dripping from the drenched sheets to the floor. Madelyn felt something lurking heavy above her, like an animal ready to pounce, but she could not relent. She had to be strong, stronger than Laurie had ever been. Steeling herself, she took the dagger, knelt on the floor, and began to draw.

  Taras, she thought, even as she scrawled the symbol left by his killer. For you, Taras.

  It wasn’t hard, the drawing. It’d been burned into her memory, haunted her eyes every time she looked to the little baby girl left in her care.

  Compared to that, tearing Laurie’s body to pieces was a simple but tiresome measure, especially with only a dagger to do the cutting. It has to match, she thought. Has to be perfect. Everything felt detached, her own actions that of a stranger. Was it really her twisting and pulling until an elbow joint snapped and the bloody flesh tore free? Was it really her jamming a dagger into her husband’s eye sockets? Her tears running down her face, dripping into the innards spilling across the carpet, were the only thing that convinced her she was still human.

  At last she stood in the center of the room, her naked body hopelessly stained red, her arms coated up to the elbow with gore. The hours had passed, each one threatening to crush her completely. The heavy weight felt closer, more dangerous. It clung to her shoulders, dragged at her arms, and threatened to tear away her eyelids so she’d see everything she’d done in that horrible room. That detached feeling was gone, though she wished for it to return.

  Not done yet, she thought as panic clawed her throat. She slid underneath their bed, stabbed a hole into the feather mattress, and shoved the dagger inside. In the darkness, she could barely see but for the dim glow of a single lamp she’d lit. Removing it from its hook upon the wall, she set it on the ground so its light would spread underneath the bed. Dipping her hands in her washbasin to clean them, she retrieved a needle and some thread from their closet, crawled underneath, and began the painstaking process of sewing the mattress shut.

  No one could know. No one could ever know.

  With that done, she put everything away. Taking her husband’s sword from the decorative crest above their dresser, she clutched the scabbard and breathed in deep. With three hits she smashed open a window, then put the sword back it in its place. At last, she was free. At last, she could invite the torment in, let the realization of what she’d done consume her like a brutal fire. Again and again she screamed, letting free every bit of her grief, fury, and loss.

  In moments, the door burst open.

  “He said he’d kill me if I made a noise,” Madelyn sobbed, Laurie’s horrific corpse held lovingly in her naked arms. “He said… he said…”

  Her wail echoed throughout the mansion as guards poured in, once more baffled and furious at their inability to stop the Wraith from killing.

  CHAPTER

  11

  The captain’s quarters of the Ravenshade were even smaller than on the Fireheart, but they still had a bed, which was good enough for Darrel. Light streamed in as the whores opened the door to leave. Instead of shutting and leaving him in blessed silence, the door pushed wide, and in stepped Lord Ulrich Blackwater.

  “Least you waited until I was finished this time,” Darrel muttered.

  “Two?” Ulrich asked, glancing behind him.

  “Been a rough few days. Thought I deserved the indulgence.”

  Ulrich chuckled.

  “What’s so funny?” Darrel asked. “You think I can’t handle two women?”

  “I’m amused you know the word indulgence.”

  The captain grinned. “Ulrich, if there’s ever a word I’m good friends with in this ugly world, it’s that one.”

  “Fascinating. Put on some damn pants so we can talk. I’ll be waiting on the deck.”

  He shut the door. Darrel scratched at his beard, waiting for his alcohol-soaked brain to remember just where he’d tossed his pants before the two women worked their magic on his dick. Finding them behind him on the bed, he pulled them on, tightened the strings, and grabbed a nearby shirt. He was still looping his arms through it as he stepped out onto the deck of his new ship. New to him, anyway, for the diminutive vessel had sailed the ocean for many years and only recently had been purchased as a replacement for the Fireheart.

  “A real beauty, ain’t she?” he said, seeing Ulrich looking over his ship.

  “The best I could do at such short notice,” the merchant said, unimpressed with his sarcasm. “You’re lucky to even have a ship after what happened to my cargo.”

  “You know damn well that wasn’t my fault. Three men keeping watch, and they died like they was still scabs. Every one of them knew how to kill, Ulrich, I assure you. Someone knew we had the Violet, and that someone didn’t want us selling it. That Wraith fellow, maybe?”

  “Maybe.” Ulrich bit at his lip, and the captain noticed the way the man’s hands were twitching.

  “You need a drink?” he asked.

  “I’m fine.”

  He pulled a tiny sliver of something green from his pocket, popped it on his tongue, and then chewed.

  “So what is it you’re here for?” Darrel asked, crossing his arms. He had no intention of watching his boss take little snippets of Violet, not when he couldn’t have any himself. Every shred of it had gone down with the Fireheart, burning away a fortune and nearly killing him in his sleep to boot. He’d woken to the sound of warning cries and dove into the water just in time.

  “Laurie Keenan died last night,” Ulrich said, sniffing deeply. “Killed by the Wraith.”

  “No shit? Who’s running the family fortune now?”

  “His wife.”

  “Damn. What’s that got to do with me?”

  Ulrich appeared to visibly calm, and he gave Darrel a wide grin. “Things are coming to fruition, my dear captain, but we need to ensure everything goes our way. Madelyn’s scooping up every mercenary in the city and throwing enough gold to break what little loyalty they had to us. We need a counter. I want you to start spreading orders to the rest of my ships, and my brother’s too.”

  “What’s that?”

  “No one leaves Angelport. I don’t care if the docks fill up, either. Beach along the coast if need be.”