Chapter 181: Strange dog 2

EDELINA

"You thought the arrival of a new heir meant trouble, so you threw away years of a beautiful, blossoming relationship just to secure the queen’s seat my husband had promised you, all so your little girl could inherit it after me. And how did that work out for you? She threw herself at Lysander, and he humiliated her. You as well, I presume. And now, after all that, here you are."

"Edelina..."

"Should I help you?" I asked, tilting my head. "Why would I? My son did care for your daughter, and you and your daughter did nothing but hurt my boy. I am quite sure you egged her on too. A father who whispers in the right ear, who tells his girl that a prince is a prize to be taken." I smiled thinly. "Enjoy the fruits of your betrayal, Alpha. I hear the food in here is delightful."

I turned to go.

"Please." The word cracked out of him, ugly and desperate. "Queen Edelina. Please. See reason."

I did not stop, but I slowed.

"I can be useful," he said, rushing now, the words tumbling over each other. "You know I can. I have the Evernight pack behind me, nine hundred wolves, and I have been in this kingdom’s courts since before you married into it. I know who owes whom. I know who sells secrets and who buys them. The Elder Circle, the council seats, the old debts. Currently, you are alone in that house, Your Majesty. You cannot tell me you could not use someone who knows where all the bodies are buried."

I stopped.

The corridor held its breath. Somewhere behind me a prisoner coughed, and water dripped steadily from a ceiling I could not see.

I turned slowly, as though the decision were an inconvenience.

"Your pack must be furious," I said. "A whole Alpha, dumped in a cell like a cutpurse."

"They are." He pressed closer to the bars, eager now, sensing the shift. "They are beside themselves. My Beta has been petitioning the Circle since the day I was taken. And Amaranthine..." His voice faltered on his daughter’s name. "She will be wild. She will do anything to see me out."

"Will she." I let the thought settle, watching a shape take form in the back of my mind, a possibility I had not considered an hour ago. An Alpha with a grievance, a pack that wanted blood, and a daughter and promised bride who had already been spurned and was not the sort to forgive it.

Perhaps I had been too hasty.

"Perhaps you will be useful after all," I murmured. I stepped back to the bars and looked him over again, slowly this time, the way I would examine a piece of jewelry for flaws. "What do you want?"

His shoulders sagged with a relief so naked it was almost embarrassing. "For a start," he said, "I cannot be here. Not in this hole. Not with these animals. They have been..." His voice dropped. "Last night, three of them tried it. I stood my ground of course. But I have not been able to sleep. I need to be moved, anywhere but this block."

"Is that all?"

"For now."

"Very well."

I turned to the nearest sentinel, the older one who had backed me earlier, and let my voice carry down the corridor with the full weight of a queen who had decided to be reasonable.

"This is an Alpha."

The man blinked. "Your Majesty?"

"I said... This is an Alpha," I repeated, enunciating each word as though he were a child. "The head of a pack of nine hundred. Do you gentlemen not use your heads? Do you have any notion how valuable every Alpha household is to the crown, particularly in a season like this one? You have him in a pit with common thieves and murderers." I gestured at the cell. "Put him with my son. Across the corridor, in the empty cell. They are both of noble blood; they will be a comfort to one another, and the crown will not be embarrassed when word spreads that you let a pack leader be beaten bloody in the dark."

The guards exchanged glances.

"The Regent’s orders..." the younger one began.

"Said that the prince should be imprisoned," I cut in. "And this man was jailed on suspicion. Neither of those orders includes placing them in a death cage. Again, you may obey the letter of both while still showing some basic intelligence." I let my voice cool. "Or you may explain to the Elder Circle why an Alpha was murdered in your custody. I will be sure to find and mention your names."

The older sentinel exhaled through his nose. "We will see to it, Your Majesty."

"Thank you." I smiled at him, the gracious smile I reserved for subordinates who had finally learned.

Yannis had pressed his forehead to the iron, and I heard a sound that might have been a sob. "Thank you," he breathed. "Thank you, Your Majesty. I will not forget this. I swear to you, on my pack, on my life..."

"Yes, yes." I waved a hand without looking at him, the dismissive flick of a woman swatting a fly. "Save your oaths for when they are worth something, Alpha. Behave yourself. Keep my son company. And do not say a word to him that I would not want to hear repeated."

"Of course. Of course."

I turned and walked toward the stairs.

Behind me, I heard the scrape of the key in Yannis’s lock, the guards’ grumbling, and the murmur of a man weeping with gratitude. I did not look back.

The stairs spiraled up into cold, clean air. By the time I reached the top, my fingers had stopped trembling, and the plan that had begun as a whisper in the dark had grown a spine.

Four days.

And what did I have? An Alpha with a score to settle, a daughter with a grievance, a son with a curse about to bloom, and a prideful child that I intended to put in his place. I had been cornered before. I had always found a way to turn the walls into doors.

I would find one now.