Page 18 of Blood & Roses

Chapter 9

“Iam never using those knives to eat,” Sera said critically as she watched me wash the knives that had recently been embedded in flesh.

After cleaning him up and sealing his wound with yet another potion, Rowan had gone out in stag form to check the perimeter of the cottage. He returned with a host of bloodied arrows, his dagger, and the grim report that we seemed to havegotten them all.

My hands were shaking as I cleaned, but not from the violence. No, if the Nightshade sisters were used to anything, it was unexpected assassination attempts. What made me hide my hands beneath the water as I sent Sera off to help board up the broken living room window was the kiss.

My eyes caught Rowan’s as Sera stalked past him, his face grave as he paused his hammering of nails into the planks that would keep the cold out until we could repair the window. I looked away quickly, feeling my heart thump heavily in my chest.

This was stupid. Tristan still hadn’t woken, our cottage had been attacked, and four bodies were currently waiting to be burned lest they attract predators. But still, the kiss was what plagued me.

“Why hasn’t he woken yet?” Lena asked gently from the living room. “I thought you got rid of the illusion, Sera?”

I sighed, drying my hands and steeling my shoulders as I replaced the knives and went to join my sisters and the two princes in the other room.

“I did,” Sera said, frowning down at the prince as she handed Rowan another nail, which he banged into place as if he needed to work out some of his own emotions as well. He didn’t turn to look at me as I entered. “Mental wounds can take time to heal. He was thoroughly entrapped. It could be a few days.”

“We don’t have a few days,” Rowan said, speaking around the nail he was holding between his teeth as he continued to hammer. “They must have tracked us here. They’ll keep coming until he’s dead.”

“Agreed,” I said, deciding it was time to voice the conclusion I had come to while watching the blood of the enemy hunters swirl down the drain. “We’ve tried hiding. It's time we took the fight to the queen.”

“It is?” Lena asked, looking between me and Rowan as he stepped down from the stool he had been standing on and gave me a hard look.

He nodded once, understanding my plan. “If I leave Tristan here, will you keep him safe?”

“What do you mean leave him here?” Calli asked, frowning between us. “Where areyougoing?”

“To kill Queen Amira,” I replied, trying to adopt a businesslike tone. “With Rowan.”

All four of my sisters, including Mora, who had said nothing since the arrows had first come shooting through our windows, erupted into volleys of protests at this declaration.

I silenced them with a raised hand, and Rowan’s stony expression cracked for a flicker of a moment as a smirk broke through.

“We tried doing this without murder,” I said, looking to Lena primarily as my second-in-command. “But none of us are safe from the queen’s hunters now. Not now that they know we are involved.”

“But Izzy—”

“None of you have magic that can murder a queen, not even you, Calli,” I said, forestalling my younger sister’s fiery complaints before she could make them. “It will be safest for me to go and handle this alone.”

“You could at least take Orson and Lis,” Lena said, looking nervous and wringing her hands slightly. “What if you’re ambushed?”

“It will be faster and easier for two to make the journey,” I replied. “And since Tristan is still here, it’s entirely possible more hunters will find you. They’ll followhisscent, not ours. I'd rather Orson and Lis stay here with you all until the queen is dead.”

“I can go alert them,” Rowan said, throwing on his cloak. “I can be there and back in half an hour if I fly. You’ll pack?”

He looked at me, and a thread of understanding passed between us. “And burn the bodies,” I agreed.

By the time Rowan returned, hair ruffled with snow and cheeks pink from the cold, the bodies of the dead hunters were burning.

I had dressed in my leathers rather than my usual skirt and blouse. As much as I preferred skirts, trousers were far more convenient for assassinations, even if the leathers weren’t as sturdy as they once had been.

I kept Mother’s garnet necklace tucked beneath my jacket, hidden in case some enterprising thief saw and decided to risk mywrath. It felt wrong to leave it behind when it was the only part of her I had left.

Lena had packed food and other supplies for us while Sera helped me with my weapons. I had eight daggers in total sheathed at my thigh, ankle, hip, and forearm, and Rowan blinked rapidly when he beheld me.

“I can’t decide which is more terrifying,” he commented, his eyes traveling my body in a slow appraisal that did annoying things to my stomach. “This, or the sight of you throwing kitchen knives in your bathrobe.”

“Definitely the bathrobe,” I joked, pulling stoppered vials from my shelves and checking the labels as I decided which to take with me. Lis had given me a custom belt the previous solstice for holding my poisons. It had several tiny compartments able to hold each bottle for easy access, but I had never used it since most of my work was accomplished in the kitchen. I supposed now was as good a time as any.