Page 59 of The Royal Gauntlet
“She underestimates my desire to kill him again,” I grumble around another bite of toast.
“You’re going to have to beat me to it, my love. You had your turn. Now it’s mine,” Essos vows with a grim edge to his voice. Why this sends a bolt of desire through me, I don’t understand, but I’ll let him keep up with this caveman act.
“We’re not taking my ex’s offer,” Xavier states, his tone final.
“No one thought we were, big guy,” Finn teases with a laugh until his mouth is sealed shut in a similar fashion to Ellie’s. The retaliation from Finn is swift, because the teacup Xavier was holding in a rather dainty fashion falls out of his hand when Finn removes all of his fingers.
I can see Xavier’s eyes turn red with fury, moving to act out, but Cat beats me to it.
“Enough!” Her voice is commanding and firm when she shouts, and a small gust of wind blows around us. Xavier and Finn exchange a look and, without needing to be told, they revert the other to their original form.
“What does this ritual to open the gates of the Underworld entail? I can’t say I’m excited about the prospect of bleeding my pregnant wife.” Essos rubs his eyes, looking so tired when he asks his question. This is all so much that I don’t blame him. When it’s all over, I think I’ll sleep for a year. Except not, because hello, bun in the oven.
“We have to be in your throne room, and we need a magicked blade so our wounds don’t close right away. It’s probably going to be more blood than you’re happy about, but I’m not positive. Zara has been working tirelessly with Gisella, Estelle, and Sybil to get the details. They were trying to figure out what Posey did to damage the veil and what else she might have up her sleeve, but I asked them to switch gears so we can clean up this mess with the souls.”
Essos looks disheartened when I tell him this.
“We have the other God Killer blade. We can use that,” I suggest, my voice small. This of course, is the blade that has Galen stored in the stone.
“Right,” Essos confirms, squeezing my knee.
Kai pipes up. “Does anyone else feel like Posey has us chasing our tails on purpose?”
“Probably. I mean, I know I’m the new kid on the block, but she seems more methodical than casually making that garbage offer. There’s no way that she honestly thinks you all would take it, right?” Cat’s voice is tentative as she breaks off a piece of bacon and eats it.
“No—being new means you have fresh eyes,” Helene says. “We’re all colored by centuries on centuries of expectations around her. She basically just pulled a rabbit out of a hat, and when we looked closer, it was actually a cat. Posey has been misleading us all for so long.”
I refuse to gawk but that might be the nicest thing that Helene has said in the history of ever.
“So, what is her end game?” Essos muses out loud. He leans back in his chair, running his thumb over his bottom lip while we all sink into a contemplative silence.
I grab a scone. “What if she already told us? Think about it. She wants power. She’s been trying to amass it for millennia. What if making us all mortaliswhat she wants? Maybe she knows we’ll say no, that we’ll all be laughing behind her back at what a stupid offer she made. And then she’ll strike.”
“You think this is the bluff to end all bluffs? Telling us she has literally nothing, not even a pair of twos, when she’s going to take it all from us anyway? I just don’t get why she would do that,” Essos says, still trying to puzzle out the theory.
“There is no way she’s that good at faking it. Her orgasms were as fake as silicone boobs,” Xavier attests with a laugh.
“That…makes me uncomfortable,” Dion says, grabbing his wine goblet. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that he’s Xavier’s son.
Xavier blows out a harsh breath with a nod. “It’s the sad truth, son.”
I give a hard whistle, and Dave appears at my side. He sits perfectly straight in business mode, ears forward and alert.
“Get me Zara and the Fates,” I order. He shoots off into the house like a rocket.
Essos eyes me questioningly, sitting up.
When Zara, Sybil, and Estelle emerge, they all look mildly put out at being summoned. Estelle grabs a scone and takes a bite. It must not pass her approval, because she turns to the side and spits it onto the deck, where Dave happily hoovers it up.
“I’m going to need to go into those kitchens and knock some sense into that new chef,” she bemoans, tossing the rest of the scone to Dave. He doesn’t have the same issues with quality, because he lies down and lazily munches on his treat.
“Can Posey make us mortal?” I ask, ignoring Estelle’s dig about the new chef. The new chef who happens to be Estelle’s former sous chef that she personally trained.
Sybil looks taken aback. “Why would you ask such a thing?”
“That’s not an answer,” Helene points out unhelpfully.
“In theory, yes, but she would need our assistance, or some other source of power,” Estelle cuts in.