Chapter 17: Confession

Rowena turned and saw my claws, and the pity went off her face.

"The sack," she said. "She was drugged."

"She was in a flower pot," I said. "The milk, I mean."

I stepped off the slab.

I knelt beside Dane and put my silver hand flat on his chest.

His heart was hammering and stalling.

I pushed.

I don't know how else to say it.

I pushed warmth down the thread.

The iron fist around his heart loosened one finger at a time.

He dragged in a breath that scraped.

"There," I said. "Look at me. There."

"Captain!" Rowena screamed.

The door crashed open, and three men in grey came through it with drawn blades.

Behind them, the captain filled the frame with his claw ring up.

"Kill her," Rowena said. "She's a Cardross assassin. She's come for me."

Nobody moved.

They were looking past her, at the tannery door behind them.

A lantern swung through it, held by a scullion boy with flour in his hair.

Behind the boy came six old wolves in dark wool, with Mother Elder at their head.

She took in the whole room in one slow look.

She saw the sack on the floor and the war-chief on his knees.

She saw the princess in her shawl and the man with the ring.

"Well," she said. "That's a great deal of company for a seamstress."

Rowena didn't miss a beat.

"Mother Elder, thank the gods. A servant tried to murder me, and the war-chief fell trying to stop her."

"Did he."

"She is a Cardross in disguise."

"I know," said Mother Elder.

It was the first time I had seen Rowena's mouth open and nothing come out of it.

Keep reading free with an account. Start She Wore My Twin's Hide, So I Carried Her Mate's Heir from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.