A Touch of Poison (Shadows of the Tenebris Court, #2)

by Clare Sager

“There’s more to life than power and courts and kings and queens. This was mine, given to me by my parents. When your fathers marched on Innesol, we fled. My mother wouldn’t let me take the box—I had to be practical, she said. We could only take what we could carry. So I hid it and told myself we would be back one day. That was before your father brought his monsters to my home.” Her normally calm face had turned hard, her eyes unblinking. “I know they slaughtered everyone there. It was lucky my parents chose to leave. But I still wanted this little reminder of the home I’d once had—the childhood friends who would listen to this song with me.” I held still, every word a grain of salt in the open wound of my father’s memories and the destruction I’d seen for myself. She hugged the box to herself. “I remember those who have been forgotten by all others. And I remember what your family did, Serpent. The queen might have forced me to heal your wounds the night of the coup, but I would never save your life by choice. That was why I left the scar—I followed her orders so you didn’t die, but I wanted you to remember.” She didn’t shout or hiss—no, this was a quieter kind of fury that paled her lips. “I pity you. The Serpent who can’t understand why I would want something for myself, why I might care for other people. After all, you killed your own father without batting an eyelid.” She scoffed, cold as winter. “How sad you are. A Serpent who doesn’t realise that not every fae is a...