Queens of Mist and Madness (Fae Isles, #4)

by Lisette Marshall

‘Am I?’ I said cautiously. ‘Well, you don't look like you're anywhere else,’ Edored said without the faintest trace of irony in his face-splitting grin. ‘Do you have a moment? We've got something for you.’ ‘Oh, gods,’ Lyn said, opening one eye for the sole purpose of throwing him a devastating glare. ‘Now, Edored?’ ‘When else, Phiramelyndra?’ he returned, rolling his eyes at her. ‘When we’re all dead and in our graves? Also, don’t blame me. The others came up with it.’ ‘The … others?’ I said even more cautiously. He pulled a face. ‘Can’t tell you.’ I blinked at Lyn, who shrugged apologetically at me but didn’t say anything, and then at the tent entrance behind Edored’s leather-clad back, which was deserted. The others – who in the world was he talking about? The family? Him and his drinking friends? Hell, the Underground as a whole? ‘Look, I’m rather busy,’ I said weakly, gesturing at the maps before us. ‘If your secret could possibly wait until we’re sure the Mother isn’t about to wipe the Fireborn Palace off the face of the earth …’ ‘Oh, this is more important,’ Edored brightly informed me. Zera help me. ‘Then at the very least give me another hour to—’ ‘No, no, no.’ He shook his head, still grinning broadly. ‘You don't get it, Noisy Death. This can't wait another hour. I have instructions to bring you to’ – he interrupted himself, clearly having been on the verge of blurting out some monumental secret – ‘to somewhere immediately, and if I have to drag you there, then it...