Free Tiddly Jinx by Liz Schulte Page B

inside, careful not to touch her skin, and straight to the dungeon because I didn’t know what else to do with her. She had to answer my questions. She wasn’t going to get a choice in the matter. The book strapped to my shoulder probably had a spell that would assist in that…I pushed the thought away.
    “I really don’t want to do this. It’d be much easier if we could be friends,” I said.
    She struggled against the magical bond, fury filling her eyes. Maybe friendship was off the table now, but I didn’t have time to waste—none of us did. When the guards and I had her properly restrained, I dismissed them, asking them to find Cheney or Sebastian. I released the final threads of the bond and faced her.
    “I’m sorry it had to come to this.”
    “Oh, not nearly as sorry as you are going to be, Queen,” she said, struggling and snarling like a feral animal trying to frighten me.
    I took a step forward and lowered my voice. “You think you can scare me? I’ve walked through purgatory, I’ve killed men with my own hands, and you’re nothing more than an obstacle to my future happiness that I’ll remove by whatever means necessary. If you don’t want to be friends, that’s fine, but you will tell me where the Pole is or I’ll make you wish you were never born. I’ll destroy everything and everyone you have ever loved if necessary. Do not doubt my resolve.” My hand made its way inside my bag. The book surely had a way to make her talk.
    A throat cleared behind me, but I held her angry gaze for a moment longer. “I see you found the necromancer,” Cheney said.
    I forced the anger that bubbled inside of me down and smiled at Cheney, pulling my hand out of the bag. “She isn’t feeling very cooperative.”
    “Ah.” He tilted his head back. He started speaking and stopped, taking in the situation before he finally settled on, “Lily’s here.”
    I had forgotten all about inviting her to dinner. Frost was red-faced with rage and her anger fed mine in a very palpable way. I hated her. I hated just looking at her. “I’ll be there in just a moment,” I said to Cheney.
    He nodded slowly and left me in the room alone with her again.
    “Once last chance to shorten your time here.”
    She leaned toward me the best she could in the chains. “The elves might not be able to sense it, but I can feel the darkness on you. You are the last person I’ll ever tell. Never should have brought you back. You’ve been corrupted.”
    I had the simultaneous urge to strike out and back away. Forcing my legs to move, I backed out of the room. “I’m trying to save everyone.”
    Her cold eyes met mine. “Sometimes you just have to let people die.”
    I couldn’t prevent my lips from turning downwards in a frown as I shut the iron door and the sound echoed through the long corridors with finality.
    “Did she attack you?” Cheney’s voice behind me made me jump.
    “No.” He looked from me to the door, then back to me. Guilt crept in along the seams of my determination. “She won’t help. I’m encouraging her to reconsider.”
    “You thought locking her in the dungeon was the best way to do that?”
    I sighed. “She’s dangerous. We have to find out what happened. I took precautions.”
    “I’m not criticizing, but this may have been overkill.” He offered me his arm, and together we went back upstairs after giving the guards strict instructions not to enter the cell for any reason. “You could have asked Sy to help you. He at least knows her. Maybe there was a better approach to getting her to work with us.”
    I pressed my lips together tightly and rolled my shoulders back to ease the ache that had formed in the center of my spine. Things had gotten out of hand so fast. He didn’t understand. I needed all of this to be over. I was tired of fighting, of rushing around trying to save my own ass, of being the one who caused every crisis we had to face. It needed to end.
    “Do you want to change for