Gods & Monsters (Serpent & Dove #3) by Shelby Mahurin

“Y—” His reply caught in his throat, however, and his gaze cut to mine, abruptly panicked. Rueful. My anger spiked in response. He couldn’t lie—not here, not caught in Isla’s web of magic—even to spare my feelings. The knowledge hurt, but it didn’t cut deep enough to scar. I might not have been extraordinarily intelligent, but I had intelligence enough to know Isla wanted to hurt me. To shock and awe me. I just didn’t understand why.

“As I thought. Tell me, princeling, do you find her extraordinarily beautiful, then?”

He frowned, eyes still darting between us. Her gaze, however, still didn’t stray from mine. It bored into me with disturbing intensity. With disturbing clarity. Beau tugged at the collar of his shirt before muttering, “Of course I find her pretty. She’s my”—his throat worked again, failing to form the words—“she’s like my sister.”

“How quaint. I asked if you find her beauty extraordinary, however. Is Louise among the fairest you’ve encountered?” When he didn’t answer right away, she inclined her head. “Just so. Do you consider her extraordinarily brave instead?” Again, he didn’t answer. “No? Extraordinarily true, perhaps? Extraordinarily just?” Still Beau said nothing, swallowing hard around words that couldn’t come. Sweat beaded along his forehead at the effort. His foot pressed against mine with enough force to crack my bones.

A peculiar hum started in my ears at the pressure, and my vision tunneled on Isla’s superior expression. How dare she treat us this way? We were guests in her realm. She’d invited us here—and for what? To torment us? To poke and prod until we snapped? An almost childlike indignation flooded my system at the injustice.

Isla was supposed to be an ally.

“I don’t—why do you ask such questions?” Beau ground out.

She ignored his struggle, continuing ruthlessly. “Is Louise a leader, Beauregard? A visionary?”

“She—not as such—”

“Has she offered you riches in exchange for your loyalty? Has she offered you magic?”

He nearly choked on his answer.

“Is she extraordinary in any way?”

“She—” He looked to me, helpless, color rising in his cheeks. Across the table, Célie shot us covert looks, still pretending to listen to Elvire. Coco didn’t pretend at all. She glared at Isla with eyes that blazed with hatred while the hum in my ears grew louder.

“—is just as I feared,” Isla finished for him. “She is ordinary. Painfully, intolerably ordinary, yet she inspires the loyalty and devotion of my sister, my brother, you.” Scoffing, she shook her head and signaled for another course. “A wasted blessing, to be sure.”

“I am not blessed.”

“You don’t even realize, do you? I shouldn’t be surprised. Aurore may say what she likes about Morgane, but at least your mother possesses a modicum of awareness.”

My fingers shook at the comparison. At the insult. I curled them into fists, staring at the pan-fried dulse without seeing it. “Why did you summon us here?”

Again, she ignored my question, reaching across Beau to seize the diamond pin in my hair. “Help me understand, Louise. Why do they follow where you lead? I have only ever watched you fail—watched you murder, watched you lie, watched you cheat. Indeed, like a sea urchin, the only feat you’ve managed in all your life is survival. In doing so, you have harmed every person in this beloved family of yours, yet each one remains. Why?”

“Perhaps it’s my extraordinary sense of humor.” The words fell heavy from my lips. Hard. Heat rippled from my chest through my limbs now, and my entire body trembled. White edged my vision. Ordinary. She’d said it as an expletive. Something basic and coarse, something inferior.

“No.” With an errant flick of her wrist, my diamond pin clattered to the floor. Vaguely, I realized the table had stilled around us. Every eye had turned in my direction. “I do not think so. Even with Aurore’s blessing—even with your precious allies—you are not equipped to win this war, Louise le Blanc. Quite simply, my sister chose wrong.”

That heat kept spreading. Hotter than anger now. Hotter than embarrassment. Brows furrowing in alarm, Beau stared at my hand when I slammed it atop the table. “You speak of blessings,” I said, the words spilling forth wildly and with abandon, “but what good are the loyalty and devotion of the Wild Man of the Forest and the Triple Goddess? My mother—my own mother, the person who should’ve loved me most in the world—has tried to kill me three times. She murdered my best friend in front of me. Since then, I’ve spent days, perhaps weeks, possessed by Nicholina. Earlier tonight she almost drowned me in these wretched waters, where my mother also tried to kill me. Again. Now Reid sleeps under an enchantment I cannot break while you insult me in front of your entire court.” My chest heaved. “If this is the blessing of a goddess, I’d hate to see her curse.”

Isla only smiled.

With a single finger, she pushed the dish between us—still covered—in my direction. The flippant gesture only enraged me further. I shoved to my feet, prepared to stalk from the hall, to seize Reid’s body and leave, when my eyes dropped to the silver cloche. To my reflection there.

Too late, I registered the sharp scent of magic.