Apollo saw her gaze flick in the direction of her brother before it moved back to Apollo. “The Drakkars are the most powerful family in Lunwyn. You know I value my ties to my family. You know why. We’ve been here before during the last conspiracy. What reason would any Drakkar have to—?”

But Frey had seen the glance too.

“Oleg, not Franka. Kristian,” he ordered.

“No!” Franka shrieked as Kristian cowered into the wall.

“What has he done, Franka?” Apollo asked.

“He…he…” She shook her head. “Nothing.”

Oleg started to move to Kristian and Kristian turned his side to the corner, pressing in like the stone could absorb him.

“What has he done, Franka?” Apollo asked.

Oleg made it to Kristian.

“Nothing!” Franka shouted and started toward Kristian but Apollo caught her in the chest and shoved her back roughly. He watched without remorse as she lost her footing and went down on her arse.

He bent deep, leaning into her and roared, “What has he done?”

“Nothing!” she shrieked.

There was a thud of flesh hitting the wall and Franka’s eyes flew there. Apollo looked over his shoulder to see Kristian shoved face first in the wall, one of Oleg’s hands at his neck keeping him there, the other wrapped around his wrist, twisting it behind his back.

Kristian was struggling and panting.

Oleg was looking at Frey.

“How ugly to start?” he asked.

“Mark him,” Frey ordered.

Oleg turned back to Kristian.

“I have a lover!” Franka cried and Apollo looked back to her.

“Continue!” he barked when she said no more.

She shook her head in short jerks, closed her eyes, opened them and whispered, “He’s been taken to Specter Isle.”

Gods damn it.

“And?” Apollo clipped.

“And, they told me I have unique access to both Finnie and Ils…I mean,” she corrected hurriedly at seeing the look that moved over Apollo’s face, “Madeleine. They said if I could get them access, they would release him.”

Bloody hell.

They were after the women.

“Why are Finnie and Madeleine targets?” Apollo asked curtly.

“They didn’t share their strategy,” she replied shakily.

As they wouldn’t.

“They just told me, if I didn’t, I’d receive his shaft back, the only part they said I liked, which isn’t true,” she spat. “And that was all I’d get back.”

Shocked deeply she cared about anyone enough to risk her own neck, Apollo stared at her a moment before he went on. “And who approached you?”

“Helda,” she answered.

“And is her magic black?” Apollo pressed.

She held his eyes but couldn’t hold back her obvious shudder.

Helda’s magic was black.

It was Helda’s magic that spirited Maddie away.

So it would be Helda’s head that rotted on a spike at Rimée Keep, the Queen’s palace in Snowdon.

Apollo would take it there himself.

“They’ve hurt him,” Apollo guessed quietly.

“She showed me a mirror. He was in it,” she snapped. “And yes. Every day. On the hour. Every hour. They hurt him.”

Apollo felt Frey draw close but he didn’t take his eyes off Franka.

“So you schemed to trap your brother, shift blame should this plan be discovered?” Frey asked.

“No,” she replied. “The Keer parcel had to be laid somewhere in the house. A Keer parcel is easily detected as it glows when the magic outside is trying to pierce the enchantments protecting a location, so it had to be well-placed. Calder informed me there was no room for me.”

She sent a bitter look to Calder, who Apollo already liked but he grew in Apollo’s estimation greatly, seeing it was clear he had no wish for Franka to be under his roof.

Her eyes came back to Frey. “So I shared what was happening with Kristian and begged for his help. He didn’t want to do it,” she hastened to add. “But, I…he…” She swallowed. “My brother has a soft heart.”

Her eyes went to her brother and she swallowed again.

Then she whispered to the floor, “He’s always had a soft heart. It doesn’t fit a Drakkar.”

“Congratulations, cousin, with that, you’ve spoken more truth tonight than you have since you emerged bawling from your mother’s womb,” Frey drawled and she turned bitter eyes to him.

“They have my Antoine,” she hissed.

“And did it occur to you that if you came direct to me with this problem, we could see about getting him back?” Frey returned.

“And why would you do me any favors?” she spat.

“Because I understand what it means to be in love but, cousin, you surprisingly forget. I owe you a debt,” Frey replied.

Her face grew cold as she slipped her mask in place.

“I’m not in love,” she snapped.

“Tell yourself that, Franka,” Frey said quietly. “But you do not commit treason for a heady cl**ax and we both know it. It’s just that you only know it deep inside, where you’ve buried any emotion that might make you resemble a human being.”

She glared at her cousin but there was more that they needed to know.

“You sent the informant,” Apollo remarked and her eyes came to him.

But she said nothing.

“You knew I’d sent my apologies for the Drakkar gale and to lure me there, hoping I would bring Madeleine, you sent the informant.”

She lifted her chin and confessed by saying, “Hope prevailed. It worked.”

Apollo drew in a sharp breath and made note to send his men on a hunt.

The informant would not earn a spike but he would earn a noose.

Franka tired of their discourse and demanded, “What do you do with Kristian and I now?”

“What I do is send my dragons to Specter Isle to annihilate it,” Frey answered and her eyes grew large with alarm.

“If you do that, they’ll incinerate Antoine,” she whispered.

“Franka,” Frey started, his voice gentling. “It would end his pain and…” he stressed his last word when she opened her mouth to speak. “Ask yourself if one sacrifice is worth saving the lives of many. We know not what they plan, we just know it is ill and every soul on two continents is at risk.”

Her eyes narrowed with hostility. “What I’ll ask is for you to consider the same should it be Finnie who was obliterated and it was you facing an empty bed until the end of your days. Ask your bride. Your Winter Bride knows.” She turned furious eyes to Apollo. “You know.” She leaned toward him and hissed. “You know.”