Queen of the Darkness

have dinner there and then play cards for a while."
    The way Saetan's eyes suddenly glittered made him nervous.
    "You're going to play cards with Jaenelle?" Saetan asked.
    "Yes," Daemon replied cautiously.
    "In that case, Prince, I'd say you've more than made up for mentioning that book."
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    9 / Kaeleer
    Osvald lingered in the corridor.
    At first, he'd thought Vania's greedy lust was going to spoil all their plans. But after the pale bitch-Queen had ripped into the males of the court because of it, they'd all gone off to lick their emotional wounds and hadn't been seen for the rest of the day.
    Jaenelle's fury would have been a gift that had fallen into his hands if Wilhelmina Benedict had been in her room. But she wasn't, and he had no idea where to look for her. If she was with the other bitches, he couldn't approach her. He didn't want any of them taking special notice of him before he was ready to disappear.
    Soon, he thought as he returned to his own room. Soon.
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    10 / Kaeleer
    And they call me the Sadist, Daemon thought as he eyed the game board and cards—and did his best not to snarl in frustration.
    "You almost won that round," Jaenelle offered, trying not to look too gleeful as she tallied up the scores.
    Daemon bared his teeth in a poor imitation of a smile. "My deal?"
    Nodding, Jaenelle busily turned the paper over, drew a line down the middle, and wrote their names at the top.
    Daemon picked up the cards and began shuffling the deck.
    Hell's fire, he shouldn't be having this much trouble with a card game. It was just a variation of the game "cradle" that Jaenelle had played as a child. All right, it was twenty-six variations of "cradle." He still shouldn't be having this much trouble winning a round. But there was something a little off about this game, something that defied rational thinking. Male thinking.
    A game board with colored stones and bone discs with symbols etched on one side. A hand of cards. And the convoluted interaction between them. He could picture the coven sitting around on a stormy winter afternoon, putting this game together piece by piece, building one variation off another, adding bits from other games distinct to their own cultures, until they had created something that was pure torture for the male brain. He particularly despised the wild card game because the player in control of the board when the wild card turned up could call for a different variation—which could turn a good hand and game plan into garbage.
    There had to be a way to turn that to his advantage. Had to...
    Continuing to shuffle the cards, Daemon studied the game board carefully, studied the stones and the bone discs. Thought about how each piece could interact with the other pieces—and the cards.
    Yes, that would work. That would work quite well.
    "Which variation do you want to play?" Jaenelle asked as she placed the stones and discs in their starting positions.
    Daemon gave her the smile that used to terrify the Queens in Terreille. "Variation twenty-seven."
    Jaenelle just frowned at him. "Daemon, there is no variation twenty-seven."
    He dealt the cards and purred, "There is now."
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    11 / Kaeleer
    She was so young, Surreal thought as she studied her mother. I had thought of her as being so big, so strong. But she's smaller than me... and she was so young when she died.
    Titian tucked her feet up on the window seat and wrapped her arms around her knees. "It's good you've come to Kaeleer."
    Surreal stared out the window. But the night-darkened glass didn't show her anything but her own reflection— and that made her think of the questions that had gone unanswered for too long. "Why didn't we come here before?" she asked quietly. "Why didn't you go home after you got away from Kartane?" She hesitated. "Was it because of me?"
    "No," Titian said sharply. "I chose to keep you, Surreal. I had to fight against my body's instinctive rejection of a child conceived by force, and I chose you." Now Titian hesitated. "There were other reasons not to go home then. If I had, your life would have been easier, but..."
    "But what?" Surreal snapped. "If you had gone home, you wouldn't have had to whore for food and shelter. If you had gotten out of Terreille, you wouldn't have died so damn young. What reason is good enough to balance those things?"
    "I loved my father," Titian said softly. "And I loved my brothers. Rape is punishable by execution, Surreal. If I had gone home as soon as I escaped from Kartane, my