Roses & Rye (Toil & Trouble Book 3) by Heather R. Blair Page A

alive. Assassins of the realm are slippery creatures and he’s one of the best.
    “You can’t keep it quiet forever,” Tyr says evasively.
    “Forever isn’t in the cards.” The dark look Stephen sends over his shoulder at the couple on the couch has me frowning. What does he mean by that?
    The bruin shoves me and the assassin outside, kicking the door shut behind him.
    “She’s infected,” he grinds out.
    “We gathered that.” Tyr’s tone is dry.
    “I’m not talking about her being a werewolf. She’s infected . With moon madness.”
    The assassin isn’t the only one to hiss in a slow breath.
    I feel a pang of sympathy—for Sy, yes, but for Ajax, too. “How do you know?” I ask. I hadn’t noticed any white in those furious eyes.
    “We can smell it. Well, Ajax can.” He leans against one of the carved oaken posts. “He’s known for a couple weeks now.” The incubation period of moon madness is months. Cerunnos wanted it that way in order to affect as many as possible. It’s a slowly progressing disease, at least at first. Once the eyes turn white, though…
    “How long do you think?”
    He shrugs. “A month, maybe two. I want to give them that much. But war is coming if I don’t find those fucking wolves soon. It’s like they dropped off the face of the earth.”
    In a way, they have. It was part of Cerunnos’s deal with the wolves. He put a spell on their hideout in the Boundary Waters to conceal it. More for his benefit than theirs. He wants to keep his mice in their trap until his experiment is over. “Not really. In fact, they’re not that far away.”
    “You know where they are?” Krueger straightens, that giant frame looming over both the assassin and I.
    “I do. And I can take you there. After we’re done here.”
    “Awfully confident, aren’t you?” The bruin stares at me. “This isn’t going to sway my judgment. What if I find you guilty?”
    “Then I’ll take you there first, either way. I swear it.” More vows. I’m really racking them up. Not that it matters. Nothing matters except my end goal.
    His gaze fixes on the assassin. “And you’ll agree to keep your yap shut about Syana for now?”
    Tyr shrugs. “Fine. I see no gain to blabbing, but if that changes…”
    Stephen rolls his shoulders. “It won’t. Let’s get started. And not a word to Sy about the moon madness, either of you.”
    “She doesn’t know?” I stare at him as Tyr shakes his head.
    “No. And you’re gonna keep it that way.” The bruin opens the door, striding back inside without waiting for us or our agreement.
    “You’re just full of surprises tonight, Frost.” Tyr gives a low whistle before he follows Stephen over the threshold.
    You ain’t seen nothing yet.
     
    Bruin court is pretty informal. There’s no pretrial, no jury. Just the accused, his witness, anyone with relevant testimony, the judge and at least one other bruin to stand as witness to the proceedings. Most trials are over in an hour or two, and that includes the execution.
    The fire crackles as we arrange ourselves around the room, its bright cheer at odds with the tense mood. It’s a small group; only the three bruin males and Syana frequent the Den these days. After Kivistö’s death, his aunt went back to Russia and except for Ajax, none of the bears are attached. Or so they want people to think.
    I eye Krueger, knowing I’m about to put my life in the hands of a man who just might lose it when he hears the truth. Something tickles the back of my neck, like a whispered warning, but I shrug it away as Stephen gets to his feet.
    As per usual, the proceedings start with the judge declaring the facts of the case. Unlike what I’ve seen of human court, bruins spend little time on the victim. Their character, morals and history are considered irrelevant. After all, they are not the ones on trial. Krueger does spend a moment clarifying Seph’s place in their world, since this is an unusual situation.
    “Persephone was