Page 34 of Haunted

Mara?

The commander’s wife, Neifion supplies.

And it’s clear. Whatever the man’s crimes were, the commander asks for leniency. He means to spare the man.

Has the empress softened enough to allow this for her brother, who’s still mourning?

She locks eyes with Meuric. I can’t see her face because she’s turned away from me, but I see the commander’s. His eyes shine. His pupils move as he studies her face and pleads in silence.

Tension passes between them.

I can’t guess her mood. Will she give in to Meuric’s request? I haven’t been here. I’m not certain she will. She hasn’t said a word to me in weeks. I’ve become a stranger. I might have to start at square one. Have I lost all her trust?

“Fine,” she says quietly to him. Louder, to the prisoner. “The commander promises to be accountable for your actions from this point forward. You owe him your life.” She waves a finger, and they escort him from the room. Commander Meuric stands and bows before the empress. Just before he turns on his heel, his eyes catch mine, and they flare with hatred.

I respond with the slightest lift of my chin to show I’m unruffled. But he knows something. Has he learned of our intimacy? Why should he care?

The morning’s session passes with my silence. The empress adjourns for the midday meal. She doesn’t glance my way as she exits through a side door toward her chambers.

I don’t have the faintest clue what to make of this.

Follow her, Neifion says. You better enter back into her grace. You scorned her for weeks. Think of how she must feel. You laid together, and then you forget she exists.

He has a point.

The empress must be furious.

I better tread with caution.

28

The empress is in the war room, shuffling through a stack of documents in the corner. I stop in the doorway, waiting for permission to enter. We are back to absolute formalities.

She doesn’t turn to the door. “Good, you’re here.” She bends to scrawl something on a piece of parchment. Her hair is twisted up tight, against her scalp. She looks severe in all the leather that clings to her body, but as she lifts her chin to flip another document, the length and delicate curl of her eyelashes reveals the softness I know she possesses.

“Of course, empress.” I step toward the center table where maps are usually laid out. It’s empty today. She’s on the other side, near the window.

“I take it you must have had much to attend to in Creiddylad for it to occupy your time so.” She signs another parchment. She knows business didn’t detain me. I was hiding like a coward. Now she pretends to be all business.

I hate it because it means anything could happen. She could be perfectly calm, or she could be waiting for the right moment to kill me.

“All affairs are in order now, Your Highness.” I run my fingers along the table as I round it. She straightens and sets her quill in its holder, but she does not look at my approach. Do I dare bring up what happened between us? “What would you have me do? I am here to serve you.”

Her gaze snaps to mine. “Are you? What service are you willing to provide?”

There it is. I’ve been waiting for the animosity.

I try not to smile, but her anger actually sets me at ease. Her anger I can deal with. It’s when she’s a kitten with her claws tucked away that I worry. “You’re angry with me.”

“What cause have I to be angry with you?” Spoken with seemingly true innocence.

I doubt it, unquestionably. “You feel abandoned.”

“I do not.”

“Come, Your Highness.” I stop at the end of the table. “I left you. Alone. For weeks. You are furious.” I don’t add that my absence was after our union. I’m waiting for her to admit it meant something to her. I will goad it out of her.

“If you mean furious that you neglected your duties, then yes.” She glances at her papers as if she wishes to return to work.

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