Page 47 of Lady of Doom and Devotion

Someone passed on the details of our plan to the Order.

How much else does our greatest enemy know? How much else has he done while we were infiltrating the guardhouse?

A jolt of panic spikes through my veins alongside my fury. The royal children—they might already be lost.

Lothar clicks his tongue, his lips curling with a hint of a sneer. “Why don’t you show yourself so we can negotiate like proper human beings, hmm?”

He flicks his cool gaze toward Ivy. The man with the knife digs the blade in just enough for a thin line of blood to form along its edge.

My anger and fear congeal in my churning stomach. The former magic advisor would like to see Ivy dead. If the only sorcerer he had who could control her is gone, he’ll want the threat she poses eliminated.

He’s only kept her alive this long to control the rest of us. If he thinks that ploy isn’t working, he’ll happily murder her and call that its own win.

I can’t see Rheave in the darkness. He’s kept his charm on so far, though I can only imagine how worked up the daimon is watching the woman he’s devoted himself to sagging in the grip of these villains.

It doesn’t appear that Lothar knows how many people exactly would have been with Ivy. Let the daimon realize he should stay concealed. I can be a distraction.

As long as Rheave has enough sense to recognize the advantage we can keep.

With a swift tug, I wrench off my charm. All five of the hostile faces before me twitch in my direction, their attention homing in on me.

I shove the charm in my pocket, my prosthetic raised defensively, and set my hand on the hilt of my sword. Not overtly threatening yet, just where I can draw it the moment I see an opening.

As Lothar’s gaze takes me in, a sharper rage cuts through the rest of my inner turmoil.

This prick slaughtered the man I swore to serve, the man I’d have given my life for. He murdered our king and queen with no care for their lives, their children, or what it would do to our country, only thinking of his own brutal, selfish ends.

If I owe King Konram anything, it’s seeing the traitor bleeding out here on the cobblestones. He’s already destroyed so much, ruined so many lives.

I have to put the cur down.

I just don’t know how.

Even if I did the unthinkable and sacrificed Ivy to launch myself at Lothar now, I have no idea what talents he or the lackeys flanking him possess. They might be able to deflect me before I inflicted so much as a scratch.

There’s too much on the line to take that gamble.

“Here I am, Lothar,” I say, my voice hard, with a flick of my eyes to clear the fog that’s rolling over them. “What kind of negotiation are you looking for?”

The one-shouldered man rests his only hand against his belly, a pose that emphasizes what’s missing from his uneven body. He tilts his head slightly to the side.

His expression is keenly alert but with no sign of fear. He believes he’s fully in control of our stand-off.

As his gaze bores into mine, his face blurring after the first few moments, a sense of rancor prickles over my skin. As if he’s radiating fury.

What the fuck does this asshole have to be angry with me about?

“There’s only one piece of information I’m interested in bartering for,” he says. “Where are the false queen and the young Melchioreks hiding?”

I can’t restrain a scoffing sound. Does he really think so little of my loyalty as that?

It would tear my heart in two seeing him harm Ivy more than he already has, but I know that she would never forgive me if I traded our future queen’s life for hers.

Besides, I’m not naïve enough to believe that Lothar actually would spare Ivy in exchange for the information. No doubt he’d have his man spilling her blood the second I coughed up a location.

Lothar’s eyes narrow at my show of skepticism. “You aren’t the only vermin we’ve caught, even if you are the worst.” He aims a disgusted look at Ivy before returning his attention to me. “If someone else gives up the royals first, you’ll have nothing left to bargain with.”

My pulse stutters. Who else has the Order gotten their hands on?

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