Page 67 of Threaded

Shawth and Ksee glanced down at the mark in the table, their faces blanching, as Mariah’s breath heaved from her lungs. Shawth composed himself the fastest, looking back to her with a look of pure venom and calculating awareness.

“Sleep well, Your Highness.”

And with that, he turned on his heel and left, Ksee stumbling after him, leaving Mariah in turmoil.

CHAPTER31

“You didwhat?”

Ryenne’s incredulous question rang through the living room of Mariah’s suite, the tone of her voice reflected on the faces of those gathered there—Kalen, Mariah’s Armature, Ciana, and Delaynie.

And, of course, Mariah herself. But instead of bewilderment, her gaze was blank, tired and expressionless as she stared out the large windows facing the mountains. “Do you need me to repeat myself? I lost control and my magic sliced a cut into the conference table.”

“While I can certainly appreciate more than most how ugly those tables are,” said Delaynie, her quiet voice steady despite the tension in the room. “That seems …impossible. Everyone knows the Goddess’s magic is not physical in nature, except to its queen. It cannot actually harm or touch anything in this world.”

Mariah lifted her eyes to meet Delaynie’s cunning, soft blue gaze. “I know it’s impossible. But I’m telling you all that it happened.”

Ryenne shook her head once, twice. “I’m not saying you were mistaken, Mariah, but I agree with Delaynie; the magic simply does not work like that—”

“Is it true?” Mariah’s voice was colder than the frost of the Everheim Mountains as she interrupted the queen.

Ryenne blanched at Mariah’s tone. “Is … is what true?”

Mariah didn’t answer. She only locked the queen with a stare that would’ve sent lesser people running.

“Mariah,” said Sebastian. “What, exactly, did Shawth have to say to you?” A tug of concern down that stone-colored bond. Of course, Sebastian would be the first to wonder not if what she’d said was possible, but what had caused it to happen in the first place.

And, truthfully, the last thing Mariah wanted to do was discuss Shawth’s revelations with a member of Ryenne’s own Armature present, but it was clear that those gathered in that room had now turned their full attention back to her, desperate to know the answer to Sebastian’s question.

Fine.

“Shawth told me the truth. About the kingdom. About who really rules here in Verith. And he told me he has no intention of relinquishing that power, not after his family has grown so accustomed to it for generations. He expects me to be nothing more than a figurehead, a pretty face to lead the Solstice twice a year and use my magic to generateallume.” Mariah kept her stare pinned on Ryenne as she spoke, and her anger slowly rose to the surface, all the feelings of betrayal and shock she’d felt at Shawth’s words seeping back into her eyes. “I told him no.”

The room was deathly quiet, Kalen stiff as he took a step closer to his queen. Mariah’s own Armature were darting confused glances between the queen, her consort, and Mariah herself, shifting around the room with the growing tension. Delaynie and Ciana sat still and held their tongues as the queen and her apparent held each other's stares.

It was Ryenne who spoke next.

“Leave us. All of you.”

Immediately, Mariah’s court stood from their seats or where they’d been lounging around the room and strode for the foyer. She heard the door as it clicked closed behind their shuffling steps. The only one who remained was Kalen, his hand resting on Ryenne’s shoulder. Mariah didn’t care, though; as much as she no longer trusted Ryenne, she also knew neither she nor Kalen were a threat to her, and she suspected the queen’s consort already knew everything there was to know about Ryenne.

Including her failings in the role the Goddess had chosen her to fill.

Still holding Ryenne’s ocean-blue stare, Mariah asked her question again.

“Is it true?”

Ryenne’s solid expression finally crumpled, replaced with one of pure, undiluted guilt. Her voice was small and soft as she answered.

“Yes.”

Mariah didn’t even blink in surprise. She knew what Ryenne’s answer would be. “Tell me. Tell me how it happened.”

Ryenne closed her eyes as a single tear beaded up and spilled down her cheek, her once-flawless face now tired and slightly ragged with the life leeching from her, day by day. “I was young. Scared. And very quickly after arriving in the capital and being Chosen, things began to just … spiral out of control. I didn’t know how to stop it, how to do any of it—how to run a kingdom, how to ensure my people were fed, how to command armies, how to greet foreign dignitaries, how to negotiate with overly prideful Royals. And my uncle … he presented me with an easy way out. And I let him. He told me he would rule in the way only our family knew how, but would do it behind the veil that the people saw, to keep the appearance of a powerful sovereign ruler. But … the one in power would no longer be me.

“I let Lord Shawth rule, and I kept to the palace, appearing when I needed to, overseeing the Solstice and everything that came along with it. Then the levels ofallumecollected each Solstice began to dwindle, and our supplies began to wane, and I started to suspect that it was all because ofme. Because of what I’d done. But I was even more terrified that if I were to retake control, I would do something wrong, and doom Onita to a far worse fate than it was perhaps already headed towards. So, when my uncle passed, and his son took his place, I let him continue to rule. And I did the same for his grandson. And now, four generations have passed, and I know to walk back my decisions would only cause more harm than what I’d originally created.

“But, Mariah … the guilt of what I did is mine alone to bear. No one,especiallynot me, would fault you if you were to make the same choice I did. I was raised to be a queen, but ruling is hard, and what I chose was by far the easiest. And for you, being raised—”

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