Page 147 of The War and Deceit Series omnibus

“Is there a problem here?” The queen’s serene voice floats over us, and the onlookers seem to vanish as if just being in our presence will cause them to be punished too.

Oh great,I scoff to myself.She chooses now to show up?I’m so angry that when I take a step back, I make sure to keep my mouth shut, knowing that I could get into serious trouble if I snarl at the queen in front of her people. Trying to calm myself, I look up at Tor, who is standing close to the queen, his face a blank mask.

“Not at all, Your Majesty, just a misunderstanding,” Naril interjects from Eldrin’s side, his face set into a pleasant smile.

“I see,” she muses. I finally meet her gaze, feeling more under control now, and I’m glad I waited until I calmed down. She looks at me as if she’s just smelled something bad, her nose wrinkled delicately as she watches me with distaste. “There seem to be a lot ofmisunderstandingswhere the human is involved.” Finally, she turns back to Eldrin, and I feel like I can breathe again, not realising I’d been holding my breath. “I’m surprised to see you here, Eldrin.” It’s easy to hear the anger in her voice now as she steps closer to the scarred twin. The change in him is visible. His head droops as he stares at the ground, and his body seems to have shrunk into itself.

“Yes, Your Majesty. I was just leaving.” I’ve never heard his voice so dejected before, and I know I shouldn’t rub salt into his wounds, but I can’t help myself—he brings out a dark side of me that I wish would remain hidden.

“Don’t leave on my account,” I spit, drawing a light tinkling laugh from the queen.

“Oh yes, listen to the human, Eldrin, why don’t you stay?” she suggests lightly, enjoying the tension between me and the dishonoured elf.

“With regret, Your Majesty, I must leave. I’m needed on the border patrol.” He keeps his head hanging low, but I don’t miss his flinch as she laughs again.

“Go.” She dismisses him with a flick of her wrist and turns back to me. Eldrin straightens, and just before he skulks away, our eyes meet. I’d been expecting to see anger, but I am shocked to see a melancholy look that makes my heart hurt.

“You’re quite the troublemaker,Clarissa,” the queen remarks, the emphasis on my name pulling my attention back to her. I’m still angry, but not at Eldrin anymore, at the queen. How could she treat one of her subjects like that? I can understand her treating me badly, in fact I expect it now, but not one of her own.

“The fault was mine, Your Majesty,” Tor interjects, laying a gentle hand on her arm. Her eyes light up as she looks between the two of us, sensing my jealousy at the touch. My anger flares, growing for each second that he doesn’t remove his hand, and it’s like my whole vision narrows down to where he touches her skin. I don’t own Tor, I have no right to be angry if he wants to touch her, and the queenlovesthat.

“I see. Why don’t you come and explain everything to me?” she purrs, placing her hand on top of his.

“Of course,” Tor responds with a smile, looking over his shoulder at me. “Goodnight, Clarissa.”

The queen turns her back on me and strolls towards her throne. Bold move, turning her back on someone she considers her enemy.Tor’s eyes apologise as he walks away, and I know he’d rather be here with me. That’s the only thing that stops me from following.

Reaching up, I rub at the place in chest where my bonds reside. Where is Vaeril? I obviously upset him when I agreed to dance with Tor. Uncertainty and anxiety war within me, and I feel so out of place here, which is probably exactly how the queen wants me to feel.

A hand touches my arm, startling me from glaring at the queen’s back, and I know I’m attracting attention. Taking a deep breath, I turn with a smile and see that Saril has made her way over. She is watching me with a worried expression. Her partner at her side, however, is wearing a joyful smile, chuckling quietly to himself.

“Why don’t we come to these things more often, Saril?” Taelir exclaims. “That was the most entertainment I’ve had in years.”

The elves, I decide, are trying to kill me.

“Come on, princess, lift those knees!” Eldrin shouts from the other side of the training area. At least, it feels like that’s Eldrin’s intention with this workout.

Lungs wheezing, chest heaving, and with my heart threatening to pound itself right out of my chest, I make a rude gesture towards the tyrannical elf as I lean forward, resting my hands on my knees. I focus on trying to slow my breathing, closing my eyes and concentrating on the rise and fall of my chest and the sound of the air entering and leaving my lungs.

How did I go from feeling like a princess at the beginning of last night to this?I ponder dryly, and I wonder if that’s exactly why Eldrin demanded that I train today—to put me back in my place. Maybe I’m just feeling bitter after how disastrously everything ended last night—Tor leaving with the queen, and Vaeril disappearing, leaving me to defend myself against his feral friend. Naril had walked me back to my rooms not long after, and I’ve not seen any of them since. Until Eldrin, that is.

After last night, I didn’t think I’d see him for a couple of days while he licked his wounds from the verbal beatdown the queen gave him. Unfortunately, I was wrong. A pounding on my door had announced his arrival, startling me from my breakfast. I suppose I should be grateful that he’d at least waited for me to open the door rather than just barging through it. I can remember how he looked as his eyes tracked up and down my body as I stood in the doorway, my soft, pale blue wrap dress billowing around me from the breeze streaming in through the open window. It was a shocked, unfamiliar, vulnerable expression that crossed his face, and for a second, I wanted to reach out and comfort him. Of course, that didn’t last long. He soon returned to his rude, grouchy self and barked that I’d need to change since we were training today.

That look haunts me still. I can’t seem to get it out of my head, no matter how much I want to murder him right now.

A shadow falls over me, providing a small bit of shade as I try to cool myself down. I know exactly who it’ll be, but I refuse to break my calm for him. He can wait until I can breathe properly again. After all, it’s his fault I feel this way in the first place.

“For someone who spent almost a week on the run, you seem to be pretty awful at it.” He sounds amused at his own joke, or it could be that he’s enjoying seeing me out of breath and in pain. With Eldrin, that wouldn’t surprise me—there’s no love lost between the two of us.

“Har, har,” I reply dryly, and with a sigh, I push up into a standing position, stretching out my sore limbs. Sweat drips down my back, and I’m thankful that my maid, Lillia, managed to find something that would be acceptable for me to work out in.

When I’d asked her why I couldn’t just wear what the male elves were wearing to exercise in, she practically fainted from shock and horror and explained that it just wasn’t done. Loose,stretchy trousers which pull together at the ankles make it easy to move about in, whilst still looking feminine. The top part wraps together like the dresses I’m used to wearing during the day and hangs down, and along with the flowing trousers, it gives the impression I’m wearing a dress, while still giving me the freedom of movement I need.

Now that my breathing has settled down and my lungs don’t feel like they’re going to rip themselves apart, I turn to look at the elf who belongs to the shadows. A smirk greets me, riling me up once again. What is it about this guy that just makes me mad all the time? I feel drawn to him for some reason—not the way I am with Vaeril, Tor, and Grayson—but there’s something about him that speaks to a part of me. Unfortunately, he also seems to bring out my anger. I’m fairly sure he hates me, but sometimes I see him looking at me with such a heart-breaking sadness that I wonder if I’ve got him wrong.

“Better, princess?”

Nope. I’ve not got him wrong. He’s a bastard who thrives off the pain of others,I think bitterly as I glare up at him. He started calling me ‘princess’ this morning, but I know it’s not in a positive way, as he sneers the words at me.

---