Page 37 of Heirs of the Cursed

“It’s for a friend,” she informed him and resumed her walk down the corridor without confirming that Ward followed her. “She hasn’t slept since your army arrived in the city.”

“Is one of my men to blame for that?” Ward asked with what seemed to be genuine interest.

All of them, she thought to herself.

Every step from the commander were four of Naithea’s. The dryad moved with patience and grace, scanning the library with his midnight-blue eyes in search of suspicious activity.

“You could say that.” Naithea turned to the right and stepped into one of the aisles. She gently slid her fingers along the thick, old spines of the books. The weight of his deep gaze lingered on her, and she added, “I appreciate your help, Commander, but I can take it from here.”

“What are you looking for?” he insisted.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“That’s what I said,” she whispered, picking up a dusty book from its place and flipping through the contents, away from Ward’s gaze. “Do you want me to say it in the ancient tongue?Grajkou.”

Ward’s eyes slightly widened in surprise. “You speak saagrati.”

“Of course I do. It can come in handy when a man lies in your bed,” Naithea stated while placing the book back on the shelf.

Her quest was dangerous, but it was even more so with the commander of the Royal Army snooping around her. If shewanted to stay out of trouble, she had to get rid of him before he discovered her intentions.

“An old man,” he clarified. She wasn’t surprised; someone of Ward’s high rank would never lower himself to sleep with a whore.

“They pay well, better than most.”

“So why would you want to spend your free time learning anything else besides satisfying your clients?”

Naithea frowned and picked up a new book. “Because I’m a whore, I don’t have the right to educate myself?”

The question left the commander perplexed on the spot.

From the expression on his face, Naithea knew that Ward hadn’t expected her to refer to herself that way. Like any servant of the Crown, he was a liar, a murderer, and probably a sadist. Nothing would stop him from judging her for the acts she carried out to ensure her own survival, and yet he looked puzzled.

“I don’t—”

“May I speak freely, Commander?”

Ward nodded, seemingly intrigued by what she was about to say.

“You’re a pig. All men are pigs to believe that women are only useful for pleasure and procreation.” She took a step forward and gestured to the book in her hand. “But you see, a woman with knowledge is dangerous, because she has the power to destabilize an entire system.”

“Is that what you want?” he asked, though his emotions were masked with a stoic expression. “To destabilize Lên Rajya’s system?”

Naithea shook her head and Ward stared at her, thoughtful. “I’d like to change Bellmare for the better. So that people wouldn’t starve. So that children could play instead of work,” she said with a deluded smile before fading back in reality. “Sothat women wouldn’t have to sell their bodies and lose their freedom. So that men likeyouwouldn’t take what doesn’t belong to them.”

“Why not take the whole kingdom, then?”

“Even if I wanted to, I could not. There are too many heirs to kill and it would ruin my nails,” she joked with an amused expression. “Especially if I have to search for the faceless heir that everyone loathes.”

Commander Ward tensed at her words and said with a deep voice, “I could cut out your tongue for what you said.”

Naithea laughed softly, indifferent to the threat the commander had made with raging fire in his eyes. She should be frightened, begging for his forgiveness, but the monster that lurked within her prompted her to answer something else instead.

“If I wanted the kingdom, Commander, I wouldn’t go for the prince with a hollow crown.” She closed the distance even further and, with their bodies brushing against each other in an almost illusory way, Naithea reached over to the side to pick up the next book. “I would go for the heartless king.”

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