Page 112 of Fae Champion

His sensuous full lips parted as if to call out something to me up the line … and I hurried to look away.

The queen was back in the king’s personal space, toe to toe, breathing hotly on his neck, only this time she wasn’t playing at seduction. Her fingers curled at her sides like vicious, lethal claws, and Dashiell took another step toward his king as if he might wedge himself between the two rulers.

The queen didn’t so much as glance Dashiell’s way as she hissed, “Are you so weak that you can’t even answer my question? What my father saw in you to think you were a good match for me, I can’t fathom, only than to imagine that you made him promises you didn’t keep.”

Oddly devoid of emotion, my father said, “I wasn’t betrothed to you. You weren’t the one I was meant to match.”

For several beats, the queen did nothing beyond stare up at him and breathe heavily. Eventually, “My father was a great king, and he—Imade the best of aterrible situation. When we lost Odelia, I was saddled with you.”

The king looked and looked at her. “You weren’tsaddledwith me. I was the most powerful drake of my generation. What I am now, who I’ve become…” He shook his head, peppered braids swaying. “That’s because of what I’ve had to endure.”

The queen stomped back, laughing, though her mirth was forced. “Always the way with you, isn’t it? Blaming others for your shortcomings instead of taking responsibility like aman.”

The king winced but quickly hid his reaction. How he ever fell for her sweet, loving wife ploy when she treated him like this, I had no idea.

She circled Ivar and Braque, once more her train dragging across gore without consequence, and spun on her husband. “At least take responsibility for this one thing. Which of my sisters did you impregnate with the”—she faced me for a beat—“crude, brute of a girl?”

“With the obvious one,” the king replied. “The only one of your sisters I’ve ever loved. The woman I was supposed to marry.”

Her hand flew to her chest, and then she stilled entirely. My heart thumped—babum, babum, babum—while she shook her head, gems and chains swinging.

“No, that’s not possible. It’s not possible.”

“And yet it is. Odelia is Elowyn’s mother. She’s the one who chose to name our child Xiomara.”

The queen sucked in a wheeze. “You told me you’dchosen that name to honorme, my connection tomymother.”

He blinked. “A small yet necessary untruth required at the time. I couldn’t tell you this then.”

She lunged toward him like an animal but stopped herself before touching him. “Of course you could have. You’re acoward. That’s the only reason you didn’t tell me.”

The king studied her, then seemed to remember that Rush and I observed their interaction. “This isn’t the place for this discussion. We can talk it over later, when we’re alone.”

Dashiell’s eyes widened in alarm, highlighting their two different colors.

The queen’s glower appeared moments from combusting, so much so that Ivar took a step closer to her, asking under his breath, “Is Her Majesty all right? Is there anything we might do to help?”

“Yes, Ivar, you can murder the betraying bastard who calls himself my husband and lies to me about my own sister.”

The kingtsked, confident Ivar wouldn’t follow her orders, but I had no such faith in his survival. Ivar was eyeing the king, and Braque was also considering him thoughtfully, as if deliberating between different potions in his mind, all the better to end my father with.

“You can’t have me killed,” the king said. “I’m the co-ruler of Embermere and there are spells in place toprevent that. Besides, I’m not lying. Odelia is Elowyn’s mother.”

“My sister died without having children.”

“She didn’t.”

“She had to’ve. She had only one miscarriage, and her mind was addled before her death.” She gasped and once more surged toward the king, stabbing a finger into his chest. “Did you take advantage of my sister? When her mind was gone?”

The king stared at her without replying for several moments before seeming to come to some decision. He sighed and clasped her hand more tenderly than seemed reasonable, but she yanked it away.

“Of course I didn’t take advantage of Odelia,” he said. “I loved her more than…”

The queen’s eyes blazed. “Go ahead and say it. Go ahead. You loved her more than you love me.”

“Well, Talisa … for one, Odelia never threatened to murder me or castrate me or to sever my manhood and serve it to our courtiers.”

“Your manhood,” she snarled then scoffed. “You’d have to be a man to have a manhood.”

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