Page 123 of A War of Crowns

Gritting his teeth against the feral scream threatening to burst from his throat, Aldric gripped the window behind him and used that hold to gently ease himself about until he faced the wall.

Edmund wanted him to wait. He wanted him to marry the stupid girl andthenkill her.

But Aldric was tired of waiting.

He was going to end this gametonightand get back to where he was truly needed—the Drakmori-Kunishi border, discovering just who this Bonesinger was and what fresh dangers the mysterious figure posed.

If Edmund wanted Elmoria, he could come and claim it for himself.

By the time Aldric reached the balcony that marked the queen’s private chambers, his muscles screamed, the pain from his knife wound little more than a dull memory.

Biting back a cry from the effort of his final push, he hauled himself over the railing and onto the balcony landing at last. Lying there on his back, he sucked in a series of glorious, deep breaths and stared at the stars overhead.

He had made it. He was alive.

Aldric wanted to laugh. He wanted to rage. He wanted to break down the balcony’s doors and strangle the kirei within with his bare hands.

As the seconds ticked past, his breath slowly steadied. But his legs and arms still trembled. He had just climbed a great distance.

But he had no time to properly rest. Not now.

Not when he was soclose to his goal.

He eased the bear claws off his aching hands and unceremoniously shoved them into the small bundle of tools slung over his shoulder. From within that bundle, he retrieved a glass-cutting tool next.

Calix was better at this sort of thing—the creeping about. Picking locks. Shattering glass with no one being the wiser.

But Calix wasn’t there.

Aldric knew his second-in-command would have come without a moment’s hesitation had he only asked. But this was the sort of thing for which he would never ask for help.

Seraphina might have tried to have him killed in the most cowardly way possible—by the blade of another—buthewould show her the way such things should be done.

Murder was a personal thing. It should be an intimate affair.

And though she didn’t deserveit, not after that little stunt with the assassin, he was still going to allow her to see his face one last time as he slid that witchblade straight into her heart.

Sneaking toward the double doors separating the balcony from the queen’s bedroom beyond, Aldric was just about to work on the glass next to the closest doorknob when a sudden thought gripped him. On a whim, he tried to open the door.

It swung open, unlocked.

For a few moments, all he could do was stare at the open door in silent disbelief. It was a wonder she hadn’t already gotten herself killed doing foolish things like that.

But at least she had the courtesy to make this easy on him.

Limping into her dark bedroom, he quietly shut the door behind him so the chill breeze wouldn’t awaken her prematurely and potentially save her life. If she called for her guards, he’d be done for.

Aldric slowly glanced about the room, noting its layout. He had never been within the queen’s bedchamber, of course, but Elmorians were boring creatures, used to their soft comforts and ornate adornments.

Though her bedchamber was easily four times the size of his, it was mostly empty space filled with soft rugs that framed the few pieces of furniture strategically positioned about the cavernous space.

Aldric paused, listening until he confirmed he could hear only one person breathing before he crept deeper within. Though the queen always so hotly denied any intimate relations with that puffed-up peacock of a man, Crestley, he still had the one eye with which to see.

And he had seen the way Crestley looked at her. He had tasted the flavor of the baron’s jealousy on more than one occasion.

But there she was, alone in her bed.

As his one good eye fell upon her face, he was struck yet again by just how devastatinglybeautiful his kirei was. The streams of moonlight slipping in through the window caressed the soft curves of her cheeks, her throat.

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