Page 157 of A War of Crowns

“No.”

Her smile finally shattered at his swift rejection, and irritation took the place of her easy amusement from earlier. Before Edmund could even so much as question what was happening, the witch drew in a deep breath, and her eyes suddenly glowed all the more brightly for it.

When next she exhaled, tendrils of smoke unfurled themselves through her nostrils, bathing him in the scent of heat and ash.

“Tell me, Edmund,” Mariana whispered, an even greater rasp to her words now. “How much do you know about witches?”

Not enough.

When silence was his only reply, the witch gifted another of her smiles, though this one was sharper and more dangerous still. “I hold within my lungs the last of the world’s dragonfire, Edmund dear. So,cross me again,” she breathed against his face and his stomach roiled at the sensation of that heat licking against him, “and I will melt the very flesh from your bones and turn you into a pile of ash. Are we clear?”

Edmund swallowed hard as his eyes ticked from the glow of her unnatural gaze, down to her mouth, and then back up again. He didn’t know if she was telling the truth or not.

But he didn’t think he wanted to call her bluff.

When his silence further lingered on, the witch suddenly dug the tip of her dagger into his chest all the more until he finally bit out a brusque, “Crystalclear, sweetheart.”

At last, she smiled at him again. “Good boy,” she whispered while pressing in close to send him retreating from her person.

Step by step, the witch drove him backward, her golden eyes full of both threat and promise alike. “Now, as I was saying before I was sorudelyinterrupted—you will marry me, Edmund Hargrave. We will unite our kingdoms. And together we will lay claim to Kuni. To Elmoria. To even the Holy Lothmeeran Empire.”

When Edmund’s back finally thumped against the far wall, he dropped his fingers away from the witch’s hair and let his rapier clatter to the floor at his feet. He sought to make himself as muchof a non-threat as possible as she pinned him there, her body entirely too close for comfort.

In the wake of all her seductive declarations, though, he shot that blade of hers another glance and swiftly pointed out, “Nonsense. You’ll just…stabme with that dagger and make me into some sort of puppet, won’t you?”

Again, she smiled. “Not if you behave.”

To the Underworld with that, too.

Sucking in a breath, Edmund tried again to call for help when he bellowed out another abrupt, “Guards! Guards! I demand your presence!”

The princess’s smile never faltered while they waited together in a tense and ever-growing silence.

But as before, no one came to his aid.

“What did you do to them?” Edmund finally demanded on a low snarl.

Again, Mariana chuckled. He found it just as infuriating as he had the last time she had laughed at him. “I claimed them long ago. They’ve been mine for ages.”

Well, Edmund didn’t know what that meant. But he didn’t like the sound of it.

“And now you’re mine as well,” she continued on a breathy purr, leaning in a little closer as she did so. Like a lioness about to consume her prey.

Except Edmund wasn’t quite ready to die.

“Why me?” he asked. It was all he could think to ask as he stood there, trapped by that beautiful and utterly dangerous woman.

There were many more things heshouldhave asked, but that was the only question that came to his tongue in the moment.

Clearly, it was the right question, given the brilliance of the witch’s smile.

“Because I’ve been watching you a long time, Edmund,” she whispered, her breath bathing his face with each word spoken. “And I’ve seen that you’re just as ambitious as I am…and just as ruthless in achieving your goals.”

Edmund’s lips twisted again in response. So close to death already, he didn’t see the need to mince words with this woman. He told her plainly, “I take some issue with being compared to a witch, if we’re going to be honest with one another.”

“And yet I meant it as a compliment,” Mariana breathed.

Like grains of sand slipping through an hourglass, Edmund felt the moments of his life ticking away. Here she was, his death come for him at last.

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