Page 78 of A War of Crowns

His stepmother, two years his junior.

Aldric turned his head to the side and spat on the floor, trying to rid himself of the foul taste Charlotte’s nearness brought to his mouth.

“As charming as ever, I see,” the temptress hissed from the darkness.

“Ah, Mother. Excellent timing. Aldric?”

Aldric looked back to his brother so he could include Edmund in the disdain blazing its way through his body.

Edmund chuckled. “No need to look at me like that. Mother simply has a present for you.” His brother’s lips curled into an infuriatingly bright smile. “Why don’t you fetch it from her?”

“I would rather eat glass,” Aldric dully intoned.

Charlotte was quick to threaten, “That can certainly be arranged.”

“Behave, the both of you.” Edmund waved his free hand between them. “Mother, give him the box.”

For a few moments, Charlotte but stood there, frozen in place, glaring at him all the while. But finally, she stalked forward and extended the box his way.

Aldric reluctantly snatched it from her hands and looked back to Edmund. A sudden weariness settled across his shoulders while he waited for his brother to explain what part the box was meant to play in the bloody business he had been tasked with.

Perhaps he was meant to beat the beautiful queen over the head with it.

“Now then,” Edmund drawled. “You are going to be a good little Crow and marry the queen. You are going to be crowned King of Elmoria. And then you will use”—his brother flicked a glance toward the box—“thatwhen the time is right.”

A whisper of dread skimmed across the back of Aldric’s neck at his brother’s latter words. When he finally opened the box to peek within, he understood why.

Aldric released a hiss of breath and let the box tumble from his hands.

“Be careful with that, you stunted buffoon,” Charlotte snapped when the box clattered to the ground.

But he ignored her. “Where did you get that?” Aldric asked his brother instead.

Edmund merely smiled again. “Never you mind that. Simply use it when the time is right.”

“No,” Aldric snarled as he took a step backward from the discarded box. But even at that distance, his danger sense still clanged, warning him to flee. “I will not carry that…thingwith me.”

Edmund’s latest smile died a swift death. “Surely you are not testing me again, Crow. I had hoped you were smarter than that.”

Charlotte didn’t miss her opportunity to offer a sweet utterance of, “A hope clearly in vain, darling.”

Aldric shot her a venomous look. But when next he spoke, his words were for Edmund alone when he warned, “She will never agree. This queen. You’ve set the price too high.”

He recalled the way Seraphina de la Croix had looked at him beneath the darkness of the trees, a blade in her hand. Her grip on the dagger had been all wrong. And she had been bluffing with her threat of violence.

But the hatred shining from within her eyes had been real enough.

“You underestimate that woman’s desperation,” Edmund sighed with a wave of his hand. “She will agree. She will agree because we are giving her no other choice. And when she does…” His brother leveled a flat look his way. “You will do your duty.Killthe de la Croix woman and take Elmoria for House Hargrave. Keep the throne warm for one of my future sons.” Edmund laughed. “There is no need to sire any of your own.”

“As if anyone would even wish to aid in such an odious task,” Charlotte hissed, always so eager to prick him with the sharp edge of her words.

But those particular barbs didn’t sting the way she no doubt hoped they would. Aldric had resigned himself to that fate long ago—dying a forever bachelor with no children to his name.

What woman would ever wish to resign herself to such a fate? Being the wife of a monstrous, little thing like him?

He had embraced loneliness long ago. All hopes of love he had buried in his youth. But now he realized the Lord on High had a much crueler fate in store for him.

Aldric swallowed hard and glanced back to the box now lying at his feet. With the lid partially cracked, he could see the dark glint of the dagger housed within.

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