Page 50 of The Crownless Prince

Adriana sighed. “Do we have to yet? I’m so comfy…”

“Think how much more pleasant this will be once Thorne is dealt with once and for all,” Marcus pointed out as he scooted away from her. He fished his clothes off the floor and started dressing, stopping to lift an eyebrow at Adriana, who hadn’t moved. “So just the bed was comfortable? And here I thought it was me.”

She smiled, one side of her lips pulling up slightly higher than the other. “No, I’m enjoying the view.”

“Mmm, no flirting when we have things to do,” he said with a laugh.

Sighing, Adriana pushed off the bed and pulled her dress back on, although she didn’t bother with tying on the drapey part of the sleeves. “Do up the laces for me, please?” she asked as she came around to his side of the bed and turned her back to him.

“Of course…how do I do this?”

She laughed. “Start at the top and work down, pulling the excess tight.”

“Got it—”

A pounding on the door made the wood shake. Adriana sucked in a breath, and Marcus went rigid. This wasn’t the plan—not the “if all goes well” plan, at least.

“Open this door!” King Mortimer’s voice roared from the hall.

Adriana looked at him over her shoulder, and he found his own panic reflected in her eyes. Thisdefinitelywasn’t the plan.

With a splintering of wood, the door burst apart. Thorne barged inside, his half-reptilian face contorted in fury. He must have awoken from the magical sleeping draught Marcus had slipped into Thorne’s drink—and then somehow escaped the ropes that Edwin had so securely tied.

Marcus shoved Adriana back and stepped in front of her. He would not let that monster touch her.

“Nothing illicit between you and the princess, was it?” Thorne snarled. He seized Marcus by the throat and dragged him forward while Adriana screamed for him to stop.

King Mortimer and Prince Jairus entered, Jairus looking alarmed and Mortimer appearing as if steam were about to pour from his ears.

“As I suspected!” Thorne threw Marcus to the ground before the king. “After conspiring with the princess and hiding in my chamber to curse me when I arrived with my bride, this miscreant servant took the princess and came here and had his way with her!”

Coughing, Marcus pushed to his knees. “That’s not—”

“Silence!” Thorne grabbed a fistful of Marcus’s long hair. “With your permission, Your Majesty, I’d like to behead this depraved servant of mine—”

“No!” Adriana rushed at Lucien, but Jairus intercepted her and held her back.

“I suspect his death will break the vile curse he’s placed on me,” Thorne declared.

“I’d like to hear Marcus and Adriana’s side of the story,” Jairus said, his tone icy.

Thorne laughed and gave another eye-watering tug on Marcus’s hair. “You’ll accept the word of a base servant and a woman above that of a lord?”

“You’re right,” Jairus said. Adriana started to protest, but he cut her off. “If we’re giving greater weight to an individual’s testimony based on rank, I say again—I wish to hear Prince Marcus Alimer’s side of the story.”

King Mortimer’s face turned a darker shade of red, almost purplish. “You… I should have known.”

Thorne’s grip on his hair lessened. “What?”

“I didn’t serve in the Alimer household,” Marcus said. “I am Marcus Alimer, youngest son of Prince Arlius Alimer. Lord Thorne’s story is a complete fabrication, and I can prove it.”

He raised his chin, attempting to appear regal and confident despite kneeling on the floor while Thorne grasped his hair. “But I refuse to say another word until we have an audience, including the knights and ladies who served as the wedding party escort, as I claim the rightto a public hearing.”

Mortimer scowled. “You concealed your identity to infiltrate my castle, curse my guest, and steal my daughter—”

“I didn’t curse…” Marcus shook his head. “As I said. I invoke the right to a public hearing for personal grievances that affect or involve the liege lord and will not say more—”

“You’d have to be my subject to invoke that right.”

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