Page 19 of Artemysia
Riev’s eyes flick toward me as he takes his seat.
The colonel seated closest to me leans away in a too-obvious attempt to move out from under the direct gaze of the angry assassin in the room. His plan backfires when Riev shifts his attention to him, and the older man chokes on his cigar, coughing as if jabbed in his paunchy gut.
Riev replies to the king with a low snarl. “No. Galke, I refuse. Iwill nottake Captain Julian through Artemysia. This plan is as shitty as Colonel Jorgen’s breath.”
“I’m on the verge of violence again.” - Riev
Silence falls over the war room for a beat, offering me sweet relief from these assholes’ worthless opinions. All eyes are drawn to the crack in the table left by my dagger jamming into the colonel’s finger as if it were a spoiled piece of meat that needed to be excised. The crimson stain is still wet.
In another beat, everyone starts to yell over each other.
I tip back in my chair and fold my arms across my chest, my anger simmering down to a low boil, tempered by my delight over the chaos I’ve triggered. Fuck Colonel Jorgen. He doesn’t know shit. He had it coming.
I can’t help but watch Delphine, her silver hair woven with black ribbons, her rosy cheeks blotched while her large brown eyes flare at me in disbelief. She looks like a fucking angel.
A pissed-off one.
One who I can still imagine tasting on my lips. Herkiss was unlike any other. Soft. Affectionate. Unafraid.
Real.
But right now, her scathing glare pins me to my chair. She looks like she has half a mind to haul out the two short swords sheathed next to her shapely ass, if only to carve my head off.
It’s all very distracting…and more interesting than anything else in this useless meeting.
She presses on. “Throgmorton and I accept—”
“But Riev, you agreed—” a colonel sputters, cut off when I snarl at him.
“Doesrefusemean something else in another language you think I’m speaking?” My palm goes to my temple in an attempt to scrub away the anger. I’m on the verge of violence again.
The imposing ogre next to Delphine smirks. At least he appreciates my wit.
King Galke slams his fist on the table. The crack as his knuckles hit the wood renders the room silent.
Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I’d see the king lose his shit. While I’ve never been called to Stargazer until now, Galke has traveled to Academy outposts. In the twenty years I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him break.
Not when I slit the throat of an assailant charging at him with a knife, who blamed him for the death of his family by Syf.
Not when he discovered his best colonel had plotted against him.
Not even when his carriage was attacked by a band of Syf and his fiancée, murdered.
He had me, and I took care of the perpetrators.
When he lifts his fist and extends his fingers, blood oozes from his broken skin. He winces.
The situation must be dire.
There’s a bit of pride swelling in my chest that I’ve been the cause of two bloodstains on the war room table in the last ten minutes.
“Riev, may I askwhyyou refuse?” His jaw clenches before he reverts to the calm, kingly demeanor befitting the crown he wears.
Smug prick.
The king and colonels may pretend to care about my opinion, but only because they need me to do their dirty work for them. Otherwise,it’s easier for the king to give his bloody orders from afar, to keep me faceless and rankless and operating outside official capacity.
I let out a sigh, paired with a hard roll of my eyes, hoping they’ll get stuck in that position so I don’t have to see any of these fuckers anymore.
