Page 12 of Brutal Fae King
She is enchanting. I’ll give her that.That’s what makes her so dangerous.
Her green eyes are just as flinty as they were before. She says nothing, but her defiant gaze speaks for her.
“If you are finished, then there are some more tasks for you,” I say. “Unless you’d rather share a meal andconversationwith me?”
The woman’s nose pinches up. She stands and sweeps her hands over her dress to clean them off. Then she walks up, almost chest to chest with me.
“What’s your next task for me?” she spits at me.
Feisty woman…I chuckle lightly. Then I reach my toe out and tip over the bucket with my foot.
“You don’t seem to have finished yet,” I tell her. “Come find the guards when you are.”
She growls a little under her breath, then sinks back down to her knees.
***
A few days later, the damn woman still hasn’t broken. It doesn’t seem like there’s any task she can be given that will be too much for her. She takes even the nastiest tasks in stride and refuses any semblance of conversation. She receives low-quality gruel—and not that much of it—for every meal and is never tempted by rare meats and wine. She is kept isolated for hours at a time, with every person forbidden to speak to her, and yet she still does not want to speak to me.
Her resilience is another thing to be begrudgingly admired, but I am beginning to wonder what can be done to make her talk. Torture is not effective, and the witch has indeed clarified that she must not be killed. Perhaps a few guards should be sent back to her village—something there could help… persuade her. I remember they said something about a sister, but they did not take her because she was on her deathbed… If the sister is alive still…
A knock lands on my door.
“Sire?” It’s my lord-in-waiting.
“Come in, Bruamin,” I answer.
Bruamin walks into my quarters. It feels like every time I lay eyes on him, I remember the young man from my childhood, not the elderly man he is now. He bows lightly, and now I see the strain on his back.
“It is getting late, Sire,” he says.
“It is…” I murmur.
And then it hits me; I have given this woman every humiliating task to think of to make her finally tell me her secrets. Except for that…
“Sire?” my lord-in-waiting asks.
“Bruamin, you may go fetch the usurper and then retire for the evening,” I tell him.
“The usurper?” he asks. “Are you sure, Sire?”
“I am,” I reply.
“Are you going to be safe, having that dangerous woman up here?” Bruamin asks.
I look over to him. Then I smile.
“I’ll be fine. She’s not practiced enough with her powers yet,” I assure him.
My lord-in-waiting gives me a worried look. He bows his head to me and then turns and leaves the room.
It takes a long time, but eventually, a demure little knock hits my door.
“Enter,” I order.
The usurper walks in. with her gaze down but her chin proudly up. Her dress is the same one she was wearing when doing all the chores, so it still carries its stains. Again, it does nothing to hide her beauty at all.
When she walks into my room, she breaks into a sneer.
