Page 44 of Brutal Fae King
What is she capable of? I must know! I need to put her to the test sooner rather than later to know what I’m contending with—can she handle a blade? Other types of magic? I must know, but I’m waiting on Bruamin to return and report first.
I’m sizzling in frustration when a knock comes on the door:
“Bruamin?” I call.
“Er, no, Sire,” some non-descript guard replies. “Dinner is served, Sire.”
I growl at the back of my throat and stand from my desk. As I emerge from my quarters, I flinch.
She stands next to the guard, as beautiful and defiant as I saw her on our wedding night, albeit with fewer tears in her eyes.
“I… good evening,” I say.
Her eyes narrow at me. “Good evening.”
“How long were you outside my room?”
“Not long,” she answers. “Dinner had been called, so I was going down to eat.”
“Oh. That makes sense,” I reply.
The guard begins walking us down. There’s no talking for a moment—but if there’s any time to talk, it’d be now.
“I see you are making friends amongst the staff.”
“Are you about to tell me I shouldn’t?” she asks.
She looks at me sharply. I bristle from her gaze alone. I don’t say anything for a moment—what does she have to say for herself, I wonder?
“You trapped me here,” she grumbles. “You can’t stop me from being friends with anyone I want to. In fact…” She looks over and smirks “…you can’t stop me from doing anything.”
She stops walking and turns to me, arms folded.
“Now that I’m queen, you can’t stop me from doing anything,” she says. “You said we share the throne, so things are going to change around here.”
My skin prickles more.
“We may share the throne, but you have yet to do anything with your status as queen other than take advantage,” I growl. “You have yet to perform any duties reminiscent of a queen, so I don’t appreciate any smugness from you. Perform some queenly duties, and then you may have earned some arrogance.”
Her emerald eyes are flinty when she glares at me again.
“What do you mean queenly duties?!”
It takes me a moment to realize what could have been interpreted from that, but I keep strong. Don’t show her any weakness. She scoffs. I sneer back.
“What I mean is that you don’t seem to understand what being queen entails. It doesn’t mean you do anything you want.” I walk closer to her and lean down, close to her face. “It doesn’t mean I can’t do anything to stop you if I have to. This ismykingdom still. And you aremywife.”
She just glares at me.
“I agreed to share the throne,” I growl. “I didn’t agree to your flouncing around, taking advantage of what I’ve already built.”
She folds her arms.
“Then you shouldn’t have kidnapped me,” she grumbles. “Ididn’t want to be here—you forced me to be!”
“I had to in order to keep the kingdom from falling,” I snap back. “That prophecy doesn’t give you permission to run rampant.”
“You do,” she snaps back. “You do whatever you want.”
