Page 33 of Kiss of Ice

“Please take the leftovers and send them to the needy. From now on, the palace will not throw away good food.”

“Yes, your Majesty.”

Fourteen

“She’s so aggravating. How dare she lecture me on the problems of the empire!”

Shade made a non-committal noise as his friend paced the length of the castle library and back again. Kam had been wearing a hole in the rugs for the past hour.

“It sounds like she cares a lot for Nush’aldaam,” commented Raya.

She was curled up in an armchair, her long hair pulled into a ponytail. A book lay open on the table next to her.

The library was her favourite place in Shade’s castle.Theircastle, she amended silently. She still hadn’t got used to the fact that she, a former inmate of a secure mental hospital in the human world, was now a powerful fae married to a jinn and living in a supernatural realm.

“She’s naïve,” muttered Kam. “And she can’t possibly be that… thatinnocent.She’s Salaq’s daughter, after all.”

“A daughter we did not know he had,” Shade pointed out. “Salaq kept her away from politics and public life. Maybe she is nothing like him.”

“Oh, she’s like him all right. Stubborn, supercilious, thinks she knows it all and isn’t above bending the law to get what she wants.”

Behind his back, Shade and Raya exchanged glances.

“Look, do you think you’re being a little hard on her?” asked Raya. “It can’t be easy, having to marry a man you barely know.”

“You did,” Kam pointed out.

“No, we had a fake engagement. Very different.”

“And extremely stressful as I remember. Though not without its enjoyments.” Shade cast her a warm glance and a slow blush worked its way over her cheeks. Kam rolled his eyes.

“I didn’t come here to watch you flirt, my friend. I came to ask about the empire. How bad is it?”

“It is bad,” Shade said slowly. “The drought a few years back depleted our food stocks. Mazhab was barely functioning then and his advisors delayed the distribution of the emergency grain rations.”

“Why?”

“They were corrupt. They saw an opportunity to drive up prices. Then they sold some of the grain privately to the big landowners.”

“But that grain was specifically intended for the poor!” Kam couldn’t believe his ears. “Why the hells didn’t you tell me this when I got back?”

“You had just returned from a deeply traumatic experience, my friend. I had already fired the advisors, I did not want to place any more burdens on you than you had already endured.”

“Did you also know that in some parts of Arjhan people are getting sickle fever? Sickle fever! A disease supposedly eradicated from the city!”

“Yes. These are all things I intended to address when I became Emperor. But then you returned and I knew you would deal with it.”

Kam stared bleakly at the bookcase. A title caught his eye.The Rise and Fall of the Great Empires.How apt, he thought.

“I don’t know where to start.” His voice was bleak. “I feel like I don’t even know this place anymore.”

“Then do something about it.” Shade put a hand on his shoulder. “You are no longer a carefree prince. Nor are you the beast. You are the Emperor and it is up to you to solve the realm’s problems.”

“What if I can’t?”

“You have to. I am sorry, I know you have been through so much already. But you have to succeed because Salaq and his supporters are waiting for you to fail. Do not give them what they want.”

Kam rubbed his face tiredly.

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