Page 15 of The King's Queen

I blink in shock before bursting into laughter. She looks at me in confusion and frowns, yanking her chin from my grip. She’s also very naïve, I suppose.

“What’s so funny?” she demands, crossing her arms across her chest and rocking back on her heels. I note that some color has returned to her face, no doubt a haze of embarrassment.

“I thought purebloods were supposed to be educated?” I chuckle softly. “But clearly someone has purposely kept you under a rock. No, he couldn’tsmellit. He has human senses just like you. Besides, he couldn’t harm you, let alone kill you. Not without dark magic.”

“What? How was that other man able to cut me then?” she asks, her eyebrow furrowed in a confused frown. Her fingertips ghost the laceration across her neck, now expertly bandaged.

“That blade was enchanted with dark magic by a very powerful sorceress. But without it, he couldn’t have killed you.”

“Why not?” She leans forward now, her shoulders trembling slightly. Aiko edges closer, eyeing her with warm concern.

“Eager for the sweet kiss of death?” I laugh, then yelp as Aiko elbows my gut with the precision of a scorpion.

“Those who are blessed cannot be killed by most mortal means,” the woman explains. “Except for by age, illness, another blessed one, or dark magic. Dark magic is the only way for one who is cursed to kill someone who is blessed, but the cost is very steep.”

“What is it?”

Aiko pauses and looks towards me for a moment with pain in her eyes. A silent caress of pity for something I am yet to be aware of.

“Their mind,” she says slowly. “It was Deungrid’s way to protect his descendants from those of Raonkin. Cursed kin are clever. Their wits are the strongest weapon in their arsenal. It is beyond precious to them, and if they were to raise hands against those blessed by the light…”

“They would lose that which they valued most,” I finish for her. Aiko swallows deeply, her throat bobbing with the effort and she nods in appreciation. I’ll be sure to ask her about that later.

“And what of you all? What are you?” The question is worded bluntly, and I pretend not to notice her hand snaking backwards. Not to mention the way her eyes drift towards the window, the stairs, the door behind her. Eyeing every exit.

“We are blessed,” Aiko answers as I open my mouth, before continuing softly. “All of us.”

Her hands clasp together in front of her, and she smiles, her voice sweet and low. The hum of a mother. Vera nods but misses that one nervous tell. Aiko fiddles with her hands when she lies.

“Can I trust you?” Vera whispers, almost inaudible.

“Yes.” From me it would’ve been a lie, but Aiko takes both her hands in her own and squeezes them firmly. A promise, and only once in all my time of knowing her has this woman broken a promise.

“I’m engaged.” Vera lowers her chin in shame, her bangs forming a curtain between her and the rest of us. “That’s why I’m running. My- the king arranged it as a prosperous treaty between us and another land. I don’t want- I can’t… I can’t be tied down to a man I don’t know. Not yet.”

Aiko nods her head in understanding. The new boots, the fight in Belam. We are dealing with a guilty runaway who has been preened her whole life for this once alliance. Who has the guts to turn away from it all, or the selfishness. I haven’t decided how I feel about this yet.

“How do we help you?” Aiko brushes the young woman’s hair from her eyes and tucks it gingerly behind her ear. I have to look away when she leans into the touch, it feels too personal.

“I can’t go back.”

“Well, you’re not capable of living on your own, and you’re sure as hell not staying here,” I scoff, rising to my feet. Finneas steps forward and offers Vera his hand and arm to lean on as she tries to get up again. She obliges and opens her mouth in protest when Finneas cuts her off.

“He’s right. If you stayed here, we would harbor you, but you’d be a fugitive and they’d find you easily. We are only a half hour walk from the outer circle of the palace. And you have clearly shown you have no survival skills on your own… sorry.” He apologizes when her glare shifts to him. “I’m not saying you can’t stay; the choice is yours completely. But you must be prepared to survive on your own, or else you’ll get caught, killed, or worse.”

Vera’s shoulders slump in defeat, and a spark of pity lights in my chest. I am quick to smother that ember. I won’t get involved, not when I have so much riding on my shoulders already. And Kya…

Her gaze drifts to me, and I can practically see the gears shifting in her head.

“You can train me.”

“Ha!” I gasp out a laugh. “And why would I help a good for nothing brat who can’t even clean up her own messes?”

“Why not? You clearly know how to survive on your own, and I’m a noble with access to the palace. Surely there must be something I can offer you.”

Unabashed bribery. I smirk at that. If she were less of mollycoddled brat, she might’ve fit in well with us.

But then a thought crosses my mind. A fleeting and potentially foolish thought, but it might work out well for me in the end. And for my mother. Aiko stirs beside me as if she knows what has passed into my head, as if she plans to speak out against it. I speak first.

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