Page 74 of The King's Queen

Somewhere in reality, the wind brushes against my skin, but I no longer feel its bite. Something darker calls from within my core, and I answer.

Rising from the stone, I dust myself off. The knight looks at me strangely, but even his voice is lost to the echoes of my resolution as I storm down the halls. My red cloak billows behind me.

There’s someone I need to find.

Chapter29

Verosa

Lucius is waiting in the courtyard just as I expected him to be, his form thinly veiled by the shadows of an overarching tree. The healers commissioned by the king fixed his face nicely. Anyone passing by would guess he has just stepped out from a business lunch rather than a duel to the death.

“I was beginning to wonder if you’d come at all, or if I’d have to seek you out myself.” His lips curve upwards in a small grin. A searing pain splits through my core. How easy it had been to trust him. It isn’t hard to see how when he smiles like that.

“You make it sound like I had a choice.”

The prince’s face falls immediately. “You always have a choice, Verosa. I am just an extension of you. If you were to tell me to run myself through on my own blade, I would do it!”

The sight of him groveling on his knees does not strike me as much as I had hoped it would. He does not look small. He appears larger than before. His soft tears slip into the cracks of the mask he wears, slowly chipping away at the cheap paint. No longer a demure prince, but a cunning manipulator capable of swaying an entire kingdom. It’s nearly a shame, both that he thinks he can fool be twice and that he could be a powerful ally if he didn’t choose to be my enemy.

“Drop the pretense. I just have one thing to ask you before I rid my hands of you.”

“And what might that be?”

“Why didn’t you kill him?”

“Because I love you.”

I scoff. “Save the bullshit for someone who might believe it.”

I can see now how easy it had been for him to win my trust and affection. How desperate I was for someone, anyone, to understand. I had been thrown into a political exchange where those in power viewed me as nothing more than a collateral to their plans, and there was no one who could stop it. I thought my best friend and the only one I’d ever truly loved had abandoned me when I needed him most, and I was trapped in a home by parents who never held any form of affection for me. All he had to do was say the right words, promise me freedom and choice, and I would be his.

Unfortunately for him, I am not the same girl I was when he met me. I grew to be cunning and strong, and I’ve found people who care for me on even footing. There is no power struggle with the Nightwalkers, no strings being pulled to prop me up before them. They do not own me, nor do they try to.

I can hear the prince running behind me as I walk away. How irksome it must be for him to have me slip through his fingers. How annoying it must be that I don’t need him anymore.

“You want to know what I think of you so badly?” he roars in a fury. “I think you’re a blazing fire that I can’t get close to no matter how desperately I want to. You’re an intolerable brat with a wicked tongue and flighty senses. I have this feeling that our whole lives together, I’ll be pulling carpets over scorch marks because you can’t control your temper for the sake of diplomacy. And yet you’re kind and have run yourself ragged for the sake of others. You make a place for yourself at every table. You’re the spitting image of everything I wish I was and know I cannot be. You’re burning me alive, and I could care less. I want you to engulf me whole.”

The soft breeze blows across his reddened face and brushes the stray hairs from his eyes. The noble prince protecting and proclaiming. He might as well have been pulled straight from a fairytale.

My jaw visibly slackens. I inhale deeply and ball my fists at my side before I dare to even turn towards him. His face is open and waiting as he assumes he can pacify my rage with pretty words. That churning sensation in my stomach returns.

“Are you out of your godsdamned mind? What makes you think I want you to think of me like that? Did you think that just because I agreed totryand be cordial that meant ‘take me, I’m helplessly in love with you’, or are you just deluded enough to think that I’m an easy target?”

Lucius stumbles, “P-pardon?”

“Pardon yourself when you’re king, you fucking scumbag.” I jab my finger into his chest for emphasis with each word. “Because, by the gods above, I am going to make sure you become king. And when you are the most powerful man commanding the most powerful empire, you will feel true terror. You will sleep with one eye open knowing I’m right there, just waiting, no, justdyingto kill you in the most awful way you can imagine. You wanted my love? You should have thought about that before you tried to kill my friend.”

In an instant, his aura shifts. His smile becomes a cold smirk, and his hair falls in front of his eyes to shadow his face. His shoulder square, and he looks towards me under the dip of his chin as he rises to his feet.

Taking a deep breath, I allow my feet to spread wide and shift my weight into a fighting stance. Just in case. Lucius notices with no displeasure. If anything, this is the reaction he wants.

“You have the King of Mercenaries at your back, and suddenly you grow a spine,” he sneers.

I shrug nonchalantly. “It helps, I suppose.” I figured Lucius knew who Rowan was the moment the mercenary revealed Lucius’s proposition to spy on Blaine. Lucius probably planted another spy somewhere to find out the truth while he tested Rowan’s real loyalties and what he could possibly offer to a princess. I’m sure he audited our lessons in the library as well.

Nonetheless, I can’t let him know he has the upper hand. He’s only one step from figuring out my real intentions. If I don’t discover his first, then I’ll never be free of him. I have to find Rowan, make a new plan, and potentially move up our exodus.

“If you couldn’t tell already, our agreement is off.”

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