Pride, knowing him. He needs to prove her wrong before he grants her deepest wish.
Absently, I rub the aching scar on my forearm. It stings and pulls as if there’s something crawling beneath my skin. There’s no relief when I scrape my blunt nails over the rough fabric. I keep doing it anyway.
It’s one thing to rip my own heart out and stomp on it, to leave a gaping hole in my chest. I’ve lived without love. I can do it again.
But I hadn’t counted on Briar’s whisperedI love you.I don’t know what to do with it. But what once seemed unthinkable is now the only path forward.
Come hell or high water, I’m taking Briar away. Tonight. I’ll take her back to that castle and we’ll hide there among the monsters I once swore to eradicate.
If she’s not too terrified of them to come with me.
“Not. You.” The crone presses her wrinkled face to the bars, glaring at the prince. “Arrogant fool. You cannot break her curse, or mine. Only by embracing true love’s power can awaken the part of her that yet slumbers.”
Alistair rolls his eyes. “Do you ever listen to yourself, old woman? You rave like a senile, hopeless romantic.”
“I am not senile!” Queen Isadora protests indignantly. “I’m sharp as a tack! I had to be to evade being devoured by monsters for a century. Let’s see how sane you are after being torn apart by a harpy. Digested, shat out, and reconstituted, worse for the experience!”
I can’t say I’d have come through that experience entirely sane, either. I crouch beside the bars. She puts her back to them.
“What will happen when Briar awakens in truth?”
Did it happen today, with the dragon?
“The specifics of her curse died out with my generation. We never had all the details, what with the way Isanthia abandoned her. Their royal family urged us to send her away, too, but my fool of a son refused to see reason, just as my fool of a great-grandson won’t.”
“I can hear you,” Alistair fumes. “Your disrespect will not be tolerated.”
Queen Isadora ignores him. He’s already imprisoned the crone and threatened to kill her; he’s used up all his leverage, and she is in a mood to speak her mind. “All we ever knew was that she was cursed to be a legendary beauty, and that her curse was balanced by the fearsome fae beasts that are drawn to her.” Her eyes fasten on me. “I did not expect for you to be?—”
I lift one finger to my lips. Alistair, sulking with his arms crossed over his chest and anxious to get out of this depressing place, is too busy eyeing the exit to notice. The queen understands my silent warning and adjusts mid-sentence.
“For you to be the ones who awakened her,” Isadora finishes. “The fae gods work in strange ways.”
“Get up, Kill,” snaps Alistair. “I find your company offensive to the olfactory. Especially down here with both of you polluting the stale air.”
“I could use a bath,” complains Isadora. “Do you know the last time I had a hot soak?”
Alistair ignores her howls of protest that chase us up the stairwell. By the time we’ve reached his trophy room, her shouts are inaudible. The room is as soundproof as it is airless.
“At least give the woman what she wants, Alistair. She’s your ancestor. Do one nice thing to make up for the fact that you’re forcing her to spend her final moments in a dank cell.”
Alistair gives me an irritated glare.
“Kill, I have a smashed ballroom to repair, harpies rampaging, a dragon sighting to contend with, and my wedding is tomorrow. I do not have time for an old woman’s demand for a gods-damned bath. That would involve servants. It invites questions. I already had to slit the throats of the two guards who brought her down here, on top of all the men I lost during the attack today. If you feel so strongly that Queen Isadora deserves a nice hot treat, then you be the one to drag a tub and hot water down there.”
He smacks my chest lightly.
“Get yourself cleaned up first. That’s an order, Kill. Understand?”
Fucking prick. I turn away, but he stops me in my tracks.
“I can’t have my groomsman reeking of blood and battle at my wedding. Get your uniform polished up and pristine for tomorrow.”
Twist the knife, why don’t you.
“No.”
I can’t do it. I won’t.
