“He is making the mistake of assuming you’re a vital instrument of mine. In a Naiad war he’s not supposed to know I’m planning.”
I gave a disbelieving laugh. “Are you accusing me of giving him that impression on purpose? I’ve only spoken to him once. For not even a full minute.”
Thaan stepped closer, and I suffocated the urge to recede into the wall. “Why have you notcordaedto the prince?”
“Because it is my choice,” I sneered at him.
He held the letter higher. “Not because you are saving yourcordaefor someone else?”
“Because you were too stupid to include acorda-cruorwith Nikolaos in my contract. You only wrote I had to marry him. And because you didn’t, I get to chose when and to whom I willcordaemyself with.”
His expression twisted, lips hinting at a smile as he scrutinized me, though watching him only sent a shudder down my spine. “I think you havecordaed. Your scent is all over the human, and he uses your name like a prized possession.”
“Force the answer from me, then,” I mocked. “Though I can tell you we have not, and I can tell you why.” Thaan’s brows raised slightly, unimpressed, and I pressed on. “I know you want to control Calder. I know the King is either mad or will be soon. I know he’s a liability to whatever you’re planning for your colony. And I know that, for whatever reason, Prince Hadrian cannot beincanted.”
I pointed a finger at him, throwing my hair from my face with a jerk of my chin so that I could see him fully. “I know you pit Nikolaos and I against each other last summer. Like two spiders in a jar, shaking us up to watch us fight so that I wouldn’t realize Kye never agreed to marry me. And I know what we would be to you if we mated. A means to manipulate each of us through the other. I’d thought you were mated with Selena once. But that’show you use her, isn’t it? That’s why I heard a man in your rooms. Who is he?”
Thaan watched me with the smallest smile until I mentioned Selena’s name. His lips twitched as his smile fell, eyes hardening and flashing as though he suddenly fought to control his anger. I remembered the slap he’d sent into me in the captain’s cabin of theAspireand ground my jaws together, waiting for it again. Cain stood, watching us both, his mouth a hard line. Thaan’s body fizzled with unsung fury, and he tamped it down, teeth gnashing as he seethed at me. "It seems you know it all, then."
"Not exactly," I taunted. "I don't know why you wrote my contract to end when I became queen, if you insist on Hadrian's death while your plans to keep me in line and tied to Calder hinge on Kye ascending to the throne. Seems like a sloppy mistake for someone who calculates every move."
"How unfortunate for you," he said slowly. "Are youcordaed?"
"What are you planning to do with Kye between Hadrian's death and the king's?"
“Maren of Leihani,” Thaan said in a breathless whisper. “I call to your blood.”
I opened my mouth to sneer at him more, but my lips wouldn’t move. They fused shut, along with every muscle and bone in my body. As though my skin had hardened to stone, leaving me trapped inside. The blanket around my shoulders slipped to the floor as I pushed on my own walls, a bolt of panic striking through my marrow.
They didn’t budge. Nothing budged.
The harder you fight, the harder I grasp you,Thaan’s words stabbed into my thoughts, and I realized with horror they were in my mind.The more it will hurt when I let you go.
I couldn’t help it. My pushing became shoving, banging, fists pounding on the walls of my hide. Nothing. My body didn’tmove. I didn’t even flinch. I screamed in desperate fury, but the sound never escaped my mouth.
“Have you coupled with the prince?” Thaan asked, watching as I shook and raged inside myself.
“No,” my mouth said.
At the word, Thaan's indifferent stature liquified into malice, and I knew as he stalked forward to gaze at me fully, the sharp edge of punishment loomed through his voice.
“I could order it,” he said. “In this state, I could demand anything from you.”
My inner mind slowed its attack on my own body.Good luck,I spat, unable to say the words out loud.You won’t convince Kye to mate with me. He won’t do it. He refuses.
Thaan smiled. “Is that true?”
“Yes,” my mouth said again.
“So, you’ve tried, and he’s rejected you?” Thaan laughed. “How interesting. Well, I have good news for you, Maren.”
The door swung open. Kye stood on the other side, the alarm in his eyes at finding us evaporating in an instant as he realized who occupied the room as I stood like the undead, backed into the wall. Heat blasted from him, a hand already stretched over his shoulder to grasp his hilt.
“The beauty of good timing,” Thaan said, clasping his hands together as Kye stepped into the room.
Kye ignored him. “Leihani, come here.”
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak. Couldn’t even shift my eyes to fully look at him.
