He chuckled dryly before his chest spasmed with a fit of coughing. His lungs sounded wet, like infection was setting in, and I cringed involuntarily.
“Kind of you to finally see us, Your Majesty,” he sneered, and I frowned.
“I . . . I don’t understand? I’m not a queen?—”
“But you will be. It’s what you always wanted, isn’t it?” A female voice cut through my statement, just as imperious as I remembered, even if it was dry and quiet.
Mother.
“You always wanted to be important, to bevalued. Well, here you are now,daughter,” she sneered the word like it was something dirty.
My heart pounded in my chest as tears came unbidden to the corners of my eyes.
After all this time away, her words still could cut me to the core.
I felt Alois kneel next to me, his strong hands lifting me up to my feet before he grasped my waist. As much as I despisedhim, in this moment, I relished the strength he lent me. When he went to remove his hands, I covered them with my own, pressing them tighter to my skin.
Alois’ fingers flexed, but he left them where I wanted. I dropped my hands from his and returned my gaze to my parents.
“Look at you, the Warlord’s whore,” Mother sneered, her skeletal face pressed against the front bars of the cage, bony fingers wrapped around the metal bars.
I shook my head. “No.Youractions, your alliance with the rebellion put me in this position. Your inability to tell me your plans allowed for this to happen.”
But it was like my mother didn’t hear me.
Maybe she never did.
“Where is your brother? Where is my Peytor?” Her eyes were feverish as she begged the woman she just called a whore for information about her favorite child.
For the first time in my life, I ignored my mother’s pleas and turned toward my father.
My mother’s deception, I almost could have predicted, but my father? He wanted the best for Hestin and his family, yes, but I was always under the impression that he loved us completely and utterly.
Was that all a lie?
“Father—why are you in here?” I asked, voice hard and unyielding. I pushed aside my emotions, boxed them away just like I did in Hestin. The box was dusty, the hinges creaky from disuse.
How far I’ve come since I left Katiska.
My father sighed, leaning his head against the iron bars. “You know the answer to that question, Ellowyn. For all your flaws, you’re smarter than that. How about you ask the question, youreallywant to ask?”
I chewed my lip in thought.
“Why did Alois take me to see you?”
“It’s Alois now?” My mother’s voice snaked through the room and my father made no move to silence her. “Of course it is. You’ve spread your legs and bought every word he sold you, didn’t you? Iwarnedyou, you ungrateful?—”
“Acantha,” I snapped, my voice a cold whip. “You will hold your tongue or I will have my husband remove it.”
Her mouth snapped closed immediately and a sinister grin spread across her face. She looked like she wanted to say more, but instead she slunk away from the bars and retreated as far as she could into the back corner of her cage. My mother curled herself into a ball, back to Alois and me, effectively dismissing our presence.
“That was particularly savage,” Alois whispered into my ear, but I batted him away.
“Why did Alois bring me here to you? I’m certain it wasn’t to be abused,” I addressed my father again, and Alois squeezed my hips in approval.
My father’s head lolled against the bar before his gaze came to rest on the two of us.
“Does it matter? Anything I was planning is now, obviously, defunct.” He gestured one hand lazily at Alois and me.
