“We’re so eager to learn what you know, Princess Avery. Let’s not keep your mother waiting any longer.”
Kellan dragged me into the throne room, where my mother sat upon my father’s old throne. The evil witch that had taken the forbidden book from me stood at her side on the dais. The sight of it was nauseating—how had everything come to this?
Once I was at the room’s center, my mother stood as her eyes drifted to Kellan. “Why is my daughter in cuffs, Adler?” she demanded.
“It was a bit difficult to get her here. It seems she has had some…training since you’ve last seen her, Your Grace.”
My stare wandered up to his cheek, that still had a pink tinge to it, and I grinned.
“Take the cuffs off of her. Now.” My mother’s voice echoed through the room.
Without a second of hesitance, Kellan took a step behind me and unlocked the metal bindings. I pulled my arms to my front and rubbed the bruising, aching skin of my wrists.
“My darling daughter, I am so glad to have you back home where you belong.” She was staring down at me, wearing an obviously forced smile on her face.
“This is not my home. It hasn’t been in a long time,” I said, and her fake smile dropped.
I knew I should keep this next part to myself, but seeing her in person again made every bit of anger I felt toward my own flesh and blood rise to the very surface. “Not since youmurderedour father.”
The queen’s lips parted, and she sucked in a breath. “I don’t know what it is that youthinkyou know, Avery,but—”
“But nothing, Mother. Finnian and I heard you that day in your chambers speaking with Kai and Callius.Youkilled the king. You killed the father of two of your children. All so you could take the throne for yourself!”
She took a single step down from the dais, fury swirling in her amber eyes. Kellan took a few steps out to the side of me, steering clear of her wrath.
“Do you mean the father of all of my children?” She cocked her head to the side.
“I do not.” I held my ground, even though fear was slipping its way into me beneath her blazing stare.
“And what exactly do you mean by this, my daughter?”
“Kai was not King Jameson’s son, but your personal guard’s. He was not the rightful heir, and Elianna Valderre is. That’s why you hated her all these years. That’s why Father kept her so close. Andthatis why you killed him.”
“I don’t know why you would ever think that Kai is not the kin of your father, Avery…”
“I have my suspicions.” My lips snarled.
She clasped her arms behind her back as she descended the rest of the dais and made her way toward me.
“Your loyalty remains with the bastard heir, it still seems,” she said. “Yes, you and Elianna share the blood of Jameson, but what of your brother? The one that shemurdered!”
“Kai received the fate he deserved. He was a tyrant, just as you are, who would have doomed the realm.”
She stormed up to me then and smacked me across the face so hard that it sent me stumbling back. I liftedmy stare back to her, my cheek feeling as if flames were dancing on it.
“He was your brother!”
“And King Jameson was my father!”
Her jaw locked as she stared at me and took a few steps back.
“Your half-sister is not as bright as she pretends to be. She thought she could waltz in here and steal more of my citizens, turning them into treasonous traitors against their own queen? A pathetic attempt, really. Azenna shielded the city the moment we became allies.”
My eyes drifted over my mother’s shoulder and to the witch that remained standing atop the dais, staring down at us.
“You speak of your citizens as if they are cattle that belong to you,” I stated as my gaze wandered back to the queen.
“They may as well be. They are here to serve those who sit upon the throne.”
