Renna grins, a vision of innocence as she flutters those lashes. "Rexxan, you couldn'tpossiblyhave expected me not to have some fun with her."
Lana screeches, and it hurts my ears. "She's a witch!"
"Indeed I am," purrs Renna, summoning a small ball of fire between her hands and hovering it so close to Lana's face that her eyebrows actually start to smoke. "And this witch wants you dead.”
"She's buried her curses in your mind, King Rexxan. She's playing you like a fool!"
"You hear that, baby? She says you're playing me," I say, kissing Renna's neck from behind. Lana squirms in her chains, shuddering like watching us touching each other is causing her physical pain. Good. I’d fuck Renna in this cell if it would make the River Queen cry.
Renna laughs like the psychotic maniac she is, tipping her head to the side so I can kiss her neck again. "She's just angry because she feels like we're leaving her out of the games," says Renna, with a little pout. "So what'd you say, Rex?" She twists around to face me, a lethal glimmer in her eyes as she plucks a knife from my waist. "Shall we let her play our games?"
"I'd like nothing more, sweetheart," I reply, my hands all over her. She feels so good beneath my fingers. Lana is increasingly uncomfortable.Perfect. "So here are the rules," I say, a knife twizzling around my fingers while my other hand tugs Renna closely to my side. "We'll ask you a question. If you don't answer, you lose."
"Yeah, lose a body part," adds my deranged lover.
"What she said."
"She's casting spells on you!" Screams Lana. Again with that amazing ability to cause headaches with the tone of her voice alone.
"If I'm trapped in a spell, I don't ever want to leave," I murmur, kissing Renna again, my hand gripping her behind. Renna lets out a soft moan, opening her mouth for me slightly and Lana groans.
I'd like to spend my life with her. Why is this realisation hitting me now of all times?I want Renna to be my wife.
I drag myself back to the here and now. "Question one. Where is the stone?"
"I don't know!"
Renna doesn’t hesitate, quickly flicking a tiny, finger-sized knife that lands in Lana's arm. She screams, but no one will hear her here. "Maybe she didn't hear the rules correctly?" Suggests Renna.
This is where my girl gets her reputation from. There's a reason that Holn, Ocealia, and Espan all hire Renna to do interrogations for them. She has…limited, let’s say, moral boundaries. "Question two. Where is Kelen?"
"That'sKingKelen, to you, witch!"
"He’s a dead man walking if I ever see him again. That was a failure to answer the question," declares Renna, taking Lana’s pinkie finger between her fingers.
Lana screams. "He's on his way back to our Kingdom!" She shouts, before Renna can take her finger. Rage swells in my gut, ugly and nauseating.
"You don't have a kingdom, Lana. Not anymore. What was once your kingdom is now a seabed, and the bodies ofyourpeople line it!" I shout, gripping her by the neck of her dress.
Lana cackles coldly. "That's what you want us to think. Kelen and I found out the truth!"
"And what truth would that be?" I grip her tighter. She shakes with undiluted animosity, a hint of arrogance on her face. But in the end there will only be one winner here, and it will be me.
"You keep the Five Stones here in your kingdom!" She screams, her voice trembling in anger and her face an inch from mine. "You keep them here for the benefit ofyourpeople, harnessing the power of the five elements foryourown good! I know the truth! I. Know. The. Truth! If the River Stone was in the River Kingdom, we'd be stronger people! If the River Stone was where it belonged, we'd be richer, happier, more powerful people. But you, Forest King, keep them for yourself. We're taking the River Stone home!"
Dread sits in my gut, heavy and ugly. She's got it so, so wrong, and I have no doubt that this is a clever brainwashing plan from the South. "And who told you that little factoid?" I say, softly.
I'm going to kill her. I'm going to snap. Of all the stupid things I have heard in my time, this is the worst. Thousands dead. People lie, lifeless, at the bottom of an oversized river because she believed the first thing someone told her. "One of the king's advisors," she replies, smugly.
"Your kingdom doesn't exist anymore!" I shout, my voice hoarse. She cries out in fear, but it does not stop me. "It's under a river, you cow!”
"It's a myth!" She screams back.
I could take her eyes out, I genuinely could. In all my years, I've never felt so burning hot with rage. "Tell me where the stone is!"
"Never!"
"Rennalya, angel, have your fun," I say, dropping her and stepping back.
