Page 26 of The Crowned Queen

Before she knew it, the spoon clinked against the bottom of the bowl. Jaxon reached out, pulling the tray away and sliding a steaming cup of tea toward her.

“It’s not the dampening blend,” Jaxon said when she hesitated, his dark eyes unreadable. “You don’t need that now.”

Araya took the cup, her hands shaking. Tea sloshed over the edge as she lifted it to her lips, but it was just tea. The same blend Jaxon had always preferred, brewed strong and rich. It scalded her tongue, but she swallowed anyway. And the bond stayed where it was, wrapped so tightly around her heart that they would have to kill her to cut it free.

“What are you going to do to me?” she whispered.

“To you?” Jaxon laughed. “Nothing.” He poured a second cup for himself, leaning back in his chair with a grin. “My father and High Inquisitor Pryce are far more interested in your prince right now. You’re just the key to getting him where he needs to be.”

Key. The word was a knife in her heart. Confirmation of everything she’d feared—they were going to use her. She was the bait that would lure him back into their clutches. The weakness they’d exploit to break him. And this time⁠—

This time they’d succeed.

“You don’t have to worry about him anymore.” Jaxon added a generous splash of milk to his own tea, the spoon clinking against the cup as he stirred. “Your connection to him doesn’t have to define you, Araya. Not when we have our own bond.”

He turned his hand over, exposing the rune at his wrist. Araya stared at it, watching it shimmer in the light. For something so monstrous it was remarkably small and plain. Nothing like what they had carved into her flesh.

“I’ll help you remember,” he continued, pouring her a second cup of tea like this was any ordinary morning. “You don’t need him. You never did. I’m the one who’s always understood you—your power, your brilliance. We could do great things together, Starling. We will do great things together, once you stop fighting me.”

Araya’s heartbeat pounded in her ears, Jaxon’s words blurring together into the same calm, coaxing rhythm he’d always used to smother her doubts. The same tone that had made her second-guess herself after every argument and quiet cruelty.

“Jaxon—” she started.

Someone rapped on the door.

Jaxon straightened, his face falling back into the perfect mask of bored authority. “Let him in,” he called.

One of the guards opened the door, letting Kai into the room. He looked exhausted, dark circles shadowing his eyes. But they brightened when he saw her, his head jerking up.

“You’re awake.”

“No thanks to you.” Araya shoved back from the table, sending tea sloshing across the white cloth. “Did you come back to finish the job?”

“Manners, Starling,” Jaxon chided.

“No—” Kai shook his head, waving Jaxon off. “Of course she’s angry, Jaxon. How would you feel?”

“Grateful someone cared enough about me to protect me from myself?” Jaxon arched an eyebrow. “Relieved that I was going to live a life of luxury when most fae rot in the slums⁠—”

“A life as your pet is no life,” Araya snapped. “I don’t want him in here. I don’t want you in here. Get out and leave me alone.”

Jaxon clicked his tongue, rising to his feet. “That’s not how you speak to guests, Starling. And that’s certainly not how you speak to me.” His voice shifted, laden with power. “Kai needs to examine your runes. Strip.”

Araya froze. The runes on her chest tingled, magic gathering in her veins. It burned, a cold sweat breaking out on her skin and tears pricking her eyes.

“That’s really not necessary,” Kai said quickly. “You know proper wound care well enough⁠—”

“It isn’t about the runes,” Jaxon snapped. “It’s about her learning her place.”

Tears streaked Araya’s cheeks, magic banding around her frantically beating heart like iron wire. This wasn’t the compulsion Loren had tried to teach her to fight. That had been an outside force, something she could fight and rail against. This—this was her own magic, turned against her.

Her knees hit soft carpet, every breath sawing in and out of her lungs. She closed her eyes, trying to imagine that she was somewhere, anywhere else as her fingers closed around the hem of her shift. The pain ebbed, cold air pricking her skin as she drew the shift up and over her head.

“There you are,” Jaxon crooned. His fingers gripped her chin, hot against her skin as she forced her gaze up to meet his. “She’s so pretty when she cries, isn’t she?”

“I—” Kai stammered, his gaze fixed somewhere on the ceiling. But whatever he’d been about to say was lost in the shrill screech of a perimeter rune. “What is that?”

“Nothing.”