Page 62 of How to Claim A Shadow King

The Duchess of Stormspire has officially left the castle. The utter entitlement radiating off these two overgrown man-child deities has incinerated my patience and sanded off the etiquette lessons.

Hash’s eyebrows are practically in his hairline.

I slowly set my teacup back down onto its saucer.

The porcelain makes a crystal-clear clink that somehow cuts right through the brothers' obnoxious laughter. They both stop, turning toward me.

"Is something bothering you, Duchess?" Valen asks.

"I am simply sitting here," I begin, my voice dropping into an icy register that I perfected at age twelve, "marveling at how two supposed gods possess the collective intellect of a pair of concussed stable boys."

The dining hall goes violently silent.

The castle floor shakes slightly… and I can tell it’s amused.

I let my smile widen.

Hash purses his lips, looking for all the world like he’s trying not to laugh.

Cern’s fork stops halfway to his mouth.

Valen’s rakish smirk vanishes. Beside me, Malakai goes rigid.

"Excuse me?" Valen asks, his face violently, rapidly flickering between the handsome man and the grinning death skull.

"You heard me." I lean forward, my gaze locking onto his without any fear. "You barge into private quarters at dawn, ruin my keep because you cannot manage your own…” I pause and throw a disgusted glance at Cern, “anatomy, and then sit at this table talking with your mouths full, throwing foul things on my floor, and discussing women as though we are livestock. Stableboys actually have better manners." I tap my chin as though thinking. “I shouldn’t have insulted them like that.”

"Now hold on, sweetheart, we were just—" Cern starts, his massive chest puffing out.

"Sweetheart?" I repeat, my voice getting colder and colder. "Sweetheart? Do not 'sweetheart' me, you overgrown excuse for venison," I snap, my gaze whipping to him so fiercely that the antlered god flinches.

"You speak of witches with contempt, yet from what I have seen of the wards at the perimeter, the two of you have done absolutely nothing to secure this domain. If those women were 'fragile,' it is likely because they were exhausted from having to endure the suffocating burden of your company."

I stand up, my posture perfect, my chin held high.

"If we are to be family, and if I am to be the queen of this castle, let me make one thing entirely clear," I say, my voice echoing off the vaulted ceilings, louder than it has any right to be. I suppose the castle decided to amplify the volume.

What a girl’s girl.

I take a deep breath and continue.

"You will mend the door upstairs. You will clean up this table. And if I ever hear either of you speak of anyone in that manner again, I will personally see to it that my coven sisters will never wed you. Do I make myself understood?"

I’m not sure how I would go about collecting on that threat, but where there’s a will there’s a way.

Neither of them speaks.

Cern is staring at his buttered bread as if it might explode. Valen's face has completely frozen on his handsome illusion, his dark eyes wide.

I turn to Malakai and give him a tight, polite nod. "Thank you for breakfast, Malakai. I will be taking Sandwich—the horse I saved from that awful man you—” I cut my eyes to his brothers “—banished on a walk, where I will study my magic. Alone."

I don't wait for a response.

I don’t need one.

With one last imperious look at the two idiots, I turn on my heel, my coat billowing behind me, and walk from the dining hall completely pleased with myself.

Behind me, the silence holds for three footsteps before I hear Valen let out a low, breathless whistle.