Page 62 of Seaborn and the Seven Seas

I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe properly. Just hung there while she watched with those cold eyes.

“The boarox.” The queen stepped into the cell, her gown whispering against the stone floor. “It killed my guards. And the one before you in the arena, it killed her within minutes. Then you bled on that arena floor, and it walked away.” She tilted her head. “Why?”

“I told you.” My voice came out steadier than I felt, pinned to the wall, feet dangling. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

I clenched my jaw. “I’ve bled blue my entire life and nobody told me what I was. You know more about what I am than I do.”

Calculation shifted behind those violet eyes. She stepped back and folded her hands.

“Perhaps,” she murmured, “that is something we can help each other with.”

The queen turned toward Minha, still crumpled against the wall. She raised one hand. Minha shot upward, slammed against the wall beside me, pinned. Her face reddening, her mouth working soundlessly. She couldn’t breathe.

“Stop—” I twisted against the invisible force holding me. “Stop it. She has nothing to do with this.”

“Then answer me.” The queen’s voice was perfectly calm, her hand still raised, fingers slightly curled. “What did you do to the boarox? I won’t ask again.”

Minha’s lips were turning pale. Her eyes found mine, wide and desperate.

“I don’t know.” My voice cracked. “I swear on my life, I don’t know. My blood touched the ground and it stopped. That’s all I can tell you. I don’t understand it any more than you do.”

The queen studied me for a long moment, her eyes moving over my face the way a scholar studies a new book.

Minha made a small broken sound.

“Please.” The word tore out of me raw. “Please. She’s done nothing. None of this is her fault.”

Another long moment.

The queen lowered her hand.

Minha dropped, gasping, hands braced against the floor, pulling air in ragged desperate gulps. I sagged beside her, heart hammering, when the queen released me.

“Good.” The queen smoothed her gown. “Honesty suits you better than defiance.”

Minha lifted her head from the floor, still catching her breath. “Where is Theron?” Her voice came out hoarse. “He’ll tell you what you want to know.”

She sounded like she knew him. After all, they had spent time together when he bought her, and Minha was a charmer. Jealousy hung at the edge of that thought before I could stop it. What was the matter with me? Focus.

The queen’s expression shifted, sharp but amused.

“Theron.” She said his name like it tasted bitter. “He knows nothing.” She smoothed a strand of silver hair from her shoulder. “He’ll be nowhere to be found. He’s off to do my bidding, as always.”

Disappointment and hurt settled in my chest. What had I expected? For Theron to rescue us? He was doing what he had always done—surviving, protecting the one person in this castle who mattered to him. But I kept those words behind my teeth because I might have done the same if the role was reversed.

“Now.” The queen folded her hands, voice sounding almost conversational, which was worse than the coldness. “Let me tell you what I’m offering.”

Offering? More like do as I say or die.

“I have a mountain.” The queen moved to the cell door. “Mount Kael. Rich with rubies, emeralds, sapphires. My miners have worked there for years. But deeper, where the real wealth lives, they cannot reach.”

“Why not?” Minha asked.

“Because something guards it.” Her eyes held mine. “Something that has killed every being I’ve sent down. Something that will not yield to force.” She tilted her head. “But it might yield to you.”

The silence stretched.