Page 70 of Winter Gods & Serpents

There was discord in the Winter court midst?

She left the offended lord and sat all leisurely in a seat.

“You sure don’t care for others respect,” I said, positioning just beside her.

She gave me a glaring glance. “Respect buys you civil greetings, fear buys you submission. Polite words catch fire like lint under summer sun, but I give pretty leashes with diamonds and corruption.”

I scoffed lacking a better reaction, she’d starved me of surprise. Nothing seemed to shock me any longer. “Fear? That is your goal. I believe you have already achieved that the day you were born.”

“Not like that, Adriatian, the sort that has children screaming at night, the ones told around withering bonfires that have you jump and sleep with an eye open. Those where every pattern of leaf, shape of clouds, sound of fire reminds you of my face and my presence. Those that will be told centuries from now, and not for my power but for my might.”

She was mad, absolutely mad.

My aunt entered along with Larg. Isjordians drew weary and stern, no longer chatting amongst and all attention to my kind.

“Your Highness,” Larg greeted her whilst they took a seat opposite the Isjordian side. “We meet again.”

“Larg, what a pleasure,” she greeted, fluttering her lashes at him all innocence. “But I preferred it better when you had venison for me to tear.”

“I am sure Isjord is keeping well up to your satisfaction.”

She laughed, yet somewhat gently, not offended. “Well enough.” The smile she wore snaped to tight ire in mere flashes of a second when she turned to my aunt. “Adriane Drakos, we meet at last. Alaric Drava sends his regards, though I am little less partial to greetings more to a dagger just between your little ribs.”

My aunt's gaze shivered and bounced almost terrified around the faces in the room. She knew her faults and she knew her fears. Both stood in front of her, courage, vengeance, and gold gaze. “We have come to discuss important matters.”

“Oh, yes, pardon me,” the princess said, leaning back on her chair, crossing a leg over the other. “We must discuss your death right after, priorities first. Still, I would not kill you without hearing you call me Your Majesty, my queen.” She threw a wink and then a kiss to my aunt who almost swallowed herself within her own skin.

She knew something—the princess knew something.

“How does she know the head councillor?” I asked her friend.

He blinked all bored. “Her guardian does, along with her anti ybris propaganda and the order of attack from that night, issued by the King and approved by her. Her guardian found the man with the direct order when he scavenged the attacker’s bodies in attempt to find Snow after she’d fled from the attack. Your King had sent three orders, she read all three of them, memorised every name and especially that woman’s,” Caiden said, pointing to my aunt.

Fled. That word stuck muddy on my throat. Fled.

The princess half turned in her seat, motioning her hand for me.

I leaned down close enough to feel the heat of her skin over mine as she reached over my ear to say, “Or shall I kill her now? What do you think?”

I tried to take it in as a joke but then I noted the empty spot just outside the large window where Memphis had previously sat. I skimmed the room nervously when a black slithering tail peaked over the far corner of the room reaching the Adriatian side of the meeting table.

“Call the animal back,” I ordered quietly.

She giggled a little. “And why should I?”

“Looking to innate a war?”

“And what will you do? Go on,” she whispered, softly brushing her lips over the shell of my ears, “charm me so I can become mercy again.”

The morph grew closer and closer to my aunt. Hells. “Call your animal or I will kill it.”

Her smirk grew wide and right to a grin of challenge, she was terribly amused. “Show me how you kill then.”

She had no care or too much faith that I would not. “Princess!”

“Guard?” She examined me closely, gold irises glowing in hilarity. She softly bit her lip almost to suppress that smile of victory. “Yes, you and your rules not to kill. Where was this pride when you sent your hounds off to kill me?”

She played with me. From start, all she did was play with me and I’d fallen for her every trap…and lost to all she had to prove me. That was it. She wanted to prove my wrongs, our wrongs and there were many.