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Magnus stood up and descended the steps. “I’ve grown bored of this conversation. You can try to manipulate me all you want, but the facts of this situation remain. You are a deceitful wench, and the earth Kindred is now mine.”
“Very well. I wish you the best of luck accessing its magic. It’s impossible. I’ve tried everything.”
“I assumed as much. Otherwise, I’d be dead and buried by now, wouldn’t I?”
“You think I want you dead? Even now?”
Magnus sighed. “You really do need to make up your mind on that subject, princess. Your duplicity is dizzying.”
“Fine. Yes. I kept the Kindred from you. I did—and do—plan to use its magic to get my kingdom back. There. That’s the truth. I’m finished with lies—what good have they done me? So now that you know, why don’t you throw me in the dungeon? Demand my head?”
“You love to try my patience,” he gritted out.
“You won’t have me killed for this. Because, despite all of our differences, we are aligned. And maybe it’s time we started to trust each other.”
rew in a sudden, sharp breath and held it for so long that she began to feel dizzy.
“Oh, goddess,” she whispered. “I’m pregnant.”
CHAPTER 26
CLEO
LIMEROS
Ever since Jonas and Nic had left for Kraeshia, Cleo had been paying extra attention in her archery lessons. But still her skills did not improve.
Between her disappointment in herself and Lord Kurtis’s increasingly insufferable and constant need to malign Magnus and the sorry state of Limeros now that he was no longer in charge, her patience had finally worn out.
So this morning, after a particularly frustrating hour of missed targets and Lord Kurtis’s whining, she quit.
Cleo returned to her chambers, flinging off her gloves and cloak, and sat down on the edge of her bed. From there she could see herself in the vanity mirror.
“What am I still doing here?” she asked her reflection.
Nerissa had gently asked her that very same question only yesterday.
She didn’t have an acceptable answer then, and she found she still didn’t have one today, not even for herself. What was her purpose in this cold, stark palace? It wasn’t as if she would lose her royal position if she were to leave.
All she was doing here was wasting time, waiting and waiting. . . .
Enough waiting.
She was deeply saddened to learn that Eirene, the exiled Watcher, had died, but she was not at all surprised—Eirene had been very old when Cleo had seen her last.
And all it meant was that now Cleo would have to find another exiled Watcher, and get the answers for herself.
She went to the window and lifted up a loose stone on the sill, under which she’d hidden the obsidian orb.
But the nook beneath was empty.
She blinked, the sight of the shadowy hollow still not fully registering. Of course the Kindred should be there; she hadn’t moved it. She turned in a circle, scanning the room, trying to see if something had changed.
“No. It was here.” She looked under the sill again, but there was no black orb to be found.
Her heart began to race.
The Kindred had disappeared.
