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“I think your sister is hoping for a dance.” She turns her attention to me. “You met Birdy today, did you not?”

I feel Riven’s heated gaze watching me as he rises.

“Yes, this evening, she helped me dress. But you would know that since you commanded it.” I raise my brows.

“And not before?” she questions.

“No, not that I can recall. But then again, I’m guessing that guests staying in my… wing don’t get many visitors. With the severely lacking accommodations, I can’t imagine why.”

I chance another look at Riven, and he’s trying to mask his amusement.

“And your time in the bathhouse, did you find that to be… lacking.” The queen’s snide remark makes my skin crawl.

She was watching?

“Most definitely not.” I smile, showing my teeth.

I can bite too.

“Birdy?” Riven interjects.

“Yes.” The queen draws her response out slowly. “I saw her talking to a couple of the other hunters. You might want to occupy her dance card before they fill it. Fresh meat and all.”

That gets his attention.

“Princess.” He nods.

“Riven.” I curtsy.

“I do believe Nobleman Jhaggar is wanting a dance,” the queen informs me, her voice carrying.

The man with the snakes.

Riven pauses and turns around. His eyes caution me, but he refuses to defy the queen, and he resumes his path to find his sister, and I’m left all alone with the queen. My stepmother.

“Handsome, isn’t he?” she baits me.

“I’ve seen better.” I refuse to give her the satisfaction.

“But you haven’t seen what he can do in the bedroom.” She confirms my earlier suspicions that they were—are—lovers.

“Oh, Stepmother…” I sneer right back. “Does that mean that when I do, I should call him daddy?”

“I do think I like you.” Her chilly laugh is like sleet, prickling my skin. “It’s a pity.”

“What is?” I fall right into her web.

“That you have to die.” She grips my arm, with deadly force. “But first, you shall dance!”

Gives a whole new meaning to dance till you’re dead.

Chapter 10

Adelaide

“No amount of breathing exercises will get me through this.”

“But a drink just might.” On cue, Birdy appears out of thin air with a glass of sparking something. Accepting the glass, I down mine. Then I swap our glasses and drink hers too.