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Everyone returned to their cabins, and we returned to the stone fortress. The warmth was trapped against the rock and immediately surrounded us. The bonfire directly underneath the sky was big and bright, and the heat radiated through my fur coat and armor straight to my skin. When Ian had left and it was just the two of us, she regarded me, looking at me with the eyes of a mother rather than those of a queen. “Are you well?”
I nodded.
“It looked like you got her to return willingly.”
“Once she realized what else is out there, she knew she wouldn’t make it far.”
“Perhaps that stupid girl isn’t so stupid after all. What did you encounter?”
“The Teeth.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“They attacked Ivory first. I had to intervene if I wanted her to stay alive. Klaus fled.”
“Of course he did,” she said. “A coward for a king.”
“There was a yeti as well…always a yeti.”
The corner of her lips tugged in a smile. “I’m relieved you returned unharmed.” Like always, her hands cupped my cheeks, and she smoothed her thumbs over my cold skin. She treated me as a man in the presence of others but treated me as her son in their absence. Her warm hands pulled away, the same hands that pummeled Ivory into the ground.
“There’s something I’m obligated to share.”
She stared, her features hardening into her shrewd appearance.
“I was outnumbered by Klaus and the Teeth. Ivory took the opportunity to flee while I was compromised.”
A flash of anger moved across her gaze.
“But she returned…and saved my life.”
The anger remained, as if that didn’t mean a damn thing to her.
“Just thought you should know.”
There was no acknowledgment. There was nothing at all. “Go to her cabin tonight. And do exactly what her father did to me.”
A chill had never crept into my bones, had never penetrated through the flesh and blood, but it did now. Everything tightened, from my stomach to my heart. I held her gaze without reaction, keeping everything contained beneath the surface. “I just told you she saved my life.”
“She wouldn’t have had to save it if she hadn’t run in the first place.”
Since the moment my father was killed, my mother had become the leader of this family. She showed me how to survive, how to adapt to the harshest changes, how to keep going even when everything felt hopeless. I watched her start over—from a peasant to a queen. And she was a damn good queen. Strong. Commanding. Fair. She punished our people, but always justly and never with glee. But this…this was heartless. “I would have run too—as would you.”
She stared, her gaze hardening.
“She’s not like him.”
“His blood runs in her veins. That’s enough.”
“Her father isn’t even here to see—”
“You will share every detail before I stab my dagger through to the back of his throat—just as he did to your father.”
I inhaled a slow and deep breath. “That’s not who we are—”
“Yes, it is. He made us this way.”
“Well, that’s not who I am.” I was her eldest son, her golden boy, and I never defied her. I obeyed her as my queen because she’d earned my unflinching loyalty. But this… It was something I just couldn’t do. “I’m not going to force a woman who just saved my life. I’m not going to force any woman—not after what I had to watch with my own eyes.” Those memories were ingrained in my mind no matter how hard I tried to forget them. They were a part of me, a constant weight on my shoulders, a constant pain in my heart.
The disappointment was barely noticeable in her angry face. With an unblinking stare, she watched me for several seconds, as if her formidable presence was enough to make me change my mind.
But it wasn’t.
She turned to Geralt, one of our most vicious fighters, my first pick in a battle against a yeti. “Looks like the honor falls to you, Geralt.”
His lips pulled back in a smile.
“Enjoy yourself.” She stepped away from me and toward her guard. “And make sure it hurts.”
“I definitely will.” Geralt immediately removed all his weapons as if he intended to do this right now.
Adrenaline spiked in my blood. My heart panicked. My internal systems crashed. Even in the gravest battles, I never lost my focus, never gave in to fear. But now, my breaths escalated, and my palms turned sweaty.
I walked up to my mother again and lowered my voice so Geralt couldn’t hear. “Her father deserves everything that’s coming to him, but she doesn’t. I understand your pain. I understand your need for revenge. I feel it too—every fucking day. But how can you experience that yourself and wish it on somebody else?”
Her stare remained blank, absent of any emotion. “It’s easy. Really fucking easy.”
My heart tightened into a fist.
“He raped me—and made you watch.” She said the words without a wince. “Your father was pinned to his throne with a blade shoved into his mouth, and your brother was running for his life through the castle. I’m as tough as steel, and a man thrusting himself inside me isn’t going to break me. But you know what did? Having my boy watch. That was the worst part. That’s how you hurt someone—by hurting someone they love. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
