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"You're right. I don't." Because I would burn the rest of the world down for the people I love.
I practically have. I probably will, by the time this is all over.
“And that is why I declined to make a stranger a queen. There is more to ruling than putting on a crown and ordering people around!" His jaw is clenched, and his pale blue eyes are burning like the hottest part of the fire.
A beat of silence passes before Leif cuts in smoothly.
"If I may, Your Majesty, she has been asking to see you."
"Of course." He takes off toward the stairs without so much as a backward glance
I briefly debate following him, but she hadn't asked for me. I'm just a girl she has known a handful of weeks who was fortunate enough to be the recipient of her kindness, and I won't intrude on this moment.
I can't quite bear the thought of heading back to my rooms alone, knowing she will not be there to welcome me as she has each time I have come back here, something I have taken for granted. So instead, Khijhana and I head up to the study.
I pass more servants than usual today, but I'm surprised by how many of them are still wearing veils or masks.
I am seated at my favorite sofa, the one closest to the fire but facing the window, away from the door, when Khijhana abruptly stands up from where she was already seated between me and the entryway. A split second later, I hear a set of footsteps gliding across the floor toward me.
I sigh. Odger is the last person I am in the mood for.
"To what do I owe the pleasure of your spontaneous visit?" I try to keep the sarcasm from my tone.
I am expecting Odger’s oily tone, but the voice that answers freezes my bones to ice as surely as the lake had.
"Come now, Zaina. Is that any way to speak to your brother?"
Chapter Forty-Six
My hand freezes in the air on its path to calming Khijhana.
"What are you doing here, Damian?" How I manage the words when I am not even breathing is a mystery to me.
I knew that I was running out of time, but his presence here means it is already up. That's the only reason Madame would let him risk coming to me directly.
And he does nothing without her approval.
"I figured you would be expecting me after you saw me at the festival," he says.
I still haven't turned around to see his face, but his voice is all false pleasantries.
"If I didn't know any better, I would think you weren't happy to see your favorite brother." Bile rises in my throat as it does every time he bastardizes that term for his own use.
I may claim the other girls Madame owns as my sisters, but I do that by choice because they are as trapped as I am.
Damian, though, he lives for this.
He moves toward me, and Khijhana growls. "Control your beast, or I will do it for you."
In the decade I have known him, he has never sounded anything but collected. Whether he is taking someone's life while they beg for mercy or asking how you like your tea, his tone is the same. So, although his voice is calm, I know that he means it.
I take a deep breath, forcing a calm I don't feel while I reach out to comfort Khijhana.
"Good girl," he directs the words at me, not the actual animal in the room, but I am just as happy if he never acknowledges her presence again.
Growing up with Madame, there are few people in this world who scare me, but I would be a fool not to be cautious around the boy she collected only shortly after she found me.
Whether he was born this way or shaped by circumstance and molded by his dear adopted mommy, the fact remains that he is ruthless and deadly and entirely without remorse.
