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An even worse part, the part that made the cruelest woman I know handpick me from any number of children she had come across in her time, knows what it might cost us to interfere.
Madame only needs one of them alive. The queen, or Remy.
So I do nothing.
She turns to look at him, her eyes flat and serpentine. “Since you’re working for me now, this is a lesson you should learn sooner than later. Those who have no use to me do not survive long in my world.”
In a single, fluid motion, she has snapped the queen’s neck, letting her fall to the ground. Before I can move, before I can breathe, her death-like grip latches onto my arm.
Khijhana lunges for her then, silver claws already extended and a fearsome snarl on her lips. Einar is right behind her.
Madame uses her other hand to throw Khijha against the wall like my giant chalyx weighs no more than Aika’s monkey. Khijha crumples to the floor, and Madame moves her free hand to my neck, forcing my husband to halt in his tracks.
I look from Khijhana’s form, thankfully rising and falling with shallow breaths, to the spot where Remy is kneeling on the floor next to his mother. Finally, my gaze settles on Einar’s furious ice-blue eyes.
Distantly, I register that I should be feeling some level of shock, but it never comes.
Didn’t I know on some level that it would come to this from the moment I made the choice to walk into this room?
“Francis,” Madame calls his name casually, like he’s her pet.
He glances up at her disdainfully, and she raises her eyebrows.
“Call for your men to stand down,” she orders.
He hesitates, and she gives him a vicious smile.
“Let’s try this again. If you value Aika’s life at all, call for your men to stand down.”
On shaking legs, with clenched fists, he cracks the door and quietly tells them that all is well. To stand down, just as she ordered. She nods like she approves. Her hand tightens on my arm, and she starts to tug me toward the door.
“Come along now, Zaina. It’s been too long since our family was reunited.”
“She’s not going anywhere with you,” Einar growls.
I don’t give her time to respond before I speak up. “Yes, I am.”
He can’t stop her right now. All he can do is die trying, and I won’t let that happen. She won’t kill him out of spite when she’s put so much effort into making him suffer. It’s a different story if he interferes.
He opens his mouth to argue, but I cut him off. “You said I had to make a choice, and now, so do you. Remember what I promised you.”
My eyes bore into his, willing him to understand what I’m saying. That there’s a bigger picture at stake here. That I will always fight to come back to him.
His jaw tightens, devastation overtaking his features. The whites of his knuckles practically glow around the furious grip he has on his axe. Several heartbeats pass before he lowers it and stands down. He trusts me, and I hope he doesn’t live to regret that choice.
Madame drags me toward the exit, stopping at the doors.
“I expect you’ll both continue to make yourselves useful, ensuring no word of this gets out. My reputation will be intact when I return.” None of us miss the command, the threat. “Await my instructions.”
With that, she sweeps us out of the palace on the self-assured footsteps of someone who has all the power in this situation.
And I’m left wondering where the hell we went so wrong.
CHAPTERSIXTY-TWO
REMY
Iam hollow.
