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She blinked once, looked around the room. “That is cruel. That is...” She whirled, her expression an alluring mix of fire and her own revenge. She pushed passed him and the guard, striding down the hall back the way they’d come.
Both he and the guard were so surprised by her reaction, for a few moments they simply stood and stared after her.
But it was clear she wasn’t going to come to her senses. Lysias strode after her before the guard could—making sure to block the guard’s way so Lysias would be the first one to get to her.
“Alexandra.”
She didn’t so much as pause. She just kept walking quickly and certainly, retracing the exact path they’d just taken.
“Al.”
But she did not stop, and he found himself so compelled by her anger, byherthat he did not reach out and stop her, even though it would have been easy to do so.
The force of her. The way her skirts flowed behind her, like she was some sort of avenging Medusa. He wanted to see how this all went down.
She reached the office they’d just been in and threw the doors open with all the drama of a stage actress performing for a large crowd. The guard and Lysias followed her inside, where the king stood slowly from behind his desk, his expression a mix of such surprise and horror that Lysias had to bite back a laugh. Well, this was unexpected but rather enjoyable thus far.
Alexandra glowered up at Diamandis, hands fisted on her slim waist. “If you expect us to stay here, you will change our accommodations at once.”
The king was silent for ticking seconds, but Alexandra did not back down. She held the king’s gaze, her chest heaving in fury.
She truly was a beautiful little thing.
“If you were truly the lost princess of Kalyva, you would know better than to speak to your king in such a way,” Diamandis said in a low, threatening tone.
Alexandra was clearly not intimidated. “I don’t care if you are the king of the entire world.” She flung her arms in the air, then pointed back to Lysias. “To put him in his parents’ room, after the way he lost them, was a move of disgusting cruelty.”
The king’s face hardened more, if that were possible, and still Lysias could only watch in awe.
“But the two of you conspiring, lying, and you pretending to be my late sister is an act of charity?”
“So, an eye for an eye.” She made a scoffing noise. “A king should be better, and I think we both know it’s as possible that I am Zandra as anyone else. Whether you want to believe that or not, I do not care. What you have tried to do here is despicable. Perhaps I do notwishto be part of any royal family who would behave in such a way.”
“The royal family, as you may have noticed, is dead.”
“You are not.”
Diamandis moved his gaze from Alexandra to Lysias. “You should control your fiancée,” he said, drawing out the last word with disgust.
Lysias only smiled wider. “Oh, I much prefer her out of control. She is a thing of beauty, is she not?”
Diamandis looked Alexandra up and down. “I will enjoy proving you both to be the scheming, lying, charlatans that you are.” He lifted his gaze to Lysias, who lounged quite comfortably against the wall. “So that there will be no question, Lysias, once and for all, that you are the same kind of traitor your parents were.”
The words hit like the blow they were meant to be and reminded Lysias he was not here to watch Alexandra take Diamandis down a peg, no matter how much he enjoyed it. He could not be distracted in this way.
But when the guard showed them to anewroom, Lysias could not seem to find his old self. His singular focus on revenge.
For here was Alexandra, still angry and beautiful. And she’d faced down a king. His oldest enemy.
For him.
CHAPTER TEN
“IHATEHIM.” Al seethed, pacing the new room. Oh, she’d gotten her way, but the anger hadn’t receded. What a disgusting thing to do. Unforgivable. Lysias had looked so...
For the first time in that room in the servant’s wing, she’d been able to picture the boy he might have been—the boy who’d allegedly beenfriendswith the man who would torture him like this. The look on Lysias’s face as he’d stood outside that room had cut her in two. And she’d felt honor bound to protect that hurt, abandoned, betrayedboy.
Lysias had said nothing as they’d been taken to their new quarters in a more elaborate part of the palace. Evenshecould tell the differences between the two areas, and that only made her angrier.
