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“Who trained you?” Leo asked. He was standing in the middle of my bedroom, watching me with his stoic gaze.
He’d seen the footage from the queen’s sitting room. I’d expected disgust and horror, but his curiosity surprised me.
“A friend.” I wasn’t about to name Hudson as an accomplice. He was the one who kept me alive the last three years and gave me purpose. He was more like a father to me than my own.
Lines of concentration deepened along his brow and under his eyes. “This friend taught you a lot. You moved so quickly, like it was second nature,” Leo said before glancing over at the collection of knives I requested on my dresser. I wanted to spend all night sitting in my room and sharpening the blades.
“I don’t have the luxury of hesitating, Leo. I decided to learn how to defend myself the moment I fled Aldrich.”
His jaw clenched, his eyes slightly narrowed. “Self-defense is one thing, Christine. What you did was…”
“Ground beef where his chest used to be,” I whispered. It was something Hudson once said to describe one of my kills. That enemy was a serial rapist. He deserved to die.
His eyes widened. “Fuck, Christine. I don’t like this.”
He didn’t have to like it. This was my new reality, and it was either kill or be killed. Now that I was staying here until the foreseeable future, I had to always be on my guard.
I let out a laugh. “You think I wanted to become this?”
“I don’t know what to think. I’ve been convinced this kingdom would destroy you if you came back. Been worried out of my mind about having you here in the castle. But turns out, it’s everyone else that should fear you.”
My chest constricted. His words were truthful but made something inside of me flare up. I had to be this. It was the only way I’d survive.
“And that’s how I prefer it,” I whispered, lying a bit to myself. I would have preferred to keep my innocence. Would have preferred not needing to become a killing machine.
Leo eyed me, as if reading my thoughts. “I’d prefer if you left. But I’m not sure I want you to return to this friend. What has he done to you?”
The disgust in his tone emboldened me. “He made me a survivor. And I’m not going back, Leo. The queen has restricted my travel.”
“Something tells me you’ve become resourceful over the years. If you wanted to leave, you would. This is about August, and you know it.”
I let out a sigh. Though my heart refused to admit the truth, there was a small part of me that didn’t want anything to happen to him. I wasn’t sure if I’d follow through with the marriage, but I definitely wasn’t willing to leave until I knew he was safe.
“Are you intending to bully me until I leave, Leo?”
His eyes held a sheen of purpose. “If that’s what it takes. I know a man with a fleet of ships. I could easily—”
“No.”
“Christine, what if they find out what we did?”
His question landed like a lead balloon on my chest. “You did nothing. You simply scrubbed blood out of the carpet and bagged the trash.”
“I’m an accomplice. If you’re here—”
I frowned. “Are you worried about me or you?”
I thought Leo cared about me. Even for all his cruelty at the cemetery, I knew there was still a part of him that wanted to protect me. It was in his nature. But perhaps time made him more self centric.
He shook his head and softened his tone. “I’m worried about all of it. The queen is determined to hold this over our heads as long as she can. What else is she going to force us to do? And now you’re some fucking weapon. She will use that to her advantage. No one would expect Christine Abernathy to be a cold-blooded killer.”
I looked up at Leo, who had a crease in his brow and an unflattering curl to his lips.
“I thought you were coming here to work on our security plan,” I replied easily. Hudson taught me to keep calm.
He ran his hand down his chest, and I imagined his skilled hands touching me. “I’m here to tell you to leave.”
“And what will you do if I don’t?”
