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And then I turn my back on one love to see if I still have the love of another.
Chapter 44
Katrina
I sit cross-legged on the bed, staring at the green seal that taunts me so.
“Aren’t you going to open it?” Anya asks inquisitively while biting at her thumb.
“Leave Her Majesty be, Anya. Stop being so impertinent,” Inessa scolds, leaning against a wall, her gaze on mine.
“Fine. Then you read yours. I bet it’s nice and juicy,” Anya proclaims, skipping to her friend.
Inessa’s cheeks instantly flush at her friend’s light teasing.
“You got a letter too?” I ask, surprised.
“Not just any letter. A love letter.” Anya wiggles her brows.
“Has anyone told you that you have a big mouth?” Inessa chastises her friend.
“Yes, you. Every single day.” Anya giggles. “Now stop being a spoilsport and read it already. I’m dying to hear what romantic sonnets Brick has written to you.”
“Brick?!” I all but choke. “Brick is who has been sending you love letters?”
Inessa looks like if she could dig a hole, she would crawl into it just to spare herself from this conversation.
“He has. Somehow he got it in that thick head of his that he’s going to marry me someday,” she explains, chewing nervously on her bottom lip.
“He has, has he?” I cock a brow, amused. “You didn’t do anything that could have put such a notion in his head, did you?”
“She did!” Anya screeches in excitement. “She kissed him before we left—OUCH!” Anya shouts out in pain after Inessa pinches her arm again. “What did you do that for?”
“I was looking for something that would shut your big mouth up. Looks like I found it,” Inessa mumbles.
“See, Kat? See what I have put up with for the past three days while you were locked away with the king in his chambers?” Anya pouts, but when she sees how her offhanded comment made me feel even more deplorable than I already do, she rushes to me. “Oh, I’m sorry, my queen. That came out all wrong. I didn’t mean to offend.”
“The queen is not offended, Anya. She can’t be when it’s the truth,” Inessa interjects with a cold bite to her voice.
And then that’s when I realize that Levi isn’t the only one who is disappointed in my recent actions. Inessa is too.
“Are you cross with me?” I ask outright.
“You’re my queen. Nothing you do could ever make me cross,” she retorts evenly.
“Aye, I am your queen. But I am also your friend. Friends do disappoint one another at times.”
“Curses,” she mutters under her breath. “Levi gave you a heart and now you’ve grown soft on me.”
At this, I laugh.
“Soft? Is that how you see me now?”
“I see a queen who is losing sight of her purpose. I see a queen that once had the arctic wind at her back and ice water in her veins. And now I’m not sure who this queen that stands before me is anymore.”
“You mean you saw your own reflection and now that it’s changed, your own limitations make it hard for you to comprehend that everything in the world evolves—even queens,” I explain in an even tone.
“Yes, my queen. It’s just that, before I could count on your cold, collected heart and mind to make the right choices. Now that both have thawed, I have yet to get used to this new Katrina of Bratsk.”
