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“It’s still Aikyam law! How could I expect my people to follow a king who would defy the crown in that way? My honor would be questioned from there on out.”
“And yet, you still marched north,” I accuse him.
“Aye, I did. But once the throne was mine, no one would even question how I went about changing a law that should have never been born in the first place. With Orville alive and well, and all his spies circling in the shadows around me, I couldn’t risk sending my men to the slaughter. His personal army might not have posed a problem to mine, but your father had friends in other kingdoms besides our own. Rich friends that owed him enough favors that they would have left their homes just to aid him and defend his rule. Now the Winter Queen, a girl who would prefer to hide in her castle than acknowledge anything beyond its walls, was a different story. I could easily have stolen the throne from such a girl.”
“I’m that girl!” I point to my chest. “I’m that girl, Levi, whose only sin was that of ignorance.”
Levi lets out another exhale and runs his hand through his freshly done braids.
“I didn’t know that at the time. And it’s still hard to believe that you could have been so clueless to all of this. To everything that has been done in your family’s name.”
“You think I’m lying?” I question, insulted at the accusation.
“Have you given me reason to believe otherwise?” He cocks a brow.
My lips curl at the side, knowing he’s got me there.
I’ve done my share of lying since we’ve met.
But not about this.
I’m not lying about this.
My hands cup his face and pull it as close to mine as I can without us touching.
“Yes. I have lied. I have done all I can do to break your defenses.” When he starts to pull away, I use all the strength I have to keep him still. “I had to. I needed to know the reason behind your actions. At least understand why you tried to conspire against me.”
“Not tried, Your Highness. I still am conspiring against you.”
His words feel like a slap to the cheek.
Levi brushes my hands away and places his own hands on my face.
“Like I told you before, my queen. I will never lie to you. The truth may be a hard pill to swallow, but that is always what you will get from me. The truth. So as long as there is a law that sends children to their slaughter, I will keep conspiring until you change it.”
I pull his hands away from my cheek and reach for the dagger at his waistbelt. Levi instantly tenses, eyeing my every move. After I’ve unsheathe the dagger, I draw it in a straight line across my palm.
“Kat, the fuck are you—” Levi begins to shout, but quickly silences when I rest my blood-soaked hand on my heart.
“I vow you this, Levi of Thezmaer, king of the east, defender of Arkøya and all of the eastern borders of the great kingdom of Aikyam, such a law will no longer exist under my rule. I abolish it, here and now, and in your presence, so that you are witness to my decree. For that is my wish and my wish is word, as queen of the north and all of Aikyam.”
Levi blinks once, twice, three times before he’s able to process what I’ve just done.
Within a blink of an eye, he pushes me to the grass and towers over me.
“Just like that? You’ll abolish it just like that?” he utters both in awe and incredulousness.
“Give me parchment, pen, and ink and I’ll make it known throughout the entire kingdom.”
Levi just stares at me.
And then that genuine smile of his, the same one that casts out all the dark clouds in the sky just so the sun can shine its rays of light upon us, appears on his lips.
He runs his thumb on my lower lip, his gaze scanning my face.
“You’re making this so fucking hard for me,” he mutters under his breath, confusing me with the remark.
“I just saved us and our people from being at war with each other by giving you what you wanted on a silver platter. I think I’m making it quite easy for you,” I try to joke but it comes out too breathless to be amusing.
