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He arched an eyebrow. “Check your tone.”
“My tone?” I climbed from the daybed and crossed the floor to look the King of Love in his watery, unfocused eyes. He appeared formidable, but the king was just like the rest. He’d buckle under the right kind of pressure, like a wilted wildflower in his many meadows. “Katina was desperate for a love you denied her.”
“She wasn’t so chaste,” he scoffed and side-eyed me, making sure to level accusations with his gaze. “You met her needs well enough.”
I snorted and moved closer still. “No, I did not. What she got from me was, at most, friendship. What she wanted was her husband. Last night, I didn’t hurt her or fuck her. I put her to bed, intoxicated and forlorn, but very much alive.”
Tears glistened unshed in his eyes, but they were so shallow that a blink banished them. “You’re not a killer,” he mumbled.
He was wrong there, but he’d only know that once it was too late. “Tell everyone, make an announcement, I’m innocent.”
“My son, he said—”
“Arin is mistaken.”
Albus tapped his fingers against his glass. “It is not so simple.”
“You’re the king, it is as simple as your word.”
“I… If you did not kill her, who did?” he said with a whimper.
“That’s an answer for Justice to find. And not my problem.”
He shook his head. “People want answersnow. Lark, until the killer is found, you must remain in the dungeons.” He lifted his drink to his lips, the matter over with.
Clearly, he’d forgotten our past, forgotten what I’d done for him, forgotten everything I knew. I shifted closer still, so close the sweet smell of wine and his perspiration wafted around us both.
I looked into his eyes, and I saw the weakness there. Like a cancer, eating him up from the inside.
“Perhaps your precious people will also be interested to learn how the King of Love is addicted to pennywort and hasn’t been able to satisfy his wife for years,” I said calmly, and tucked a smile into my cheek. “In fact, the only thing he can get it up for is the serving girls, like the poor girl you had me deal with. I’m sure she’d be delighted to confirm how you fucked her into your bed, while she cried silent tears. Half your size, terrified, trapped. Now, tell me, is that how your court celebrates love?”
The glass slipped from his fingers and hit the floor, where it shattered, spilling jagged pieces of glass and wine around my boots.
“How dare you!” he growled and trembled, boiling in his pristine boots. “Get out!”
“How dareyou. Lock me up, and I’ll sing like a bird, Your Highness.”
His mouth twitched into a snarl. “Be very careful who you threaten, Lark. This isn’t one of your games. My beautiful wife is dead!”
“And finally free of you.”
He reeled and stumbled backward into his dresser. “Guards!”
This man was a coward and a wretched excuse for a king. “You had better be calling them in here to declare my innocence, or Dallin help me, I will ruin your reign. The routine rape of your serving girls is just the beginning. I know how the royal coffers are all but empty, how you ignore War encroaching on your borders, how you turn away, too afraid to lift a finger. You are weak, and your kingdom is dying. But you can do this one right thing, one simple thing.” I stepped close and adjusted his jacket, straightening it again. “Trust me when I say, you will much prefer I am your friend than your enemy.”
His weeping eyes scanned my face, and sweat beaded on his brow. “This isn’t you,” he whispered.
Me? What did he know of me? Was he so naïve as to think my life revolved around his? He didn’t know me. Nobody hereknew me. Even I sometimes struggled to know the man in the mirror. “Oh, it is.”
“Then you are not who I thought you to be, to use these… minor indiscretions against me.”
Minor indiscretions? Rape was never minor, not even where I came from.
His chamber door flung open, and I recoiled from the king and the mess of the shattered glass on the floor. “Ah, perfect timing, the king has something of importance to reveal.” I gestured for the three guards to listen to their liege, urged the king to speak, and waited.
The guards slowed. They looked from me to the king, confused. “Your Highness?”
“Yes, I…” Albus hesitated. “It’s true. Lark is wholly innocent of my wife’s terrible departure.”
