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“You’ll be executed for what you’ve done,” he said stiffly.
“Perhaps.” I smiled and grasped the bars, plastering myself to them, trying to get closer. “But you know I’m innocent.”
“‘Innocent’?” He laughed, and the sound echoed around us, bringing light to the darkest of places. “You are far from that.” He turned away with a sweep of his white-fur-lined cloak and headed toward the steps.
“You claim to know me,” I said, raising my voice, “so you know I wouldn’t hurt Katina.”
He stopped, one boot on the stair’s first riser. “Oh, I know.”
“Then tell the king, tell him I didn’t do this.”
“And why would I do that?” He peered over his shoulder, silver eyes shining. “When I was the one who told him you did.”
He climbed the steps and the dungeon door slammed like the tolling of the execution bell. I stared after the prince, stunned in both heart and mind.
My lies could withstand much, but not the word of a prince.
The hangman’s noose had gotten much closer.
CHAPTER3
I’d been fucked without all the fun of foreplay. And by a prince, no less. Hate was not a new emotion for me. I had so much hate in my heart it likely pumped black blood through my veins, but the hatred I felt for Arin in those moments after he’d left was a bright and vicious thing, and matched only by the desire to wrap my hands around his neck and tell himeverything. See what he thought of me then. Oh, he’d still hate me, but at least the lofty prick would know I was theleastof his enemies.
I paced my cell.
The queen’s death, like the queen herself, was most inconvenient.
And then there was the problem of Draven, the lord from the Court of War, and the things he’d said moments before I’d had his delicious cock in my mouth. Things that could not be left to fester. Niggly little truths like that had a knack for escaping and growing into larger problems.
Four years I’d been weaving my lies. Four years, day and night. The death of the queen and the wagging tongue of one sexually frustrated warlord would not be what brought me down.
I had to get out of this cell.
“Hey!” I banged on the bars and rattled my cell door. “Guards!”
Someone would be nearby. They wouldn’t risk leaving me here alone, forgotten… “Hey!” There would be a way to escape, there was always a way. Whatever the cost, I’d pay it. And I had multiple debts owed to me. Multiple angles to play.
But I could do nothing behind bars. Iwasnothing behind bars.
The dungeon door groaned open and a guard stomped down the steps, armor clattering. The same guard who’d punched me on the terrace. “Quiet, yah hear!” He was tall, slim, with a flash of short red hair and sharp green eyes.
“The king. I want to speak with King Albus. Bring him here.”
He narrowed his eyes and studied me as though he hadn’t heard a word I’d said. “Not so high and mighty now, are you?” He sauntered over and he raked his glare from head to toe, then recoiled, as though he’d tasted something foul. He clearly did not like me and was full of swagger and masculine bravado that seemed a little heavy-handed, unless…
“Have we met?” I asked, squinting a little. He did seem familiar. I was sure we hadn’t been intimate, though. His eyes narrowed. “Before you struck me on the terrace, that is?”
“Yeah, we’ve met, fool. You sullied my sister.”
“Ah.” The red hair, the freckles, yes… I remembered his sister. A fun little thing. She’d told me her brother was a guard and that was how she’d gotten inside the palace walls. She’d demanded I pleasure her, and I’d been bored at the time. I’d had to cover her mouth to keep her from screaming as I’d tongued her to climax. “She rather sullied herself behind the parrot topiary—”
He spat. Sticky, warm spittle landed on my cheek. “I hope they cut off your dick when you’re swinging from the noose.”
I wiped my cheek. “Well, at least I have one.”
“What did you say?” He squared up to the bars.
The poor man. “Deaf too, and so tiny a… package.” I glanced at this crotch. “How unfortunate. Fate can be cruel. And you don’t even have the intelligence to make up for such a cruel hand you’ve been dealt.”
