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“I’m going to kill you,” I whisper in her ear. Both her eyes are shut, but I can see her eyes moving quickly behind her eyelids.
I can also hear her breathing become more shallow and more erratic, and I see her shoulders tense up.
“I’m going to kill you for what you did.”
That is when I go over to the bell on the desk and ring it. Within a second, a dozen of our household servants trail into the room.
I hold Yiosha up, practically lifting her into the air as the zagfers stand around us, their heads bowed.
Their fear is palpable, and I cannot help but revel in it.
“Let this be a lesson to you all,” I tell them, and my voice is calm and quiet. “Yiosha disrespected and hurt my mate. And if any of you do that, this will be your fate.”
My mother walks in before I can lay into Yiosha again. And my rage swells, and I can feel it in the angry thud of my heart against my ribcage.
I let Yiosha fall to the ground as my mother walks in with a curious look on her face. I walk right up to her and grab her by the neck.
“You!” I snarl, my spittle flying. Her face is stretched tight with shock, and her eyes are wide and bright with fear.
“You put her up to this, didn’t you? I know you did! Don’t think I won’t rip your head off your body for trying to hurt Althia!”
My mother shakes her head frantically and tries to push me off her.
“No,” she whispers, her voice hoarse, her breath catching in her throat. The room is starting to smell like Yiosha’s bodily fluids.
I’m quite certain that Yiosha actually has shit herself because the smell of feces is overwhelming.
“I didn’t do anything!” My mother’s voice rises several octaves as she tries to plead her case. “I would never do that to you!” Tears are pouring down her face. “I would never go that far,” she pleads with me.
I look at her properly then. My mother, who usually looks perfect and elegant, looks old.
Her face is twisted, screwed up with fear and sorrow. Her hair has come undone from its elegant chignon. Her makeup is smeared, and her eyes are bloodshot.
She is hiccupping as she babbles nonsensically, while she tries to convince me that she is innocent.
She actually thinks I’m going to kill her. She’s afraid of me. This woman who has terrified me and angered me in equal measure my entire life is afraid of me.
My mother staggers, stumbling backward several steps when I let her go, and she falls into the arms of the zagfers.
“Okay.” I am breathing heavily as I step away from her. “I believe you,” I tell her, and the look of relief on her face shakes me to my core.
I know then that she is telling the whole, most honest truth.
I also know that she has been less of a tyrant in the past few days. She has also had multiple conversations with Althia and has even helped her connect with several of the royal family’s ceremonial vendors.
I don’t apologize to her but turn back to Yiosha, who is curled up pathetically on the floor.
“Someone still has to pay,” I say loudly. The room is so quiet that I am quite sure that none of them are breathing. The room is warm and stuffy. The smell of feces, urine, and blood has become overpowering.
“And an example must still be made,” I say as I walk up and down in the room.
Yiosha moves then, hoisting herself up with her arms as if she is going to crawl away.
“I’m sorry,” she croaks out.
But then she collapses back onto the floor and curls up into the fetal position. Her face has swollen so much that she is nearly unrecognizable.
I think of Althia then. Of the fear on her face. She wasn’t just afraid, she was terrified.
