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Sighing, I slumped back down into the chair and let my head fall back. The weight of my crown slipped from my head, and I heard the clang of metal hitting the stone floor a moment later. I didn’t bother getting up to retrieve it. “You don’t think much of me, councillor, do you?”
“Of course I-”
“Cut the shit, Morales. I’m not Ren’s father: I don’t punish people for speaking ill of me.”
“I’m grateful to you for what you’ve done for us,” she said after a moment. “That I’m allowed, as a woman, to hold a position on the king’s Council.” Her clipped, frosty tone was at odds with her words. “But I resent that I should be grateful at all, when it is something men have done for hundreds of years without needing to thank someone for the mereopportunity.”
I dipped my chin, not taking my eyes from hers. Piercing and almost black in hue, they held an intensity that made me feel like she could see down to my very soul. “Fair enough.”
The councillor cocked her head. “Besides,” she added, “none of that means I have tolikeyou. I find you reckless and hot-headed, Nathanael.”
I barked a laugh at that. “Have youmetour king?”
“You are both driven by emotion,” said Morales. “It is not a good combination.”
Jiron had thought the opposite. He’d said we evened each other out, and I was much more inclined to trust his opinion than hers.
“Well,” I said lightly, “that’s why we have to put up with you lot, isn’t it? A group of stuffy, boring councillors to keep us royals straight?”
A faint smile twitched her lips. “You’re no more straight than I am, Your Highness.”
“Ah,” I said, amused. “But you didn’t deny the boring stuffiness.”
“Perhaps you should retire for the afternoon, king consort,” Morales suggested, immediately turning my mood. “After such…excitement, surely you wish to rest in your chambers?”
So she could keep me out of the way? I didn’t think so.
“No,” I said flatly. “I need to see Ren, now.”
Her lips thinned and she held my gaze silently.
Muttering curses under my breath, I pushed up from my chair and stormed from the throne room.
“Your Highness!” Parvan called urgently from where he was being held back by three palace guards in the corridor beyond, his top lip split and his coat torn. “Are you well?”
When I ordered the guards to release him with an irritated flick of my fingers, he rushed towards me and spun to face the others, blocking my body with his own and drawing his sword.
“Stand down, Parvan,” I said. “You were removed from the hall on my orders. I’m sorry that you – all of you,” I amended, shooting a remorseful glance at the bloodied and dishevelled group of palace guards, “were injured as a result.”
I couldn’t blame him. I too would have fought tooth and nail against anyone who tried to drag me from the throne room while Ren was still in there, and I knew first-hand how fucking ruthless our guards could be when they were following orders.
“Your Highness,” Parvan grunted in that reproachful way of his as he resheathed his sword. “Do you wish to age me quicker than you already have?”
Councillor Vidrio hurried around the corner, wheezing and planting a hand on the wall as he caught his breath.
“Where’s Ren?” I asked him.
The man faltered and glanced over my shoulder, giving a faint shake of his head. I turned to find Morales behind me, her face paling and her expression turning grim.
“Councillors,” I said slowly, icy fear creeping up my spine at their sudden reticence to speak. “You will tell me where I can find His Majesty, and you will tell menow. I don’t give many of them, but consider that a fucking order.”
Morales hissed out a displeased breath and frustratingly –treasonously– stayed silent.
It was Vidrio who broke first when I turned the full force of my abrasive glare on him. “We don’t know.”
“What the fuck do you mean, you don’tknow-”
“The king disappeared sometime after our meeting this morning,” Morales cut in. “Vidrio has been coordinating a discreet search, but we haven’t been able to locate him.”
