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“You didn’t think I’d find out.”
I swallowed harshly enough for her to hear.
“The mirror seems to think the last girl I sent you to kill is still alive. That it was not her heart in the box, you’d given me. It's humorous because I hadn’t felt the effects I expected, so I sought more powerful magic, more ways to get what I wanted, and I was successful. Deliciously successful. Perhaps had you killed the girl and brought me her heart, I would have remained in that phase. But your disloyalty forced my hand.”
Fuck.
“So, Huntsman, I am more than I ever thought possible, and I have you to thank for that.”
My heart stopped. Amira sat astride me, my cock gone soft inside her now. This incident occurred only three days after she’d murdered Bereille, and I was terrified to go against her and give her any reason to investigate what Bereille and I had spoken. The queen continued to call me to her bed, and I hated that I still needed to play this role after knowing what she did.
“But disloyalty needs punishment, Huntsman.”
I sucked in a breath. “But the girl had saved me, my queen. You do—”
“I do not care the reason!” Amira bellowed in my face.
She still straddled me, anger staining her cheeks, and her ivory skin glowed.
I had never seen her look quite this way, and I knew she had only to command it, and I would be dead. Right here. Right now. But if I died, Autumn wouldn’t stand a chance. Amira would find another champion to find Autumn and carve out her heart.
Bereille’s words whispered back to me, and I needed to do everything in my power to protect Autumn. I couldn’t do that from the grave.
“I can remedy my failure, my queen. Send me again, and I will not fail you a second time.”
Amira’s throaty and low laugh brought an uncontrollable shiver over me. Then, she produced a jeweled dagger and brought the blade to my chest before I could even blink.
She pressed the dagger's tip into my skin, over my heart. “Youwillbring me her heart, Huntsman. If you wish to see another sunrise, it will be done.”
“Yes, my queen,” I croaked.
Queen Amira pushed the blade in until blood flowed from my skin. She looked over my chest with interest and then slowly glided the blade down my stomach to my groin. My heart cascaded into a wild drumbeat, and a waterfall of fear swept down my body.
“You still owe me that which I have lost.”
I assumed she meant Autumn, but she'd said those words to me before. Before she knew I had betrayed her. I had no idea exactly what she meant, nor did I care.
She slid the flat side of the dagger against my inner thigh. I sucked in another panicked breath. She could do cruel things to me if she wanted to, and I could do nothing against it.
Then the dagger disappeared. Her eyes returned to the blood that ran in rivulets off my chest and onto her sheets. She glided her palms across it until they were both reddened and then ran her fingers up to my neck, across my scarred shoulders, and down to my dick. Amira worked at me until I was hard again, my body reacting despite my fear. It was her magnetic magic because arousal was the very last thing I felt. I could feel the shiver of magic go through me with some whispered words she recited to harden and stimulate my manhood. I didn’t try to hide my fear as she slid herself back down my length. I didn’t try to act pleased about this anymore. I had been hiding how disgruntled this made me, how much disgust I felt in her and myself. But I didn’t hide it now, I stared at her in horrified awe and open terror.
I couldn’t help, as my eyes swept over Autumn’s profile, to think that of the two women that had ever held a dagger to my heart, I preferred the queen. Because with the queen, I understood my fate, my role. I didn’t understand what I had felt with Autumn when she’d held her dagger to my heart. Resignation, acceptance. And now, if she wished to kill me, I would let her without a fight. Each had a hold over me that was vastly different from the other.
I hailed a carriage as Autumn wrapped her fur-trimmed cloak over her body and snuggled into it, ignoring me.
“Lady Blanche!”
I turned to see a guard trotting over to us. He was tall and appeared well trained from the graceful movements he had. First, the guard stared wide-eyed at Autumn, and then his eyes went over me with disdain. Ah. He was the guard she had danced with and looked genuinely happy for the first time at this party. It had clenched everything inside me, and I’d had to stop myself from stalking over and ripping his hands from her body.
“Oren,” she said in a rush and turned her back on me to speak with the guard.
“Lady…” His eyes swept over me again, and I turned away, feigning disinterest. “Where—”
“I apologize, Oren. I must head home. My… cousin has come to fetch me. One of our kin has fallen ill and…”
My nostrils flared in annoyance as I stepped closer to the carriage and out of earshot. I didn’t want to hear her excuses for the guard or see her genuine interest in him. It grated against me in ways I’d never felt before. Jealousy was something new, and I hated it.
The carriage driver gestured, and I shook my head. I would wait for her. I turned to them to see her walking towards me, a gloomy set to her features. The guard watched us with curiosity.
