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When Mat merely ducked his head, Panarina whirled on me. “Tell me what happened!”
“I thought Nat covered it quite succinctly,” I said helpfully. “He’s dead.”
“By your hand?” Her voice was ice.
“Absolutely.”
“Guards!” Astrid screeched. I heard the high-ranked guard at my back draw her sword.
“I don’t think you want them to hear this,” I said in Quarehian.
“You dare,” the queen hissed, having transformed from a serene statue into a rabid, frothing animal, “seek my aid when you murdered mybrother?”
“Your brother sold you out in the hope you’d die,” I reminded her coldly. “He kept your father in a coma and was probably responsible for his eventual death. He got Nathanael captured, he conspired with Commander Grachyov to take your throne, and most unforgivably of all-”
Mathias’ shoulders tensed as if expecting a physical blow. But what Kolya had done in Temar wasn’t something I was going to yell out in the middle of the castle.
“-he tried to kill Natat the tournament, Panarina. So no, I don’t give a fuck that your brother is dead, and I only wish it had happened before he’d had the chance to hurt and murderas many people as he did.”
She faltered, her hand shooting up to cover her mouth.
“Astrid,” my lover said gently, putting aside his own feelings to protect her from hers in that selfless streak of his that I both loved and despaired over. “I know Kolya could be sweet, at times, but he lost his way. We’re sorry it came to that, but Ren really had no choice.”
Panarina swallowed, her eyes shooting to his and seeming to take comfort in whatever she saw in their depths. And then she made a careless gesture and the guards retreated back to their original positions, weapons once again sheathed at their sides.
“Yes, I…I know my brother was not always…on my side,” she said delicately, and in the twist of her mouth I saw hints of their turbulent relationship, that of both hate and love. “Or that of anyone but himself. But I…” She drew herself up to her full height and seemed to snap out of her grief in the way that royals were forced to do, her voice returning to the brusqueness it had been steeped in when we arrived.
“Da. I am willing to consider your plea, Prince Aratorre, before I make any decision on whether to assist you and your country. And normally I would invite you both to dine with me,” the queen continued dispassionately, “but considering the circumstances and Quareh’s demands for your heads, I think it best you stay in your rooms until I call for you.”
“Rooms?” I asked, a low growl creeping into my tone as I noted the use of the plural. I stepped closer to Mat, threading his fingers through mine. “You’re not separating us.”
She looked down at where our hands were joined and narrowed her eyes.
“I will remind you that you are in the north, gentlemen,” she said, averting her gaze back to our faces with a cool stare. “I expect I will already have to navigate demands from my court for Nathanael’s arrest on the sodomy charge he invoked on himself: donotmake it worse for yourselves.”
“If you leave Mat on his own and Commander Grachyov finds-”
“Nikolai Grachyov is no longer my Commander,” Panarina told us sharply. “Nikolai Grachyov no longeris.”
Mathias and I glanced at each other.
“Did you think I would not heed your warnings in your letter to me?” Astrid asked, looking almost exasperated. “I had him investigated and then executed when I secured proof of his treason, along with those helping him. Grachyov is no longer a threat to you, Nathanael, and I regret that is another thing I did not see sooner.”
A wave of her hand, and our guard began to politely, but very firmly, guide me back to the door we’d entered through.
“But despite your preferences or objections, I do not need the strife you two would otherwise cause me,” Panarina said, and her tone held a note of despairing finality. “You will be given adjoining guest rooms to rest in for the duration of your stay, but the door between will be securely locked. Donotattempt to use it.”
Mathias let out a low hum, but to my surprise, didn’t even try to argue with her. And when I realised that I was being escorted out without him, my hissed demands to stay at his side resulting in nothing more than fingers folding around my arm so the guard could unceremoniouslydragme out, he surprisingly didn’t protest that either.
“Mat!”
“It’s okay, Ren,” he said, and his warm, reassuring smile even made me believe the deceitful little wretch, despite everything else in this place screaming out danger. He turned to watch me go, seemingly unbothered by the dangerous ice queen at his back, and mouthed out a littleI love youas the heavy doors of the throne room slammed closed between us.
-
The servant finished with my hair and removed the towel that had been draped over my shoulders. She adjusted the cushions behind my back for the fourth time since she’d seated me here after my bath, but I still didn’t lean back into the armchair’s embrace, too on edge to relax.
“Would you like me to ready you for bed, Prince Renato?”
