Yashira scrutinized the corpse sprawled at the foot of thebed. “That is Lady Keeya Tareek, eldest daughter to Voshon Tareek, who presides over one of the Apollyon Kingdom’s eastern territories, is it not?”
Kadeesha sighed. She didn’t answer Yashira because her mother knew who she looked upon. Kadeesha wasn’t surprised that Yashira had been at this new court for only a short time and had already made it her business to know the major players and their pertinent offspring.
“Why have you come?” she asked Yashira. “Is there something you need?”
Yashira tapped an almond-shaped nail—which was filed slightly rounder and wider than the stiletto shape of Kadeesha’s nails—against the oak pillar that was slick with Lady Keeya’s blood. “I came to see how you fancy the gifts that the Apollyon king bequeathed to you.”
Kadeesha frowned. She hadn’t heard her mother right. She couldn’t have. Then, she frowned deeper because she was one hundred percent certain that shehadin fact heard Yashira correctly. Now she knew where Malachi had found more or less additional intimate knowledge about her.
Yashira moved closer to the bed and ran an adoring hand over the gown. The threat of Deathbane poison was nothing to her mother, who’d practiced mithridatism over the five hundred and thirty-four years that she’d been an adult fae. “I told the maidservant His Grace sent to me with the inquiry about your preferred tastes in attire to carry back to him that you’ve kept a fresh vase of violets of paradise in your rooms at home since you were a little girl because you love their shade. I expected him to have a gown sewn of the hue, but this …” She touched two reverent fingers to the strand of flowers around the garment’s waist. “This is an impressive use of that information.” Yashiramoved her attention to the diadem beside the gown. She made a strangled noise. When she looked up at Kadeesha, her gaze was wide. Kadeesha could see the cursed scheming wheels already spinning. “Powerful kings do not gift their playthings, or any other female they associate with yet do not intend to marry, any version of a crown. For one to be allowed to wear a diadem, it symbolizes the willingness to share power. Trust me, I know. I was with Sylas for over five centuries, birthed his sole heir, and I’ve never been granted the leave to wear so much as a circlet or a simple floral wreath.”
Kadeesha ignored the bitterness that dripped from her mother’s words. She wasn’t venturing down that headache-inducing path. “What are you getting at? Speak plain,” Kadeesha said, already exhausted at where she could guess this was going.
“The Apollyon king isn’tplayingat being enthralled by you as a part of some cat-and-mouse game with his rival. If these gifts are any indication,he has become bewitched with you. The fact that he expended the energy to bequeath you priceless gifts at all, that’s further evidence.” Her mother’s gaze narrowed on her neck. Her eyes popped wide. “So isthat!” she cried. “Kadeesha! This is huge. You are in an exceptional position to coax Malachizrien into making you his chosen queen in earnest.” Kadeesha couldfeelthe elation wafting from her mother. She groaned.
“I intend to be crowned a queen already,” she reminded Yashira. “I don’t want or need Malachi tomakeme anything. Nor would he. You’re delusional. He is playing the exact game you described with Rishaud. And he’s in the process of sifting through eligible brides who are of his court to make one ofthemhis queen.” Or at least, he was letting his auntie do so onhis behalf. And no, alerting Yashira to Malachi’s impending nuptialsdid notgall Kadeesha in any manner.
“Malachi, is it?” Yashira said, fingering the diadem. “You’re quite comfortable with addressing the king who sends you lavish gifts so informally.”
Kadeesha cursed herself at the slipup around her mother. Of course Yashira read more into it than there was.
“The gossip around court,” Yashira continued, picking up the crown, “is that Malachizrien has begun to take an interest in Nychelle’s matchmaking process. Many young ladies are in a tizzy that he is finding fault with the slimmest things among the eligible candidates Nychelle has narrowed her list down to. I wonder, daughter, why you think that is?”
Because he doesn’t really want to take a wife, and he loathes the idea of marrying anyone!She bit her tongue against the retort she knew wasn’t true. Malachi might not have relished the idea, but he’d readily set his aversion aside to diminish opposition. And she could come up with no logical answer, especially with a coup attempt happening and war looming, for why Malachi wouldn’t barrel full speed ahead to buttress his rule.Perhaps the very illogical reason Yashira is getting atiswhat’s left, a voice offered up.
She shut it down. When Yashira wanted you to see things in a certain light, she had a way of getting into your head and warping your perspective of events if you didn’t actively watch out for it and guard against it.
Yashira clucked her tongue. “It is silly to be so resistant to the idea that a king of Malachizrien’s stature might either desire you in earnest or at the very least has seen that what his enemy desires you for is a powerful advantage to possess himself if you were to decide to wed him instead. I don’t pretend topresage what the Apollyon king’s motivations are, but you win either way, daughter. A queen of a hobbled vassal territory is not equivalent to being a queen of an independent and mighty kingdom.Especially if Malachizrien is successful in killing Rishaud and usurping the rest of the Six Kingdoms’ monarchs. He will then become the high king of Nimani, and you could be his high queen, fulfilling the prophecy that the Celestials saw fit to gift you as your birthright.” Her mother’s eyes gleamed with greater fervor the more she went on.
“I do not care about that prophecy,” Kadeesha gritted out. “I never have. It has only brought me headaches—such as being bartered away by my own father, a betrothal to a monster, and nearly being bound, irrevocably, to Rishaud. Now, you are trying to prod me into selling myself to a different king and selling out our people when I do so.”
“Think, Kadeesha,”Yashira hissed, ignoring everything Kadeesha had said. “Which is the more fail-safe route? A future battle with Malachi that you could and may well lose for a vassal throne, or securing your power as monarch of the Aether Kingdom andhigh queen of the whole continent?”
“Thanks for the vote of faith, Mother,” Kadeesha snapped.
“I am not saying I do not have faith in you. I am simply pointing out the shrewder strategy that—”
“Enough.” Kadeesha had to work hard not to shout. She and Yashira routinely bickered, but Yashira would feel a way about Kadeesha crossing a line and yelling at her. Sometimes Yashira got under Kadeesha’s skin so greatly that she didn’t care and dealt with the fallout. Today, she didn’t have the mental stamina to go there with her mother. Or rather, she was feeling too unusually reckless today, too untethered, to get into a bona fide argument with Yashira. Last night, Malachi had given her a usefuloutlet to channel her baser volatile temperament. Lady Keeya and her involvement with the poisoned gown had presented a second constructive target that harmed no one who was innocent. But now … now she continued to feel those destructive urges simmering beneath the surface.
“Why areyoudressed so elaborately?” Kadeesha asked Yashira, changing the subject. Her mother wore a sapphire gown that clung to the ample curves Kadeesha had inherited from her and flared out at her knees, casting the effect of a merfae’s tail. The color was perfect against Yashira’s dark bronze hue—another trait Kadeesha had inherited from her mother. The dress’s color made Yashira glow. And the fitted cut that hugged her body made her appear more stunning. “You look gorgeous,” Kadeesha admitted.
Yashira forgot about their debate, preening at the compliment. She twirled in a circle, showing off the opulent gown. “The Queen Mother Nychelle invited me to today’s festivities and gifted me the dress,” she told Kadeesha. “You’ll look extraordinary too once we get you properly ready. The pair of us will appear before the Apollyon Court wielding a beauty that rivals the Celestials themselves when we attend Malachi’s challenge. When we depart this court,ifwe depart,” she added slyly, “those we leave behind will compose odes to the great Aether beauties they had the privilege of beholding for a time.”
Kadeesha blinked. The woman was nothing if not predictable. “Really, Mother?” she cried. “You talk as if we’re attending a revelry. A challenge is taking place, which will end in an execution. The affair is in no way, shape, or mannerfestivities.”
Yashira, who treated nothing with the gravitas it deserved, flicked a glance at the cooling corpse. “Really, daughter? Please, do lecture me more on how executions are repugnant affairs.”
Kadeesha stiffened. “I never said they were repugnant. I meant that equating them withfestivities, as something to be celebrated, is crass and barbaric. They are a necessary ugliness at times, nothing more, nothing less.”
Her mother smirked. She was rarely one to allow another to one-up her. Proving she bore that trait to a fault, she asked Kadeesha pointedly, “So you didn’t take delight in killing the female that brought a poisoned gown to your door?”
Her question struck too close to the truth of the matter. Regardless of Lady Keeya’s guilt, Kadeeshahadtaken a cursed sort of delight, which she usually held in check, in interrogating and then killing Lady Keeya for her offenses. “I did what needed to be done,” she maintained.
Yashira’s eyes zeroed in on her Marking like a beacon stone. “Did you also letMalachidothatbecause it waswhat needed to be done? I know you, daughter, so I will not ask if the king wears a matching one. You’d never allow someone to occupy a greater position of strength than you if it is within your power to level the game board.”
“He does,” Kadeesha said stiffly. She only deigned to give Yashira the information because she would see for herself soon enough. “It means nothing, however,” she added quickly before Yashira could truly start in about their shared Markings. “I wasn’t making a power play when it occurred,” she said succinctly. “I merely lost my head momentarily and allowed an event to happen that should not have.”Such as agreeing to return to Malachi’s private quarters in the first place. And spending the night in his bed again.“Malachiisan attractive male who is terrific in bed. I’ve been told I am terrific too. So, naturally, but still recklessly, we let things get carried away last night. That is all. I’ll take care that it does not occur again.” She could admit thelengthy explanation—and the vow—was more for herself than Yashira. “The Markings that ensued were nothing more than a slip in judgement on both our parts. One that we willnotrepeat.”
Yashira cast her a dubious look. “I never took you to be willfully delusional, daughter. You know, I’ve had the opportunity to chat with Lady Nychelle quite a few times. She believes you and Malachizrien would make a formidable pairing, just as I do, if you two can manage to get on the same page and find a way to not be enemies.”
