Daris closed his eye.
He was in for a long night.
Chapter 3
SPARTA
Sonah’s head pounded. She was sure the throbbing at her right temple was fast enough to burst a vein. She stared at Duke Ovenno as she struggled to still her trembling.
“Sonah! Come, please, join us,” King Altos said with a smile more like a grimace. When Sonah turned her gaze to him, she noted how stiff he seemed, how tight his face.
She jerked out of her trance when she felt Jenos’s hand at the small of her back.
“Lady?”
In silence, she moved on leaden legs, her steps heavy as she made her way to the table. With his guests already seated, Sonah was unsure of where she should sit.
Duke Ovenno stepped behind the chair at King Altos’s right side and pulled it out. The loud grating of the chair against the marble floor made her flinch.
Looking to the king for help, Sonah soon realized none was forthcoming. Altos dropped his gaze, his lips pinched as he stood, waiting.
Sonah walked until she stood beside the seat Duke Ovenno was still holding, her eyes not daring to meet his. When she moved to sit, she shuddered as he pushed the seat in for her.
Her eyes lifted to meet those of the duchess. The woman’s face was ashen. Her hand shook as it lifted her crystal wine glass to her pinched ruby lips.
“Now,” King Altos said brusquely after taking his seat, “as Duke Ovenno is still your… guardian, he and the duchess have come to take you home.”
Sonah blanched. Cold flashed over her and the blood left her face.
While she’d been the Royal Taster to Crown Prince Lerek during her time at the White Palace, she was thought to have been Duke Ovenno’s daughter. Now, months after the assassination of the crown prince—no, it had been Isher who was murdered—the ruse was no longer necessary.
So why come here? Why continue this game?
“To that end,” the king continued after an awkward pause, “you will return with him?—”
“What?!” Sonah shot to her feet, her chest heaving as she stared in horror at the king. “You would?—”
“Silence!”
Sonah stood for a long moment after the king’s bellow, then quickly sat. She alternated between fear and rage. She had not gone so far as to think of him as a friend, but she had thought King Altos would at least have fought harder for her. But he seemed more than fine with handing her over to the very man who had set her up as a pawn in a madman’s palace.
The quiet thickened as Altos gestured for the servants. Sonah fumed, the sounds of plates and glasses and cutlery filled the taut silence around them. With their work completed, the servants vanished, save for a footman standing far enough behind the king’s chair as to be out of sight.
“Dear Sonah,” Duke Ovenno said, his booming voice making her cringe. “I regret I was unable to come to the White Palace after…”
Sonah lifted her eyes enough to glare at King Altos, who was watching her with a glare of his own.
“You continue this—” Sonah flung out a hand, almost knocking over her water glass. She righted it and turned her glare from the king to the duke. “You continue thisfarceeven now? I will go nowhere with you.” She turned her narrowed eyes to Altos. “I hope?—”
The king stood so abruptly his chair crashed to the ground before a servant scurried over to pick it up. Sonah flinched but otherwise did not back down.
“If you’ll excuse us, Ovenno,” King Altos ground out. Pulling Sonah’s chair out roughly, he seized her wrist, all but dragging her out of her seat. Sonah gasped, her face hotter than the sun as she rushed to keep up with the king’s stride.
She hadn’t been looking where he led. Thrusting her into a room she’d never been in before, Altos slammed the door shut before rounding on her with fury blazing in his eyes.
“There’s more going on here than just Duke Ovenno coming to Sparta,” Altos seethed as he stepped dangerously close to Sonah. She had the wherewithal to shrink back. “YouknowI am aware they arenotyour parents. I had hoped you’d also know I would never put you in harm’s way. You are very important to me. To Sparta. But I need you to play along so we can find out what exactly is behind this unexpected visit. Why he’d have the audacity to come here in the first place!”
Sonah was taken aback by the fury punctuating his words. She’d known the king long enough to form an opinion of the man she believed was shared by all who knew him.
