He was here.
“But yes, kirei,” her Crow continued, drawing steadily closer until she could finally discern the shape of him within the shadows. “That is exactly what I want from you—permission to bring you the Duke of Coreto’s head on a platter.”
Chapter twenty-nine
Seraphina
What will she had left to remain standing oozed from her in the wake of those words, leaving her slipping down into a seated position, her back scraping against the wall as she went.
What he was suggesting was wrong. And yet there was something in the way he suggested it—low and husky—that made her traitorous heart beat all the quicker.
“If only it were that simple, Aldric,” she whispered, shielding her eyes against the bright glare from his torch.
“Itisthat simple, Sera,” he growled, tossing the torch aside. It clattered against the floor an arm’s length away and sputtered weakly in the darkness. “You have a problem. This is the solution. If you cut off the head of a snake, it can no longer bite you. Themoment he is dead, Coreto’s allies will fling themselves on your mercy. Then we can focus our attention back on Arlund.”
He made it sound so easy, speaking in that matter-of-fact way of his.
Perhaps he was right. Perhaps itwasthat easy.
It was almost a comforting thought—the thought of just letting him take care of it for her. The thought of her brave, vicious Crow chopping off the head of a viper to protect her from its venomous bite.
Except the Duke of Coreto was no snake. He was a man. A man of noble blood. And the head of House Threston—one of the Great Houses of Elmoria—besides.
Seraphina swallowed hard and pushed the thought aside. “I cannot,” she breathed, earning an annoyed hiss from her husband. With more force, she added, “Wecannot. The duke is a nobleman. I cannot simply execute him for treason. He must first be found guilty of said treason before an assembly of his peers.”
Aldric shifted closer by a single step, looming over her for once. The shadows carved strange shapes into his scarred visage, reminding her of her original vision: the bloody crow, bound in chains.
By the light cast from his torch, she watched his one good eye narrow. “You did not hold a trial for that commoner,” he pointed out. “The one who left your balcony unlocked.”
A humorless smile twitched the corner of her mouth upward. “I fear that in Elmoria we do not afford the common people the same courtesy as the nobleborn. I can find a commoner guilty oftreason, but a noble must be tried by his or her peers. It is simply the way things are done.”
“Then change the way things are done,” Aldric snapped, his mounting anger a palpable thing stirring between them. “You are the queen.”
“And as the queen, I must set a good example for my people by following my own laws.” Even as she spoke, a wave of weariness swept over her. She was absolutely certain they had had this exact conversation before. “I cannot just change the rules to suit me, Aldric.”
“That has certainly not stopped you before,” he hissed.
A fresh spark of irritation caught flame in her own soul. “Writing loopholes into treaties for the sole purpose of outwitting your idiot brother is not the same asthisand you know it. It is not the same thing as…killing a man.”
Her Crow lunged for her then, snatching her face between his hands, his fingers cupping her cheeks. “If you do not kill him, hewillkill you,” he snarled, his face mere inches from hers. His warm breath unfurled against her lips. His gaze locked with hers, his eye a shadowed pool of unfathomable depth. Unreadable. Inescapable.
Her breath hitched in her throat. Her pulse fluttered like a hummingbird’s wings.
Something in her husband’s expression shifted. It gentled.
“Please,” he rasped, low and dark. His hands carefully tilted her face upward, luring her closer. So painfully close. “Let me do this for you, kirei. It will be quick,” he promised on an almost intimate whisper. “You will not even have to see.”
His words were a siren’s song to her still-spiraling thoughts. His touch was a balm she didn’t know she needed.Kiss me. That was the only thing she wanted to demand of him in that moment—that he hold her. That he kiss her. That he lie to her and tell her that everything was going to be all right.
Everythingwillbe all right if you only let him take care of it, a small voice within her head whispered, tempting her further.You may not be a warrior, but you certainly married one. Let him wage war for you. Wasn’t that the agreement? That he secure your throne?
The cold from the stone beneath her slowly seeped through her clothing, reminding her of the ever-present chill blanketing her kingdom these days.
She shivered.
That had been the agreement, yes. A throne for a throne. But that had been before.
Before she became a liability.
