“You may rise,” Gray announced, dismissing the onlookers but refusing to relax her shoulders after the fight.
Finally, I allowed my feet to carry me toward her, a smile beaming across my face. “You fucking did it! I’m so godsdamn proud of you!” I declared, lifting Gray off her feet and spinning around with her wrapped in my arms.
Golden still lay unconscious on the floor, and a few Kinetics squatted beside him to try and bring him back to the present. I couldn’t help the smirk at his demise.
After placing a chaste kiss on her bloody forehead, I set her back on her feet. “You kicked his ass, baby.”
Gray shrugged, trying to hide her smile. “Should’ve done worse to him.”
“If you’d done any worse, then you would’ve killed him,” I said, chuckling.
“Exactly.” Gray held my gaze, fierce determination settling in there.
Fucking hell, she was going to be so deadly.
A simmering black flame flickered within the depths of her stare. No fear. In its place resided vengeance and anger. I only hoped she could keep it on a tight leash so it didn’t corrupt her.
“Ah, there’s my nephew.” Amethyst’s swift yet biting voice cut into the bubble surrounding Gray and me.
The two of us pushed away from each other like opposing magnets. My heart lurched into my throat at my aunt’s sudden appearance, catching the princess and me in such an intimate position.
Fuck.
Amethyst stood at the edge of the sparring mat with a smug grin on her perfectly contoured face. “I thought I’d find you here. Didn’t expect to find you in such a position with the princess, though,” she added with a raised brow, an all-knowing glint in her cunning glacial eyes.
“She just won her first challenge against Golden,” I explained, gesturing with the tilt of my head behind me toward Golden, rousing in a dazed state on the floor.
My aunt leaned just enough to peer around Gray and me. Shocked, she puckered her lips. “So many surprises.”
Gray stood rigid. The fierce, cold expression she had before the match with Golden had returned. This time, directed at Amethyst, probably envisioning every way she wished to kill her.
Amethyst studied the princess from head to toe before challenging her glare. Silence stretched between them, thickening the oxygen in the training room. At last, my auntbroke it with, “There’s something different about you. What’s changed?”
Gray shrugged. “I guess we all have a little bit of ruthlessness in us. Just gotta know the right buttons to push.”
“Interesting,” Amethyst hummed. “I’ll talk to your father about when to start your magic training.”
Gray didn’t respond; she simply maintained her icy stare on her father’s second-in-command.
“Well, I hate to break up our little chat, but I’m going to need you to come with me, Slate. Important matters call.”
Chilling pinpricks inched up my neck, and my heart sank. Shit. This was it. Off to the Inquisitor, and then to be thrown into the prisons for treason.
I swallowed, forcing my face to remain neutral. Nodding to my aunt before turning back to the princess, I said, “I’m so proud of you. See you tomorrow.”
Gray’s suspicion razed through me, her eyes narrowing and her head tilting. She knew something was wrong, but she kept her mouth shut.
“Make ‘em bow, beautiful,” I whispered, soft enough for only her ears, before leaving her side and joining Aunt Amethyst’s instead to walk me to my doomed fate.
The walk to the elevator was brief, and the ride to a floor below us to the prisons was even briefer. Amethyst’s expression gave nothing away.
The prisons were ice-cold and reeked of death and decay. I tried to ignore the prisoners in the cells on either side of us as we strode down the long concrete hallway toward the interrogation room at the end, but their pleas for innocence and freedom overwhelmed me. In light of our new information about Forest, Iwouldn’t be surprised if most of them had been framed to cover up some form of corruption exercised by the king.
Keeping my spine straight, my pulse pounded in my head as Amethyst reached the interrogation room door, typed in the electronic code, and led me inside the dark space.
Her red currents snaked up her arms in languid waves, indicating her relaxed nature. Mine were covered by the training uniform’s long black sleeves. At least my currents wouldn’t give away my nervousness.
“Have a seat, Nephew.” Amethyst gestured to the metal table bolted to the floor. Upon sitting down, I noted the cuffs attached to the arms and legs of the chair.
