“Who are you?” My voice was more growl than words, broken from my earlier unsettled jealousy and fresh rage.
He gave a small, almost imperceptible shake of his head, and his hand slowly moved toward his pocket.
The curse rejoiced at the threat, but I snarled against it, trying to rein it back.Can’t kill him yet.I still needed information.
An arrow of ice formed in my palm. I unleashed it, and his arm crashed down, pinned fast against the unyielding ground. His screams tried topierce the derelict storehouse, sweet as music to the curse. The sound should’ve sobered me—I’d had enough nightmares featuring that grim chorus to last several lifetimes—but my skin prickled with the monster’s delight.
I wrenched his now-useless hand free, fingers closing around the small glass vial he’d only just grasped. One sharp pull of the cork, and the bitter scent told me everything I needed to know. This was the poison the Assembly gave to their operatives when a quick death was weighed against interrogation.
Not a thief.A spy.
“You want death?” The words came twisted, too dark. The curse wanted to share my tongue.
Tears streaked his mud-smeared face as he writhed against the ice restraining him. He didn’t answer, only choked.
“Death is your best option,” I told him, the words tasting hollow. “Were you spying on our diplomat? On her?”
He nodded, broken and small.
The sane part of me tried to hold the reins. Tried to ask why. Why did the Assembly distrust their own emissary? Why had they sent a spy into my domain, into her room? The questions screamed inside me, wanting out.
But the curse roared louder.
For a heartbeat, I tried to fight it. A battle I lost as if I were a weaponless, magicless man standing against a dire lion of legend.
Reason fled me completely.
I pictured him gripping her wrists with bruising force, pressing her with questions until tears welled in her eyes. Saw her rubbing Owain’s back as he heaved in gasping breaths. Saw Nisien kissing her. Again and again. The visions struck me until nothing else remained.
Damn you, Maeron.
This was all a grand game to the chancellor. Send the empath who sees straight through people and bind her to my brother.
The perfect heir. The future king. The one who couldn’t pass on his precious bloodline unless he mated with another mage.
I shouldn’t care. She wasn’t meant for me. I shouldn’t ignite with jealousy when she gave Nisien her attention.
But I did.
“No—” I ground the word out, but my body was already moving out of the shack as the curse’s magic tore free in a violent wave.
The walls cracked first. Then the roof groaned. The door shuddered on its hinges.
I drove the entire building, door first, splintering wood and crumbling stone, into a pit deep enough to swallow the whole thing, spy and all, in one gulp.
When it was done, there was only silence and the wet earth beneath my knees. I’d fallen to them at some point—probably when my failure caught up to me and the sour taste of regret flooded my mouth.
I’d wanted answers. I had needed them.
Instead, all I had was blood on my hands and enough shame to send me spiraling into darkness when tomorrow was supposed to be the brightest day of the year.
Chapter 30
Isca
The sun’s early rising warmed the stone of the balcony enough for it to become my favorite breakfast spot. The queen’s chambers were positioned directly above the garden, giving them the best view in the entire castle. Late spring blooms sweetened the air all around me as they fought with early summer flowers for the bees’ and butterflies’ attention.
It was usually incredibly peaceful, but it wasn’t quiet this morning.
