Guilt pricked her heart, but Lindy covered it with an eyeroll. “By that logic, I’m responsible for the tears of everyone who started weeping after they saw me today.”
Corbin took a step forward, crowding her space. The guard behind her took a step back, as if fully content to allow the prince to do whatever kind of damage he might desire. Corbin growled, “Stop playing the fool, Belinda. You know exactly what you did.”
She was not a small woman, but Corbin was tall enough that she had to tilt her head back in order to stillmeet his gaze. She had dealt with enough bullies in her life to know that he just wanted to intimidate her, and she refused to give him the satisfaction. “I didn’t say anything to Ellie that you haven’t already told her yourself. If you have a problem with that, maybe you should look in the mirror.”
His jaw worked back and forth, and his voice dropped to a dangerous whisper. “I don’t know what kind of magic you worked on Father to convince him to marry you, but whatever it is you’re planning, Iwillstand in your way.”
“So I’ve noticed. I was planning on going to bed.”
His eyes flashed. “Is this all just a joke to you? My father is dead because of you.”
Lindy’s patience snapped, and she drew on her anger, using it to coat her words with steel. “I didn’t kill Theodor.”
“Don’t say his name.”
“Why not? In case you forgot, Corbin, he wasmyhusband. And until your coronation, I am still your queen. Now step aside and let me pass.”
“Or what?” he sneered. “You’ll curse me, too? Turn me into a frog, like you did to Dorian?”
“I don’t have to.” She gave him a falsely sweet smile. “You’re already a toad.”
Lindy stepped around him, but he snagged her wrist and yanked her back. “This conversation isn’t over.”
She shook his hand off. “I have nothing more to say to you, which I think means it is.”
“You may have bewitched my father,” Corbin pushedon, ignoring her. “But I’m not going to let you take Cygnus.”
She breathed in through her nose and let it out slowly. “For the last time, Corbin, I don’t want your throne. Keep your crown, keep your country.I don’t want it.”
His eyes narrowed and darted back and forth, as if he believed he would find the answer he looked for somewhere in her pale face, and with a rare earnestness he asked, “Then why are you here? What do you want?”
A home.
To feel safe.
To be loved.
Lindy hesitated. Showing vulnerability meant allowing him to have power over her, but she also knew that any kind of relationship going forward would require some kind of concession. She opened her mouth, prepared to answer as honestly as she dared, when Corbin cut her off with another question, his earnestness replaced with loathing.
“What could you possibly hope to gain?”
She swallowed the words on the tip of her tongue and lifted her chin, shoving aside the idea of concession. “Absolutely nothing you’re willing to offer.” She spit the words out and spun on her heel, reaching her door and throwing it closed behind her before he could react. She leaned against it wearily, tilting her head back and slowly sinking to the floor as the last tenuous thread holding her emotions together began to fray.
I should have known better than to think that cominghere would be any different. I’m neither wanted nor welcome.
Her eyes wandered over the room, gliding over the furnishings that had been chosen by the former queen. King Theodor’s previous wife had been a fan of velvet and gold and dark wood, and the room felt nearly oppressive in its luxuriousness. It wasn’t at all what Lindy would have chosen for herself, but she hardly felt confident in a welcome reception should she request to redecorate. As it was, she had arrived from her home in Nedra with little more than the clothes on her back and a small trunk, and the only personal touches she had left on the room were the tiny framed portrait of herself and her younger sister on the bedside table and the lumpy, uneven shawl spread over the bed. Her sister Eliza had knit it for her during one of her extended stays in Kysta, the tiny coastal country that neighbored her home to the south, and though it looked ridiculous, it was one of the last gifts that Lizzie had given her before she was cursed.
The reminder of her sister’s cold, unfeeling eyes was another knife in her chest, but Lindy pushed past her guilt and grief. She refused to allow herself to regret the loss of the one person in her life who had truly loved her.
Lizzie asked for it.
She sat in the silence, staring sightlessly at nothing in particular for so long her legs and seat began to grow numb, and she barely registered the sound of the door opening and closing in the sitting room adjoining hers. A heavy sigh from the interior door roused her from her stupor, and she turned her head to see Elise standing inthe doorway with her hands clasped loosely in front of her, a concerned expression pulling at her brows.
“Have you been there all afternoon?”
“Where else would I have been?” Lindy’s voice sounded hollow and far away even to her own ears.
“A chair, for one. Perhaps your bed? Someplace a little more comfortable than the floor.” Elise stepped into the room and offered Lindy a dainty hand. “Come on; you need to get ready for dinner.”
