He shakes his head, eyes wide and panicked.
I huff a sigh of impatience. “Give your daughter a few coins,” I whisper briskly. “They won’t be expecting much from her. Split the rest between you and your wife.” He still doesn’t take the coins, so I shove them into his pocket and sneak back to my original spot in line.
“That was grossly idiotic,” Asmo whispers harshly into my ear.
I don’t respond. It was. The guards could have spotted me, and I might have ruined this entire mission. But I’m still the High Queen and I know my husband. If he has any chance to humiliate or punish someone, he’s going to take it. I can at least save this one family from him.
Asmo reaches from behind me and shoves his hand into my pocket. The jingle of loose coins has me turning to him, a protest on the tip of my tongue, but he silences me with a look.
“Next!” the guard at the throne room door announces, waving the mother forward. Her daughter is called, then the father. I can only hope I gave them enough.
Ivan, then Luca follow soon after.
“Next!” the guard calls, signaling me forward.
I grip the coins in my coat pocket and step forward. He ushers me inside, and I’m hit with a sick sense of something so familiar, yet sodifferent. It feels like I’ve opened my favorite book, expecting to read my favorite story—yet, the words are written in a different language.
I raise my gaze to the twin thrones. A king and a queen sit beside each other. Marik sits on one throne of berries and branches, his tall frame slumped as if he has better things to do.
My breath catches as my gaze falls to the female beside him.
It’s me.
Chapter 6
ELLE
“Don’t be so dramatic,”Marik drawls beside me. “The girl will be fine.”
My jaw is clenched so tightly, I think I might crack a tooth. “You didn’t have to do that. She’s achild,” I spit at him.
There have been two others since the little girl, but I can’t get her panicked expression out of my mind. Her face when she realized she was going to the dungeons made me want to cry. There was no reason for it, other than cruelty.
“Call the next one in,” he orders the guard, ignoring me.
A slender female deer hybrid walks into the throne room, her gaze focused on the pristine marble flooring as she approaches. Waves of anxiety roll off her. Marik must sense it, too. He perks up as she walks closer.
This tithe was his idea. He ignored me when I told him that the High House has neverenacted a tithe. Actually, he made me stop talking completely by forcing my mouth to slam shut.
The female bows at the designated location, then lifts her head. Her gaze lands on Marik, then me, her eyes widening a fraction.
“State your name,” Marik orders.
“Maisie Gibbs,” she says, her voice sounding small. Scared.
Warning bells go off in my head. This is the third person in a row that has blatantly lied about their name. Some people have given half-truths when asked why they couldn’t spare more gold, but until the last three hybrids, nobody has blatantly lied, let alone about their name.
I sit up straighter, watching the female carefully.
“State your occupation,” he orders.
“I’m a gardener,” she squeaks. It’s a lie.
Marik nods, as if this occupation is perfectly acceptable to him. “And what do you have to contribute to your court today?”
She pulls out a gently used coin purse and empties it into her hand. Six gold coins.
Marik gives one more nod, then flicks his head toward the exit. “Place it in the cauldron on your way out.”
