A clap of thunder cracked against the ship, making the liquid in our cups tremble. Milani and her guards looked out the windows, but the few clouds in the sky were flat and uneven, not the bubbling ones that indicated a storm was moving in. Then I felt it, and I struggled to hide the sudden surge of elation that heated my blood.
Milani shrugged, going back to her food as she prattled on inanely. I only half listened, my gaze returning again and again to the windows.
“Samkiel!” Milani’s voice was commanding, but there was a shrill undertone.
Slowly, I pulled my gaze from the window and focused on her. I quirked a brow in question, keeping my expression bored and bland.
When I don’t say anything, she huffs. “Are you listening to me?” she asks, her smile forced and her hands curled into fists on the tabletop. She just couldn’t stand not to be the center of attention.
“No,” I said blandly.
Her face turned red, and she squealed in outrage. “Pay attention to me!”
“Which part?” I asked, my leg bouncing under the table. My nerves were beyond shot, and I was fighting to keep myself in place. I really just wanted to see the one person who had just arrived.
She turned her glare on her psychotic brother, and Ennis smiled before lifting his hand and pressing that damn device. A bolt of furious energy curled around my damn bones, and I grunted as I leaned forward. He held it until sweat broke out across my forehead, and she finally called him off.
“Feel like listening now?” she asked, her fork scraping across her plate. I kept my head lowered, but looked up at her from beneath my lashes as she popped a piece of fruit between those gold-painted lips and smiled at me.
I took a shuddering breath as Ennis leaned comfortably back in his seat and pointed the device at me again. I knew I needed to comply, but I vowed to shove that thing so far up his ass he’d taste the damn thing the moment I got the chance.
“I’m listening.” I huffed, putting my pride aside and sitting up, my body still aching.
“Good.” She took another bite of food. “I think if we speak to Nismera, we can form an alliance.”
She was absolutely insane if she thought Nismera would ever agree to an alliance with me. The only alliance she was interested in was the one where she executed me in front of all to see. Nismera wanted all in the realms to bear witness to her power so they would never question her birthright again.
“Milani, I don’t think that Nismera is actually interested in an alliance with me at all. I think she just wants me dead,” I said.
“I’m thinking of marriage.”
My face contorted in disgust. She had first brought up the idea of marriage the week we were together when I came to broker an alliance. Back then, I was young, dumb, and said whatever she wanted to hear as long as she opened her legs. My idiocy may have damned us all.
“I doubt that will work,” I said. “Since I am already spoken for and taken.”
Her fork stilled halfway to her mouth, and Ennis leaned forward in his seat. I did not care. This would be the line I’d always draw. I could take the criticism towards me and my reign, but when it came to Dianna? Disrespect would cost anyone their head. I did not care what title or position they held.
“You’re talking about Daphne?”
I knew she knew her name just by the way she twirled her fork when she said it.
“Dianna,” I said, enunciating the word. “And you should learn her name since she will be your queen when we reclaim these realms, and they are once more under their rightful ruler. But if you can’t remember it, I am happy to teach you how to spell it.”
Her fork dropped to her plate as she rose. Anger twisted her features, and her wings flared out behind her. The gold headpiece she wore rattled as she slammed her hands down onto the table. “The only queen we have or need is Nismera, and when she’s through with your Dehlia, you’ll be crawling back to me.”
“I never got on my knees for you, Milani, and I won’t start now.”
“Guards!” she screeched, her voice nothing but shrill now.
Two guards pushed open the doors, and I stood gratefully as a third approached me. He grasped my arm just above the elbow and led me out of the room. Ennis watched me leave, his finger on the trigger of that damn remote as if he got off on it. I shook my head as I left, the guard escorting me back to my area. We didn’t speak as we walked down the wide, extravagant hall. The only sounds were our footsteps against the marble floor and the constant hum of the engines. When we reached my room, for the first time, the guard didn’t shove me in alone.
He followed me into my room, and the second the door snicked closed, I spun. My hands grasped his head, and I crashed my mouth onto his. His form melted and shrank. The armor that had fit the towering brute so well hung off the much smaller, lithe frame. I leaned back, only allowing enough space between us so I could pull the helmet off and meet Dianna’s eyes. I tossed the ridiculous winged thing aside and slid my fingers into her hair, gripping the dark strands tightly.
“I felt you the second you arrived.” I pulled her close for another kiss because being apart from her for even a few days was an eternity to my heart and soul. “How did you get here without being caught?”
Her eyes raked over me before she licked her lower lip. “Long story. It took some convincing, but the others are here as well. They are spread out and waiting for my signal.”
“You have a plan.”
