Shoving the bowl of eggs at her, I growl, “Make sure she eats.”
Locking my jaw, I force myself to walk away, leaving the only place I want to be.
Forty-Three
Never kill your wife’s best friend.
Unless you can hide her body.
- King Richard
“Do you know why you’re here?” I snap as soon as I step into my rooms, irritation rolling off my skin. The place was redecorated while we were on tour, but I wish it was the mess it was before. There’s too much colour in here now. Too many reminders of Aurelia, whose rooms were a splash of life. Too many of Arienna, of a future I tried to plan for, adding in colours I thought my replacement might like.
My scar burns at the sight of Evangeline; I know what I’ll have to barter for her support. She sits on the floor, in front of a perfectly good sofa, and I sit down across from her, in front of a perfectly good chair. She never got used to the comfort of luxury after our time at war, and I don’t want it now.
“If I accept your proposal,” she says, not surprising me in the slightest that she knows of a deal only spoken of inside a secure room. Her ants are fucking everywhere – including in the Royal Guard. Though in this moment, I’m happy for it. It saves mefrom having to catch her up. “I will be forced to step down from FI-9.”
“I know.” I pause for a second, Arienna’s pain slicing apart my control. She might hate me now, but eventually, that will fade. The trauma she’ll receive as queen will not.
“If you marry me,” I say, all my doubts gone, “I’ll answer any questions you have about Aurelia.”
She stills. The electricity in the air burns the hairs across my body and focuses in the scar on my hand. “I could have you executed for those secrets.”
“You could.”
“You would risk that for Arienna?”
“Yes.”
She stares at me, her eyes seeing more than Deirdre’s ever could. We nearly died in each other’s arms. We saved each other’s lives multiple times. I trusted her at my back, and she trusted me at hers, knowing I would do whatever I needed to protect her.
But when Aurelia died, everything between us changed.
When Evangeline is pissed, she’s fuckingpissed.We went from lovers to enemies overnight. Everything she spat at me rang with a truth that tainted my feelings for her. A bitter feud erupted, anger and guilt flowing from both sides.
Perhaps if I actually tried to convince her that my sister had died from cancer, Evangeline would’ve accepted it, but I respected her too much for that. And if we continued on as we’d been with a secret that massive between us… we never would’ve made it anyway.
“Tory said you loved her,” my ex sneers, “but how can someone likeyoueven know what that is?”
“Will you marry me or not?” I ask, irritated this is taking so long.
“Did you love her?”
Did?“I still do.”
She’s across the floor in an instant, her hand wrapped around my throat. Her fingers can barely hold me, but her magic hums in the air, ready to kill me whenever she wants.
“You do not kill those you love,” she sneers, making me realise she’s talking about Aurelia rather than Arienna.
I hold her gaze, unflinching. “You do if she’s a princess, and she gives you a direct order.” If she’s your sister whose alternative is to die in the fairy ring, her soul damned for all eternity.
Evangeline’s eyes widen slightly before narrowing. Her nails dig into my neck. “You’re lying.”
“You think Jace would have let me kill her otherwise?”
Her face twists in utter agony. “He could have been paid off.”
“Jace?” I scoff. “How many times have you tried to bribe him for the truth?”
