“She could’ve asked me to do it,” Evangeline says.
“I told her the same thing.”
We stare at each other, a taut silence descending. It isn’t comfortable, but it isn’t exactly uncomfortable either. It’s just there.
Suddenly breaking it, she rises. “Well.” She clears her throat. “I have shit to do, people to kill and all that.”
And I have a queen to convince to stay with me even though I’m marrying another.
But just as she heads for a window and I head for the door, I stop and turn around. “Redric is looking for you.”
She shifts to the side of the window, out of the way of any snipers while she faces me. She has probably had more assassination attempts on her than I have. “Who?”
I smirk. “That Vylian commander whose penis you kept shrinking.”
Her brows furrow as she shakes her head. “I have no idea who you’re talking about.”
“He remembers you.”
She raises a single brow. “Are you worried about me, Dickie?”
I snort. “No, him and our peace with the Vylians. So don’t kill him when he does something stupid.”
For a split second, she looks like she did when we were friends. Light and carefree and more than a bit psychotic. A smile curling her lips, she flings herself out the window.
I stand for a moment in my empty room, looking around at the piss-poor décor. With Evangeline having accepted my marriage proposal, Arienna will have to vacate the queen’s chambers.
Not liking the thought of having that conversation with her on top of all the others, I exhale roughly. My skin crawls with a restless energy. Stepping out into the hall, I make my way to her rooms.
I nod at Jace and Marrabel as I near. Jace leans over to open the door, a bright smile on his face. Marrabel looks straight ahead, but her jaw is tight, like she’s struggling to hide a grin of her own – the same look she used to get when she did something to annoy Saragese.
My stomach dropping, I walk quickly into the bedroom, but I already know what I’m going to find there.
The bed is fucking empty.
And the bowl of eggs lay untouched.
I am going to fucking kill her.
Forty-Four
A good little slut listens to her king.
Unless he’s being a dick.
- Arienna
I hurry through the tunnel, following Fabia as she pulls me forwards by the hand.When I woke up a few minutes ago, I was alone in bed, and the pain of that hit me hard. My best friend was in the room with me, sitting on the floor, but her presence, for the first time ever, wasn’t enough to make me feel better.
She asked me if I wanted to see Richard, and I shook my head. Just the thought of looking at him hurt too much. As soon as she came back in to tell me he’d left, I scrambled out of bed, still in last night’s clothes, with fragmented thoughts of where to go.
I just knew I couldn’t stay there.
Without question, Fabia pulled Jace in from the hall and told him we were leaving through the tunnels. He wanted to know where I was going first, and she looked at me, letting me decide.
Brownston didn’t feel like home anymore.
The library wasn’t guarded well enough for Jace to be comfortable with.
