Reyna stopped short on the garden path and propped her hands on her belted waist. “And what then? Surely the High Queen allows curiosities. She is not a tyrant. At least, I’ve never heard she is, not like the Wood Court’s king.”
“She’s not a tyrant, but she is fiercely protective of her son,” Lorcan warned. “Do not give her reason to perceive you as a threat.”
Lorcan’s marked burned, and he grit his teeth through the pain. Twisting away from Reyna, he stared hard at the red winter berries that dotted the bush just before him. The pain passed quickly, but it left a dull throb behind. Why had it flared now? Surely it didn’t want him to destroy Reyna, too.
“Lorcan?” Reyna asked, gently placing a hand on his arm. She peered up at him, concern flickering in her silver eyes. “What’s the matter?”
His gaze landed on her fingers. He could feel the warmth of her touch, even through his thick leather.
“Lorcan?” she asked again, edging so close that he could see down the front of her gown. He swallowed thickly, remembering the sight of her in that bath. It had taken a lot of effort to hold back the desire he’d felt churning in his gut. He had seeneverypart of her, and not one bit had been unappealing, particularly the soft slopes of her breasts…
Lorcan’s mind snapped back to the present. What was he doing? This was the prince’s betrothed. He needed to remove himself from the situation and stop thinking about her breasts.
“Nothing is the matter,” he growled out. “This conversation has become dreadfully boring. One day at court, and you have already become one of them. Go on with your walk. I’ll stand guard from the edge of the gardens.”
Confusion rippled across Reyna’s face, and then she scowled. Quickly, she dropped her hand from his arm. “Good. I was hoping to get rid of you so I could enjoy my walk in peace.”
With that, Reyna twisted on her heels and marched away. She barely glanced at the greenery she passed. Lorcan watched her go, his heart pounding. Her blue gown swished around her hips, and her silver hair trailed down her slender back. Everything about her screamed power, in a beautiful, terrifying way.
Reyna Darragh was going to bring trouble to this court.
14
Reyna
It turned out that plotting to murder the prince was a dreadfully uneventful scheme. Reyna stood outside of the Great Hall with Thane, waiting to enter. Apparently, the High Queen was finally holding court and she wanted to meet her son’s new betrothed. It had been a weeks since she had arrived in Tairngire, and Reyna’s days had been plagued by endless gossip. Every day had been more of the same. She woke at first light, she bathed and dressed, she attended mass, and then she spent hours inside the Great Hall listening to courtiers prattle on about the same thing they discussed the day before.
She might perish of boredom before the prince died from the sharp end of her blade.
Speaking of the prince, she had seen little of him in the past several days. He had been too busy dealing with the fall-out of the abdication. His mother had replaced the entire council and had requested an entirely new set of personal guards. It seemed she trusted no one the king had held close to him. High Queen Imogen was even more paranoid inside these castle walls than Reyna.
Quite the accomplishment, Reyna thought with a slight smile.
Thane finally spoke. “Apologies, princess, for not introducing you to the High Queen before now.”
His posture was stiff, and his eyes were hard and distant. As always, he wore his gold-dyed leather armor, though there was something about it that appeared rough around the edges for once. And there was a puffiness around his eyes. Perhaps he hadn’t been sleeping.
“It is all right,” she said quietly, all too aware of the many guards that surrounded them. Eyes and ears for the queen, no doubt. “I understand that there were some...unexpected developments upon your return.”
“Unexpected is right,” he muttered before lifting his eyes to meet hers. “Tell me, Reyna. You readily relinquished your titles and your claim to your kingdom’s throne, did you not?”
Reyna frowned. She did not know where Thane was taking this. “At the time, I thought it was the best course of action for myself. Glencora was first in line, regardless. It did not matter if I chose a different path. It was unlikely that I would ever sit on the Ice Court’s throne.”
“But it did end up mattering,” he pointed out.
“No one could have foreseen what happened,” she replied. “If I had known, I might never have become an unsworn Shieldmaiden.”
Thane’s golden eyes were unreadable, something Reyna did not like at all. She did not wish to discuss her choices about the crown. So far he had not questioned her decision to marry him. If she answered wrong now, her entire plot might vanish into the harsh Tairngire winds.
“Something tells me you would have made the same decision,” he said quietly. “I know why you agreed to this betrothal, Reyna, and it isn’t because you suddenly yearned for power.”
Reyna’s heart flipped once. What had she done to tip him off?
He continued. “I know you do not care for me. You wanted to see the alliance between our realms continue, but you did not wish to doom your younger sister by allowing her to take my hand.”
“I...” Reyna blinked. That was certainly not something she had ever expected the prince to say, least of all out loud and in front of so many witnesses. The guards that surrounded them served the High Queen. Some were likely her spies. She would be silly not to trust some of them with eavesdropping. This entire conversation would make it back to her ears.
The prince held up a hand. “You do not need to speak. I won’t force you to confess or spin your words in a way that will only confirm the truth. I respect your reasons. Unlike my traitor of a mother, you do not yearn for power, which means you will not scheme for it.”
