The bow trembled in my hand.
I would not show fear.
“Nothing about murder is justified,” I said.“Five years ago at the Paravellian Balls you murdered my sister, Tatanna, for rejecting you, and then you destroyed my kingdom to cover up the crime.”
“Your sister?”His eyes narrowed as if not following, as if murdering my family was little more than paperwork he had signed off on.“The girl who fell from the window?”He lifted an eyebrow.“That was nothing more than a terrible accident.”
Anger rushed through me.
“That’s what you wanted everyone to believe,” I said.“But there are two tales of that night.My sister,Tatanna, did not fall from the corridor windows.She fell, waspushed, from the royal apartments where we now stand.I’ve seen the way you manipulate young girls, coaxing them beneath your covers, blackmailing them.Tatanna would have never entered this room of her own free will.She would never betray her kingdom or her fiancée like that.But you”—my voice shook with disgust—“you tried to force her and she refused—and you killed her for it.”
He stared at me, an unknown thought stirring within his dark depths.I watched his mind work.Watched him try to find a lie to ease him out of this situation.He sighed, and the casualness of it sent my skin crawling.The hair on the back of my neck rose.
“Ah, yes,” he said, as if recalling an old acquaintance.“Tatanna Kallistar.I do remember her.”His eyes raked up and down my body, but I showed no emotion.Did not waver.“She looked identical to you.Fair skin, pale blond hair, brilliant blue eyes.”His gaze bore into mine, trying to assert dominance.“One of the most beautiful creatures on earth...to some.”He cocked his head, and a sinister smile ghosted across his lips.“But if you hadreallybeen watching me, paid close enough attention to my interests, you would know that no one with you or your sister’scomplexionwould ever come close to tempting me.”
I tried to absorb his words, tried to swallow them.Confusion washed over me.The arrowhead dipped toward the ground, pointing more to the floor than at him.I wanted to look to Desmond, but I couldn’t.Couldn’t take my eyes from the king.I blinked, about to call him on his bluff, but memories from each ball passed across my mind.He held little affection for his wife, not in the way he flirted with every woman who came his way, but as I thought back—it hadn’t been every woman who had come his way.
I recalled each one I had seen him with.Every single one of them had borne a darker complexion.Beautiful beyond compare.They hadn’t looked the same, some deep as ebony, others golden or the warmest shades of brown, but never once had I seen him in the arms of a pale woman.
And his interest in Nadiyah.
He had picked her out of the crowd almost immediately, sought her out at the following balls.
I looked to Valeris, recalling his words about his father.
He has a veryparticulartaste in his women.
“No.”I shook my head.His words didn’t make sense, even if the facts did.“You killed her.There’s no other reason she would have been in your rooms.”
The king shrugged.“Who knows why she was in there, but what you should really be asking yourself, is why yourbrotherwas up there.”His face hardened.“The real reason we set out to destroy your kingdom.”
My heart hammered in my chest.
Josef?
“You destroyed my kingdom because you’re a vile man who couldn’t stand to be told no,” I ground out.
He cocked his head, disbelief splaying across his features.“You don’t know.Do you?”
“Know what?”I snapped.
“People may not like me as their king, but I’m not as horrible as you make me out to be.I didn’t destroy your kingdom out of spite.I destroyed your kingdom because my wife asked me to, and I readily agreed.”
I threw a glance at Desmond, who looked just as perplexed, the conversation veering in directions I never could have predicted.“Your wife?Why would she—”
Hatred radiated off the king.“Because your brother, your eldest brother, coaxed my wife to a dark room and forced her against her will.”
I took in a shuddering breath, not believing the words I was hearing.No.I knew my brother.Such a thought would never enter Josef’s mind.
But did you know him?
Doubt crept in, but I pushed it away.I may have been small, but I knew my brother.Tears sprang to my eyes as I dropped the bow, ripping a dagger from its sheath and pressing it against the king’s throat, pushing him up against the far wall.
“You will beg forgiveness for these false accusations you have made against my family’s honor,” I spat, fingers shaking.I wanted to take his tongue for those foul lies.
He looked at me as if I were nothing more than a temperamental child.Condescension filled his voice.“What political gain did I stand to earn by wiping out such a useless country as Donnovar?The destruction wasn’t about power.It was about justice and vengeance.”
The same reason I was here.
