“I don’t know. It feels like a hand is fisting around my throat whenever I try to say their names.” Her trembling fingers lingered on her neck. “So how come I’m able to tell you?”
“You’re insinuating that there’s some sort of implausible magic reason.”
“It’s the brand on my foot. Everything seemed to change after that. Allory and Markus told me their names, their plans, without true fear of me exposing them.” She paused to collect a breath. “Do you also bear the brand?”
“No.” Against my better judgement, and to my utter confusion, Iwantedto believe her. “We must convince Maryn that your Chosen status is real. She will have many reasons to doubt you.”
“I thought you didn’t trust me.”
“I don’t.”
“Then why?—”
“You could be the key to taking down the apostai. And for that, we need you alive.”
Her gaze turned scornful. “You intend to use me?”
I shrugged, unraveling from her grip. “If it comes to it. Princess or not, I’ll be watching you. And if you do anything to threaten the safety of this court and our queendom, I will throw you in the dungeon myself.”
Chapter 26
Rahzlyn
“So this isthe mysterious woman you’ve been harboring without my permission, Seer?” the Scorpion queen regent crooned the following morning. “You have quite a bit of explaining to do.”
Seated at the head of an oblong table, the queen regent appeared tall and starkly thin. Her skin was fairer than Raithe’s, with bone structure sharp enough to cut through rock. Her silver hair was coiled tightly into a low knot at the nape of her long neck. She wore an elegant black dress studded with tiny, expensive jewels.
Icy blue eyes pierced mine through narrowed, assessing slits.
I winced from the guards’ brutal grip around my arms. They—a burly man and surly woman—had escorted me from the seer’s observatory to this ornate meeting hall where my fate was to be determined. In the Scorpion court, my glyphs apparently didn’t matter.
Only the queen regent’s opinion did.
“She is our next Chosen princess,” Gregorios declared beside the guards holding me captive. Our mission was to convince the queen regent I was indeed Chosen whilst weaving a believabletale that didn’t connect me back to Gemini—a tale even I still struggled to believe.
“Ha!” she laughed shrilly. “Seer, did you forget that Astrals do not Choose twice in a year? It’s unheard of. They simply don’t have the power for it.”
“I’m aware of historic precedence. Yet here she stands.”
“Do you take me for a fool, Seer?”
The guards curled their fingers deeper into my biceps. “Loosen the grip, will you?” I hissed at them.
The queen regent slammed her fist on the table. “Do you know who you stand before, girl? I am Maryn, queen regent of Scorpio. You do not speak unless spoken to.”
“Apologies—”
She held up a hand. “You are nothing more than a fraud with self-inflicted marks. I’ve seen it before. Everyone knows the laws for impersonating a Chosen. Take her to the dungeon.”
“Queen Regent,” Gregorios implored. “I assure you this is no trick. Scorpio has indeed Chosen another princess for us. Please, listen to her.”
Maryn’s eyes roamed over me in my black smock of a dress, from my messy hair to my bare feet. “You have three minutes to convince me. Release her.”
The guards obeyed, hurling me further into the room.
I righted my balance and faced the queen regent head-on. Several others were seated around the table, examining me with quiet caution.
“Well?” Maryn’s sharp black nails strummed along dark wood. “Do you have a name, imposter? Or are you conveniently mute?”
