“Emilia—” Chloe breathes.
“Your Majesty—” Simms starts.
I flinch at the new title — a stark reminder of this strange new reality — and lift my hand to signal for silence. My voice sounds nothing like my own. Stripped raw of emotion. So cold, it’s almost inhuman.
“King Linus is dead. I am your new Queen. And for my first order of business…” My eyes move from Bane to Simms to Lady Morrell. “You’re fired. All three of you. Effective immediately.”
“Excuse me?!” Bane roars.
“My Queen, please—” Lady Morrell titters.
“But, Your Majesty—” Simms begins.
“Silence,” I hiss, holding up my hand again. “Or you’ll receive no severance for your — what is it you’re always bragging about, Simms?Twenty-four years of devoted service?”
Simms pales, but stops speaking.
Lady Morrell starts to weep.
Bane is red-faced and seething, but silent.
“Emilia,” Chloe says, taking a cautious step in my direction. “Please, let’s just talk about this. We can—”
I throw my head back and laugh. A crazy sound. Unhinged. A mad woman’s cackle. When I finally stop, everyone in the room is staring at me with concern.
“Talk?” I gasp, still chuckling. “You want to talk? Oh, Chloe. I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t even want to look at you.”
“Look, E, I know you’re upset—”
“I’m not upset. Why would I be? Because you lied to my face? Because you went behind my back and conspired to hide the truth from me about my father’s death?”
All the blood drains from her face.
I shake my head and smile frigidly. “I guess it’s true what they say — the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Octavia would besoproud.”
“E… Please…”
I look at Carter. His face is grave, his stare intent as he watches my every move. Studying me with atomic-level precision. I thought my heart was already broken to pieces after the truck attack but, when our eyes meet, I find I still have some breaking left to do.
“You,” I say, my voice trembling with a hint of emotion. I quickly smother it with icy fury. “You knew. Yesterday. Last night… youknewand you didn’t tell me. ”
He doesn’t say anything to defend himself. Even his eyes are empty — no pleas for understanding, no wordless rationalizations to explain away this duplicity. To justify this breach of trust. To vindicate his decision to spend the night between my thighs before inserting a dagger in my back.
I replay the words he whispered to me in bed as I stare at him.
This one night is all I’ll ever have with you.
One stolen moment together out of an infinity apart.
“I can’t even look at you,” I whisper, feeling my eyes begin to sting. I tear my gaze from his too-blue one and scan the room one last time. “I can’t look at any of you. I want you out of this room. Out of this castle. Out of my life.”
“Your Majesty, please!”Simms.
“My Queen, no—”Morrell.
“You’ll regret this, you foolish bitch!”Bane.
“Emilia! Don’t do this!” Chloe is yelling at my back, screaming for me to listen to reason, but I’m already gone — turning away from them, striding into the hallway where four guards I vaguely recognize are stationed. They snap to attention as soon as I step into view.