And I didn’t know what to do.
I ran for the gates, tripping over my own feet and out into the fresh air beyond the wards. Without a thought for my own safety, I evanesced to the Queen’s castle in the Forest. When I shouted from the gates, she appeared almost immediately, her waist-length mahogany hair unbound and crown forgotten. Instead of one of her usual dresses, she wore a black feathered robe.
Without a word, she cut her own hand and let the blood drip into the lock. I drifted beyond the wards, my mind spinning with drink and memories.
“Would you like tea?” she asked, sweeping in front of me.
She was not offering me tea after upending my entire world. “No, I don’t want tea. I want answers.”
Her slender shoulders lifted and fell with a shrug. The end of her robe dragged up the stairs, along the marble floor to the parlor. No fire burned in the hearth. A single candle flickered on the table next to her chair.
She sank onto the chair and watched me pace in the darkness while trying to sort through my muddled thoughts.
“What game are you playing?” I demanded.
Her lips pursed. “I wasn’t playing a game. I was reading. But if you’d like to play quadrille the way we used to, I suppose I could find the cards somewhere.”
Had she completely lost her mind? “I don’t want to play quadrille. I want to know why you brought Leesha to the castle.”
She exhaled an exasperated sigh. “As I told you earlier, she is a birthday gift.”
A gift, my arse. “She’s a spy.”
The corner of her lips lifted, like this was some sort of hilarious joke to her. “Why on earth would I want to spy on you?”
A non-answer. Big feckin’ surprise. “You tell me. You’re the one who sent a spy.”
“She is your love, is she not?”
“Over two centuries ago!”
“You think me a monster…”
I didn’t think. I knew. Had the scars on my body and my soul to prove it.
“…but this life is too long to be lived alone. You found love at too young an age and had many life lessons to learn before you were worthy of it.”
Worthy of love? She couldn’t be serious. Love,truelove, didn’t need to be earned. We didn’t need to meet some sort of criteria to be worthy of it. Still, I tasted no lies in the air between us. Meaning she actually believed the shite she was spouting. “That wasn’t your choice to make.” It was mine, and she’d stolen it from me just like she’d stolen everything else.
“You are my son and my heir. I couldn’t have you shirking your duty to your people to run off with some human.”
“And now?”
If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought the spark in her eyes looked a lot like pride. “You are becoming the leader I always knew you’d be,” she said, adjusting the tie at her waist. “And with your brother tying himself to that wretched girl, it is only a matter of time before the throne is yours.”
She thought I wanted the feckin’ throne? Talk about delusional. I wouldn’t want to sit in Tadhg’s place for anything. “You expect me to believe you truly want me to be happy? That you will permit me to tie myself to a human as well?”
She shrugged. “I like her.”
I nearly choked on her truth. “You don’t like anyone.” Hell, she didn’t even like me, and I was her own flesh and blood.
“Which makes it all the more surprising.” She nodded at my hands. “I see she gave you your birthday gift as well.”
I had the childish urge to stuff my hands inside my pockets. I didn’t want her to taint any more of my memories.
I like her.
And yet she’d ripped out the woman’s heart. “She doesn’t remember you killing her.”