Page 100 of Madness of Her Mages

She turned her pleading gaze on me. “I am.”

“Then how?” I pressed, my inner siren still controlling my words.

“I would inherit after she died.”

Malvolia let out an unladylike snort. “That could take decades, centuries even.” She paused, her eyes narrowing on Felicity. “Would you be patient enough to wait?”

When Felicity didn’t answer, I asked, “Would you?”

She stared daggers through my chest as the words flowed from her mouth. “Yes, if Malvolia gave me Elisi.”

My inner siren roared. Rage infused my veins and threatened to burst through my skull. “My fathers’ lands?”

“Yes,” she blurted as tears streamed down her face.

Felicity let out a wail as a dark haze that looked too much like storm clouds rolled into the room. Storm clouds? Lords and ladies gasped. A few shielded their heads with platters and some ducked under the table.

Aurora crawled into my lap. “I’m scared, Auntie,” she whispered.

I gently stroked her hair. “Don’t worry, darling. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

I looked over at Nikkos as he held Ember.This won’t help her case.

It’s being brought on by her mood,he answered.

Malvolia scowled up at the clouds. “You have two seconds to get rid of those, Felicity,” she said on a snarl.

Felicity wiped her eyes and scrunched up her features, concentrating on the clouds as they slowly dispersed.

The mages flew back into the room carrying a dark, leather-bound book that was small enough to fit inside a pocket. “Thank you,” Malvolia said to the mage who handed her the book. “That was fast.”

“It was beneath a loose floorboard, My Queen,” he said with a bow.

Malvolia pursed her lips as if she’d sucked on a sour lemon. “Let us see what this diary contains.”

“It-it’s not her diary,” Steffan sputtered, his face shifting from deep red to molten purple. “They must’ve planted it in our bedchamber when they visited us.”

“Quiet!” Malvolia yelled, smoke exploding from her skin in a hazy cloud before dissipating. “Not another word from any of you.”

Malvolia held the book up for all to see, her long, black nails digging into the leathery surface. “Letters to my dearest, darling Theodore,” she said in a mocking voice.

Felicity sank in her seat, hanging her head in her hands while her mates sat as still as statues, their knuckles whitening as they clutched the table.

Malvolia flipped to the first page. “My dear Teddy,” she continued in a sickeningly sweet voice. “Though it pains me every day to be apart from you, maybe one day you will understand the sacrifices we had to make in order to secure you Delfi’s throne...” Malvolia sucked in a sharp breath before glaring at Felicity and her mates.

A knot of unease tightened my chest when Felicity looked up with tear-soaked eyes. So she did love her child. This indifference to being parted from him was all a ruse. What a sick, twisted thing to lie about.

Malvolia flipped a few more pages. “Dearest Teddy, I’m one step closer to winning my cousin’s favor. Yesterday I gifted her with a vase that matched the hideous floral design on her throneroom chair. I told her it was a family heirloom that had once belonged to her grandfather. I had found it in a second-hand shop just yesterday. Now the vase sits beside her throne. You may discard the vase and chair when you inherit the throne, or I will do it if I inherit first. Your loving mother, Lady Felicity Frensia.”

Felicity jumped when Malvolia slammed the book shut with a loudthud.

The room collectively gasped when Malvolia threw the book at Felicity. Steffan caught it before it smacked his mate’s head, then dropped it with a hiss like it was a flaming piece of coal. To my shock and horror, the book burst in a puff of black smoke, scattering burning embers across the table.

Malvolia slowly rose like a phantom rising up from a grave, her furious glare pinned on Felicity. “You gifted me that vase two years ago. We didn’t know Shirina then. And your mate has the gall to tell me she put those words in your mouth? That she planted this diary?”

Felicity looked up at Malvolia with watery eyes. “Your Majesty, I—”

“Guards!” Malvolia shrieked like a dying dragon while jutting a finger toward Felicity and her mates. “Put them in the dungeon.”

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