Page 55 of Rise of the Vicious Princess

The woman spat at her. Tal took a step forward, but Charis raised a hand to stop him and smiled as she approached the woman. “It must be frustrating to hate me so much and have so little ability to hurt me.”

“You didn’t think that when you were looking down the end of my bow and arrow.” The woman sounded proud.

Charis settled herself on the edge of the pallet that was lying on a stone slab about chair height. “You’re right.”

The woman’s eyes lit with fervor. “Bet you were terrified.”

“Absolutely.”

“Perfect little warmongering princess almost cut down right in the heart of her own kingdom. Just shows that you aren’t as safe as you think.”

Charis flicked an invisible wrinkle out of her skirt and met the woman’s gaze, her lips slowly curving into a smile. “I never believe I’m safe. Do you?”

The woman blinked and shot a look toward Tal, as if the bodyguard could supply the answer to Charis’s question. When Tal remained silent, the woman looked back at the princess and said, “I’m safer than you.”

Charis’s smile gentled, and she infused her voice with sympathy. “Are you?”

The woman drew back. “I don’t have a target on my back. You can do anything you want to me here, but it won’t change the fact that a lot of people want you dead. One day soon, they’ll succeed.”

Charis tilted her head as if studying the woman and said, “Forgive me. I’ve been incredibly rude. I should have introduced myself when I first entered.”

The woman laughed, harsh and loud. “I know who you are.”

“No.” Charis’s voice was quiet, but rage flickered in it now. “You know my name. You know my title. But you have no idea who I am.”

Charis rose in one fluid motion. In the next instant, her dagger was in her hands.

“Go ahead. Cut me. Torture me. You won’t learn who I am or who hired me. You won’t get anything from me at all.”

“I already have all I need.” Charis stepped toward the woman, fury in her heart, ice in her eyes. “I had it the moment I walked into your cell.”

She closed in on the woman, who backed up until she hit the cold stone wall behind her. Charis’s smile was a feral baring of her teeth. “You made a terrible mistake when you thought you understood who you were going up against. All you know of me is my name and the rumors you’ve heard.”

“I know enough.” Bravado laced the woman’s voice, but a thin thread of fear shivered beneath it.

“Did you know that I killed my first spy when I was nine years old? A man who thought he could snatch me out of the palace gardens and take me to Montevallo.” Charis raised the dagger, and the woman’s eyes latched onto it. “I clawed out his eyes and crushed his windpipe. Then I screamed for help.”

The woman swallowed, her gaze locked on the dagger.

“When I was twelve, someone tried to drown me while I was swimming in the sea. I let her think she’d succeeded, then when she dropped her guard, I rose from the water and cut her jugular with a sharp bit of coral. I think she bled to death before the sea predators came, but I can’t be sure.”

Charis let the dagger come to rest above the woman’s heart, its point pressed lightly against her skin. “I was raised on the understanding that for every bloodthirsty Montevallian who came for me, another two would be right behind. I’ve executed every one of them.”

The woman lifted her chin as if to bravely accept her fate. “And now you’re going to kill me.”

Charis laughed, a venom-laced breath of cruelty that chased the courage off the woman’s face. “Oh, I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to let you go.”

The woman barked a laugh. “Sure you are.”

“I’m going to unshackle you and personally escort you out of the palace.” Charis set her teeth. The woman tried to draw back as Charis slowly dragged the tip of the dagger from the assassin’s heart to the base of her neck. A thin, red welt rose in the weapon’s wake.

“Why would you do that?” Her voice was breathless.

Charis cocked her head, keeping her eyes locked on the Montevallian scum who’d dared to shoot an arrow at her. “Because I am the nightmare you won’t see coming. I am the last gasp of air in your lungs. The final beat of your treacherous heart. And once you’ve made an enemy of me, I won’t stop coming for you until everything you love lies in pieces at your feet.”

“But . . . then, why not just kill me now?”

“Because you aren’t begging for death yet.” Charis pressed the dagger until the tip punctured the woman’s neck, drawing a thin line of blood that slid down her skin, a perfect match for the dress the princess wore.

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