Page 61 of Return of the Vengeful Quee

“A queen does not enter her palace like a criminal.” Her tone was polished marble.

Let them kill her. Let them sear her name into the mind and heart of her people so that she would forever be the battle cry that roused every Caleran from their slumber and sent them racing toward their enemies with fire in their bellies. Let them believe her death would end the rebellion instead of igniting it into a firestorm they had no hope of containing.

Charis would face every second of her fate like the queen she was born to be.

“It comes with us,” the creature hissed, reaching for her hand again.

Charis slapped the Rakuuna’s face.

The creature recoiled, chattering rapidly, but Charis ignored her as she swept into the palace, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on edge as she braced for the retaliation sure to come.

“I’ve come to see your queen,” she announced to a Rakuuna who stood just inside the door, his pale skin dotted with silvery gray scales. “Where is she?”

Behind her, the Rakuuna she’d struck was still chattering, and others were joining in. Perhaps urging her to retaliate? Perhaps warning her that only the queen got the pleasure of killing Charis?

Either way, their focus was wholly on her and not on the rest of her people.

Silently willing Holland, Tal, and Grim to instruct the others on what to say to put distance between themselves and the idea that they were part of her bloodline, Charis glared at the Rakuuna who stood before her.

“Where is she? Or should I simply search the palace myself?”

His pale lips curved into a snarl, revealing his double row of fangs. “No queen,” he said in heavily accented Caleran.

Charis blinked, her thoughts racing. No queen? Was she gone from Calera? Or simply not at the palace right now?

“Too late.”

“Is she dead? My condolences.” Her words were spun sugar dipped in venom.

The Rakuuna made a sound that reminded Charis of the howling wind in a snowstorm. It took a moment to realize he was laughing. The sound sent a chill down her spine.

“She is not the queen who dies,” he said. He turned to gesture for someone behind him to come forward. “The day is too late. You see our queen tomorrow.”

Charis glanced at the wall of windows that graced the entrance hall. Rain still fell in thick sheets, reducing visibility to almost nothing. Still, it looked darker than it had before. She’d lost track of time completely in the ship’s brig. If it was twilight, the Rakuuna queen would want to wait until the storm passed and there was enough light that the audience she would surely compel to attend Charis’s execution got a good look at the symbol of their rebellion before she died.

“Tomorrow.” The Rakuuna smiled at her as though she was a delicacy offered on a buffet table to a slew of ravenous beasts. “Take her.” He stepped aside to reveal a woman with dark red hair, a disheveled apron across her palace maid uniform, and a bruise blooming along her left cheekbone.

The maid scurried forward, chin tucked toward her collarbone as though anticipating a blow, and whispered, “Please come with me.”

Charis went. There would be no getting information from the Rakuuna in the entrance hall, and he might punish the maid for any defiance on Charis’s part.

The maid remained silent, moving so quickly that Charis had to lengthen her stride to keep up. They moved down the main corridor, past the ballroom, up one set of stairs, and then followed a curved corridor until they reached the southern wing, the one Mother had always reserved for guests.

Rakuuna were everywhere. Lingering in hallways. Standing on the stairs. Posted outside the door leading to the southern wing’s suite of rooms.

There would be no escape through the palace.

The maid escorted her past the Rakuuna guards and down the hallway, to the fifth door on the left. Behind her, the rest of her people were being herded into the hallway as well. Tal and Reuben immediately rushed to Charis’s side. Holland took one look at the room a different maid offered to him, Dec, Grim, and Burk and joined Charis as well.

“Thank you,” Charis said to the maid beside her, keeping her voice low so the guards standing just outside the wing’s entrance couldn’t hear her. “How many humans are working in the palace? And do you know how to get in contact with any of my mother’s royal council members?”

If she could find a way to send Lord Thorsby a message, she could make sure the rebellion connected with Nalani and saw this fight through to the bitter end.

A whisper of sound came from the guards, and the maid quickly shook her head. Flinging the door open, she ushered them inside, lit a lamp resting on a table just inside the entrance, and then rushed from the room, closing the door behind them without saying another word.

Charis stood for a long moment, shoulders stiff, body braced, while Tal and Holland hurried to light sconces along the walls of what turned out to be a suite of three rooms with a small sitting area and bath chamber. Reuben assigned himself the couch in the sitting area where he could watch the door in case anyone came for Charis. Holland and Tal each took a small bedroom, leaving Charis with the larger room at the back of the suite.

She told them she was too tired to have a lengthy discussion about their situation and ordered them all to get some sleep. And then she shut the door to her room with shaking hands, moved to her bedside, and collapsed to her knees, burying her face in the soft coverlet atop her bed.

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