Page 94 of An Archer's Redemption

The same guards whousheredDanym out following his last audience stepped forward, taking up positions on either side of the seat I indicated Danym should occupy. Rather than sitting at the table’s head where we would be close, I took a seat on the opposite side, keeping the heavy oak table between us.

A servant materialized from the darkness and filled two cups. I raised mine and took a long sip.

Danym’s brow rose, but he remained silent.

“What does the Order seek of the Crown today?” I asked.

He lowered his gaze and spoke in softened tones. “I am only pleased to be in Her Majesty’s presence once again. I have missed our chats, especially those in the forest at night.”

My grip on the cup tightened, and I had to set it down to keep from spilling my tea.

Of all things Danym could discuss, our evening rendezvous were the least welcome topic. Those had been the happiest moments of my life, filled with wine, fruit, cheese, and the most beautiful man I’d ever met . . . until our nights found me bound, drugged, and facing certain death at the hands of that same handsome man. My heart ached at the loss of a beautifulinnocence, almost as much as it blazed with righteous anger over his betrayal.

When I looked up, the intensity of my gaze made him flinch.

“Just tell me why you are here so we can be done with this.”

He had the good grace to look hurt. “Jess—”

“Never use my name again. Address me asYour Majestyor not at all,” I snapped, immediately regretting the venom in my tone.

Ethan was right. I had to control myself.

“I am sorry. It has been a long day,” I said.

His eyes fixed on a knot in the table’s rich wood. “No, I’m the one who is sorry, Your Majesty. It won’t happen again.”

Silence loomed as we each stared at something, anything, that wasn’t the other person. We might have been sitting across the whole country, not the table, in that moment. When one of the guards reached down to scratch an itch, the squeal of his armor scraping against itself turned my gaze back to Danym.

“Where did you go? After—”

“The Temple,” he replied.

“You mean you were there? When Justin—”

Danym’s head snapped up. “No. I was in the Temple, but not the chamber. I didn’t know your brother was there, or what they had planned. You have to believe me, Je—Your Majesty. I didn’t know.”

“And when I was there? When they dragged me down that aisle?”

His head lowered again. “Yes.”

“Yes, what?” My voice was now hardened ice. “Yes, you were in the chamber when they were going to kill me? Is that what you are saying ‘yes’ to?”

He didn’t speak or look up for a long moment.

Then he said, “I was underherCompulsion.”

“When you wooed me? When you asked me to trust you? When you promised to start a life together? Or when you stood by and watched my own mother drug me and try to take my life? When were you being Compelled? Please enlighten me.”

He looked up.

His eyes pleaded in a way I hadn’t seen since the night we fled the capital. “I felt her Call after that night in the inn, the one with the old couple by the fire. Not before.Neverbefore.”

His eyes glistened in the light of the table’s candles. His lips quivered.

My mind raced almost as quickly as my heart.

This was the man I’d loved more than any other, the one I’d pledged to abdicate my throne for. I would have given up the whole Kingdom for him.

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