Page 19 of Queen of the Crimson Throne

“Maybe it’s not, but I want to know.” She looked at Nico and Declan. “I’ll find out one way or another.”

I glared at Nico. “Don’t you fucking dare.”

His eyes widened as he looked between me and my sister. “What the fuck happened between the two of you?”

Kara gave me a pointed look. “You’d have to ask her.” Her expression softened slightly. “We might not be speaking currently, but I am a good sister. I don’t spill my sister’s secrets.”

Nico opened his mouth but shut it, the room turning quiet as Kara and I stared at each other.

It was Kara who broke the silence. “So who’s going to tell me how brief was brief?”

Nico sighed. “They saw each other in the hallway. Lennox shut the door on him and he talked to her through the door.”

Kara’s gaze swung to me, she opened her mouth but closed it, remaining quiet for several moments before finally deciding to speak. “So when isYour Highnessreturning?”

10

LUKA

Two days after I arrived in Maderia, a small city in the south of the Blood Court, I realized my search here was a bust. The library in the small village had been destroyed leaving nothing behind. Leaving me to sit and twiddle my thumbs for five days before I gave up due to boredom and decided to head back to Cel Nox. I figured seeing Lennox and not speaking to her would be better than sitting alone in a cottage thinking about her with nothing to distract me from my thoughts.

Usually, when I saw the palace coming into view returning home from travel I got excited to be back home. Not today.

Every step closer to the palace dread settled lower and lower in my stomach.

After leaving Zola in the stables, I took the back stairwell up to my room, not wanting to alert anyone to my arrival yet.

Which is why the last person I expected to see waiting outside my door was Kara.

I had seen Kara Adair in many forms. I had thought I had seen her angry, but looking at her now I knew with certainty I had never seen herthisangry.

Her eyes were blazing with ire, theway Lennox’s did when she was angry, turning the emerald pools to an endless pit of green so dark they were almost black. Her nostrils flared and her lips were posed in a snarl as she stood, hands on her hips outside my door.

She’d never looked more like Lennox.

The look reminded me of how Lennox looked at me those first weeks. A constant state of loathing and apprehension.

“Kara,” I said tentatively as I approached. “Would you like to come in?”

“Since I’d prefer not to be attacked during our conversation by one of your guards, I believe that would be wise.” My shoulders tensed at the threat.Astria’s tits, what had gotten her so worked up?

Kara was not the fighting type. She was the mediator of every argument we had while traveling. She was always trying to ease tensions, never igniting them. Seeing this side of her, set me on edge. Kara might not reach first for a sword in a fight as Lennox did, but I had trained with Kara. I knew she could draw blood if she set her mind to it. Shewasrelated to Lennox after all.

“It’s good to see you too, Kara.”

She brushed past me, her steps heavy on the wood floor as she entered my quarters. “Cut the shit, Luka.”

“For fucks sake Kara, do you care to explain to me why you’re here with an apparent vendetta against me? Onlymomentsafter I arrived back tomyhome? In which you are a guest, in case you forgot.”

Kara’s sneer deepened. “I’ve been waiting for two days, since my own arrival, for you to return so I could give you a piece of my mind. Explain to me Luka, why has my sister seen you one time since she arrived? You talked to her through a fucking door, only to leave without warning for a week. Care to explain yourself,prince?”

I clenched my fists at my sides, “Watch your tone, Kara. I don’t see what I did wrong. Am I supposed to clear everymovement I make with your sister? Because that would prove difficult considering she refuses to speak to me.”

She leveled me with another glare. Goddess, she was reminding me so much of Lennox right now. “Are you sure about that? Have you even tried to speak to her?”

“Her feelings were made pretty clear when she forced me to talk to her through a fucking door like a whimpering idiot.” I shouldn’t have admitted to Kara how much it stung to have Lennox reject me yet again, but Kara was a part of this, whether she liked it or not. “Your sister told me she needed time. So that’s what I’m doing, giving her time.”

“Males are such idiots!” Kara mumbled, throwing her arms in the air dramatically. “She may need time, but what she doesn’t need is space!”

---