Page 93 of Fearless

My chest rises and falls quickly. “I know I can’t have her.”

“Do you?” She tilts her head at me, black hair tumbling over a shoulder. “It seems as though you’ve convinced yourself otherwise.”

I open my mouth, only to hear her speaking again. “There is love within duty, and duty within love. You can’t have one without the other, and yet”—she takes a deep breath, her gaze distant—“you can never truly have both. So choose, Kai Azer. The girl. Or power. And whetheror not she is worth the destruction of everything you are.”

I say nothing as she waves her dismissal at me in the form of wiggling fingers. “Now, out. I’ll be having breakfast with a fellow queen now.”

Her sharp words follow me out the door. “You know, you are quite the pretty prince. In a different life of mine, perhaps I would have kept you for myself.”

CHAPTER 33Paedyn

My teacup lands on its saucer with a wince-worthy clang.

I glance up at the queen, only to find her eerily green eyes already running over my disheveled appearance. She seems content to watch me squirm under her gaze, following each fidgeting movement I make.

I’d awoken with a start, as though commanded from my sleep. But there she was, sitting lazily in a velvet chair and sipping from a porcelain cup. I was forced to stumble from the bed and sit immediately at her impromptu tea party.

My eyes wander over my shoulder quickly, meeting the rumpled bed sheets I rolled from. I only hope Kai did as well—long before the queen slipped into my room.

“Oh, he left,” she says evenly, lifting the teacup to her lips.

I nearly choke on my sip. “I’m sorry?”

“The Enforcer,” she clarifies. “Yes, we had a quick chat before I sent him on his way. Didn’t want a boy here during our tea time.”

She says this as though we share a secret jest. As though her lastsentence was far more important than the one before. “So…” I clear my throat, trying to sound unbothered. “So, you saw him.”

“I did.” She gives me a slight smile, revealing the sharp glint of her teeth before the emotion vanishes. “I also saw right through his obvious feelings for you.”

I open my mouth, heart racing and lips forming the beginning fragments of a lie when she speaks right over my attempt to salvage the situation. “But I’m rather bored of that topic already, so we will move on to another.”

My teacup rattles against the delicate saucer when I set it down with shaky hands. “And what topic would that be?”

“So formal,” Zailah muses. “Practicing for when you’re queen, yes?”

“Just practicing to survive. Like I always have.”

“Oh, yes.” I seem to have captured her attention enough to have her scooting to the seat’s edge. “Do tell me about the king and that bit of survival. I want to hear every gory detail. Did you really plunge a sword into his chest?” Her expression is giddy. “And then a dagger through his throat?”

“I did.” My ring taps a steady beat against my leg. “Though, you make it sound far more… exciting.”

“Ugh.” She sits back, her arms draped over the chair. “That’s because I’m jealous. He was a bastard, that king. I wish I was the one to lure him into Death’s arms.”

My eyes drag over her perfect form. “Really?”

Her smile is sharp. “You should know better than most that looks can be deceiving, Paedyn Gray.”

On that, we agree. And she’s slightly less intimidating for it.

“How did you hear about me?” I venture. “It seems the whole kingdom knows who I am, and yet, there is no longer a way to relay information across the Shallows.”

Her smile is fearsome. “I have my ways. Perhaps one day I will share them with you. Now”—another sip of her tea—“what about this new king? Do you plan on killing him as well?”

The queen’s words are smooth, thought out, even. Her genuine question has me gawking. Such an innocent sentence has never struck so hard.

“Of course not,” I breathe into the chilled air between us. “I… I would never.”

She clicks her nails against the wooden arm of her chair, shrugging slightly. “Well, if you say so. I figured he was as much of a dick as his father, so—”

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