Page 71 of The Twisted Throne

No one was supposed to know what Delia Kertell looked like, but Aren had told her that Petra Anaphora had known their mother well, so this wasn’t as great a shock as it might have been. “Yes, Your Grace.”

“I was sorry to learn of her death,” Alexandra said, taking a seat at the table where a steaming cup of tea sat next to a pot. “Delia was a strong queen. A strong woman.”

“But she had a weak heart,” Ahnna said. “That was what took her, in the end.”

“But not you. You survived a dose of wraithroot that would have killed most men.”

It was by no means an admission of guilt, but it was a strugglenot to tense as she said, “The Amaridians seemed to want me dead.”

Alexandra made a soft noise that was neither agreement nor disagreement, then gestured for Ahnna to sit.

Ahnna obeyed, carefully arranging her skirts as Alexandra poured her a cup of tea. The thought of drinking it made Ahnna profoundly nervous, except she didn’t believe that the other woman would be quite so obvious in her poisoning, so she took a small sip.

“I had heard you were like Delia,” Alexandra said. “That you were a woman to be reckoned with. The fearsome warrior princess who held command of Southwatch Island and who led Ithicana through much of the war with Maridrina. That you were a woman who picked up the pieces of the failures of men and put everything right.”

“I’m nothing like my mother.” Ahnna couldn’t keep the edge from her voice, because she heard the implication that what happened to Ithicana was Aren’s fault. And while she might criticize her twin until she was blue in the face, Ahnna did not take kindly to anyone else speaking ill of him. “As for the rest, I did what I had to do while my brother was absent.”

“You’re right—you’re not like Delia,” Alexandra said. “You are quick to react, which is not nothing, for many freeze when faced with adversity. But your mother looked forward, and I’ve not seen that in you, Ahnna. You fight only the opponent right before you and don’t lift your head to see the one shooting the poisoned arrow from afar.”

Ahnna didn’t answer, only took another sip of her tea, because her mother had been so busy looking forward, she’d not seen the threat standing right in front of her.

“You are a disappointment,” Alexandra said.

Ahnna drew in a steadying breath, half because the queen’s words confirmed her fear and the other half because her guts were twisting into painful ropes. “I’m sorry for that, Your Grace.”

It’s the tea. She dosed the tea.

But with what?

“Don’t be sorry. Do better.”

“Do you want me in Verwyrd?” Ahnna demanded, the rising pain in her stomach making her blunt. “Or do you wish for me to disappear?”

Alexandra rose to her feet, then set a vial on the table. Ahnna’s heart skittered with the confirmation that her twisting stomach was not the product of nerves. “Believe me, Ahnna Kertell, if I wanted you to disappear, you’d already be gone.”

Ahnna watched the queen of Harendell leave the room. Pain and fear rose in her innards, and as the door shut, she snatched up the vial. Opening it, Ahnna sniffed the contents, recognizing the smell as aloe vera juice right as her innards turned to liquid. “You bitch,” she hissed, then bolted toward the privy.

The cathedral bells chimed infull joyous force at the announcement of the birth of Ithicana’s heir, the sound reaching all the way to the Sky Palace. Virginia had told him that the baby princess was named Delia, for the prior queen, and that both the child and her mother were healthy and strong. His sister was already in the process of arranging a lavish gift to be sent to Ithicana in congratulations, a king’s ransom worth of silver rattles, music boxes, and toys that any child worth their salt would break within minutes.

Ahnna, in contrast, was sending Ithicana an aging and ill soldier. James had no doubt Jor would be the more valued gift.

“I want the route leading to the docks cleared,” James barked at the waiting soldiers. “Everyone alert.”

Yet James barely noticed the nods and salutes as his men moved to obey, his eyes all for the carriage circling down the spiral behind Buck and Brayer. Irritation filled him that Ahnna had chosen not to remain in the palace, where keeping her safe from both theAmaridians and his uncle was possible, though James had known there was no chance that she’d stay in the Sky Palace for long.

His heart beat faster as the mules made their final circuit, for this would be the first time he’d spoken to Ahnna since he’d left her room. The first time he’d stood face-to-face with her since learning that the person who’d tried to have her killed was his own uncle—who might well try again if James didn’t find a way to get Ahnna back to Ithicana. How he was going to manage it, James didn’t know, only that the anticipation he felt at seeing her face was not making the challenge any easier. His pulse roared as the mules emerged from the spiral’s lower gate, the driver stopping near the waiting horse-drawn carriage.

Straightening his uniform, James approached the carriage and opened the door, his stomach tightening at the sight of her.

In a dress.

He frowned, for while there was nothing unusual about the dress Ahnna wore, he did not find that it suited her. She wouldn’t be able to move in her usual way in a gown like that. It was too limiting. “I’d heard that you’d caved to propriety but didn’t believe it. Yet it seems hell hath indeed frozen over, for that, my lady, is a dress.”

“And your dismay at seeing it is understandable,” Ahnna replied, “because should we be accosted, you’ll have to defend yourself.”

“My heart trembles.” He held out his hand to her, noting that she’d regained her color, her cheeks flushed pink as her fingers closed around his. Stepping out, she brushed back loose curls that reached her lower back, and he tried and failed to push away the memory of the feel of that hair tangled in his fingers.

Of her limp in his arms because his uncle wanted her dead. The memory caused him to say, “You should sail with them. Go to visit your niece.”

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