Page 84 of The Twisted Throne

Leaving Virginia to her wine, Ahnna fought the urge to take the painful shoes off and walk barefoot on the thick carpets as she made her way back to her room. The halls were empty of everyone but the guards, the palace quiet. Likely, she now realized, because half of them had left with the king and queen.

Then she heard a yelp of pain. Picking up the pace, Ahnna rounded the corner to find Elizabeth with a riding crop in hand.

And a leashed Lestara on her knees.

“Beg, you little bitch,” Elizabeth said, and when the Cardiffian princess refused to move, she lifted her arm to strike her with the crop.

But Ahnna was faster.

Snatching hold of the whip, she jerked it out of Elizabeth’s hand. “Stop.”

The young woman whirled, eyes filled with outrage. “How dare you!”

“How dare I?” Ahnna used her superior height to loom over the other woman. “How dare you treat another human being like an animal.”

“She’s from Cardiff!”

“I don’t care.” Ahnna took a step closer, and a look of apprehension filled Elizabeth’s eyes. “If you wish to kill her, I won’t stop you, but I will not stand by while you abuse and humiliate her for your own amusement.”

“How can you say that, knowing what she did?” Elizabeth retorted. “She’s here as punishment. So she deserves punishment.”

“But not by you.” Ahnna smacked the crop against her own palm with a loud crack, staring the courtier down. “Because you don’t care about her crime. You only care about feeling powerful.” She lifted Elizabeth’s chin with the end of the crop. “But you’re not. You will treat her with dignity, or you will answer to me.”

Elizabeth took two quick steps back and hissed, “Have it your way, my lady. Though you should have let us have our sport with Lestara. Now when we get bored, we’ll turn our sights on the next best thing.” Giving Ahnna one last sneer, she stormed down the hallway.

“Thank you.”

Ahnna turned to find Lestara on her feet, neither of Ahnna’s bodyguards having moved to help her up. There was a livid red mark across her neck and another across her cheek. “Don’t thank me. I think Keris should have cut off your head and staked it on the gates of the city you saw burn.”

“I wish he had.” Lestara lifted her chin, amber eyes boring into Ahnna’s. “But men are very good at orchestrating the misery of women. Especially pawns that don’t stay in the correct places on their game board.”

“You made your own bed. Don’t come to me for sympathy.”

“I’m not.” Unfastening the diamond collar from around her neck, Lestara dropped it on the floor. “But a bit of advice. These women might be kind to your face, but they don’t like you. Theydon’t likeanythingthat is different from them, because it invalidates how they choose to be. That dress”—she jerked her chin at the gown Ahnna wore—“they planted that just for you, though don’t blame your maid for it. Elizabeth arranged it with the modiste. The whole palace has been snickering all night at how stupid you look, though I heard that only James had the balls to tell you.”

Ahnna’s jaw tightened, now seeing what she’d taken for mockery as honesty. And Elizabeth wouldn’t have done it without Virginia’s approval, which meant the princess had been in on it.

“It doesn’t matter how hard you try. It doesn’t matter if you wear their clothes, talk like them, act like them—you’ll always be an outsider. Which means you’ll always be seen asless,” Lestara said. “So keep your dignity and don’t even try.”

“Advice you don’t seem to follow, which makes it suspect.”

Lestara smoothed her skirts. “I was sold by my father in exchange for better prices on animal pelts. Treated like a broodmare in Silas Veliant’s court. Relegated to spinsterhood by the worst king Maridrina has ever had, and then cast into exile for trying to have him removed. Now I live under the eye of yet another king who is content to see me treated like a dog, just as he is content to allow his people to murder my people for their faith. All men do is use me to achieve their ends.” Spreading her arms wide, Lestara added, “I have no dignity left to lose.”

She took a step toward Ahnna, and her bodyguards moved to push Lestara back. But Ahnna motioned them away, allowing the smaller woman to come close even as she closed her fingers over the tiny knife hidden in her pocket.

“My fate was foretold, and it is not this,” Lestara whispered, her amber eyes glowing. “Patience will deliver me.”

“The only thing that will deliver you from this is death,Lestara,” Ahnna said. “Keris is consort to the empress of Valcotta. Edward will not cross him, for he will not crossZarrah.”

At Zarrah’s name, hatred bloomed in Lestara’s eyes. The seething sort of rage that destroyed sanity and consumed everything in its path, and Ahnna had to curb the urge to draw a weapon and kill this woman. For no good would she ever do.

“I know your past, Ahnna Kertell,” Lestara said. “And I have seen your future. Run. Run as far and as fast from Verwyrd as you can, because the only thing here for you is death.”

Then she twisted away and, a heartbeat later, was gone from sight.

James rode through the darknesswith only a small lantern to illuminate his path, heading toward Thistleford. No one would think anything of him being out, hisrelationshipwith Elsie well known for the sake of the freedom it gave him to come and go at all hours. Though it had occurred to him after he’d left Ahnna in the company of his siblings that William knew about Elsie. That he might, deep in his cups as he was, tell Ahnna that was likely where James had gone.

Maybe that would be for the best,he silently told himself.Maybe you should arrange for it.

---