Page 44 of Her Cruel Redemption

‘Gwinellyn,’ I finally barked, smacking the book down. She startled, her focus snapping back into the room as she immediately dropped onto the chaise like it had been her intention to sit there all along, her spine ramrod straight and eyes wide like that of a rabbit who has just caught the scent of a fox. ‘Talk,’ I demanded. ‘I’d rather hear your chatter than endure the pacing.’

‘I have no power here,’ she said immediately. ‘King Esario doesn’t see me as an equal. To him, I’m just a princess.’

‘Yes,’ I said, raising my eyebrows. ‘What else did you expect?’

‘I’m the rightful heir to the Brimordian throne. I guess… I thought he’d treat me like he would have treated my father.’

I snorted. ‘Of course not. Just becauseyou’vedecided you want to claim your birthright doesn’t mean they’ve stopped seeing you as a political trading piece. Esario would prefer to manage you the way your father always did than respect you as a potential ruler in your own right. You’re going to need to force him to take you seriously as a queen if you don’t want him to use you for his own ends. You’re here under his hospitality. Your throne has been usurped. You have less political power now than you ever have.’

She slumped in her seat, clasping her hands together on her knees and staring down at them. ‘If I have no power, how am I supposed to get them to listen to me?’

‘I didn’t say you have no power, I said you have lesspoliticalpower than ever. But you have something you’ve never had before as well.’

She looked up, her brow still knitted tight. ‘What’s that?’

‘You want it,’ I said simply. ‘You want to wear the crown and call the shots. You believe you should have it.’

‘It’s not that I think I should—’ she began.

‘Fuck that,’ I snapped, cutting off whatever apologetic reasoning she had been about to hide behind. ‘Don’t undermine yourself or you’re doing their job for them. Do you think Esario feels like he has to apologise for being king? You want it. Don’t drain away the power in that by making excuses for it. The question isn’t whether youshouldwant it. It’s whether you want it badly enough to take it.’ I almost addedand what you’re willing to do to take it, but stopped myself just in time. It would be imprudent for me to forget that what I had been willing to do was enchant and kill her father. Or that the reason she was looking at me with that rapt admiration in her big blue eyes was because she believed I’d been under enchantment myself when I had.

Which I had been. In a way.

She took a deep breath. ‘I want to take back my crown,’ she said, her voice quiet but steady. I twisted my mouth as I studied her. She still said it like she was admitting to a dirty secret, but at least she wasn’t trying to tack a justification onto the end.

‘Then that’s enough,’ I said, inhaling sharply and digging my nails into my palms a moment later when I realised I was beginning to sound like Draven. He materialised in my mind in an instant, dark head cocked, grey eyes fixed on me. Kneeling beside me. Washing the blood from my hands.

‘Of course, if you want a little leverage to back that belief, you do have something else you can draw on to make them take you seriously,’ I added, gripped by the sudden urge to prove myself dangerous and invulnerable.

Gwin’s expression turned wary, like she already knew what I was going to say. ‘What’s that?’

‘Me.’ I flexed my hands, focusing my magic, enhancing it, enflaming it slightly until volts of lightning were leaping between my spread fingers.

‘Rhi…’ Gwinellyn was already shaking her head. ‘You know we’re keeping your magic a secret.’

I snapped my hands shut, extinguishing the sparks. ‘Why? It’s ridiculous. I don’t need to skulk away in the shadows. They should know what they’re really negotiating with.’

‘But you don’t know enough about it yet,’ she said, picking her words carefully. ‘You don’t know your limits or how to control it.’

‘I would if your friends would deign to teach me,’ I seethed.

‘But even if they did and you had more control, we’re here trying to build a new alliance. We don’t need King Esario to be any more suspicious of you than he already is. I’m already going to be trying to convince them to change their minds about the Yoxvese.’

A knock rang through the room, forcing me to swallow my reply as Gwinellyn cleared her throat and sat up straight again.

‘Come in,’ she said.

The door swung open, revealing a richly-dressed man who bowed with a flourish of his hands, feathered hat fluttering. Dark curls, a neatly groomed beard, straight, proud nose and eyes that very quickly took in first Gwinellyn, then me. His brows flickered higher as he took in my face, but whatever his reaction to the scars, he’d hidden it before I could read it.

‘Welcome princess,’ he began. ‘I am Minister Victus Gedelli. His Majesty sent me to escort you and your stepmother to the Astronomy Gallery to meet with his cabinet.

‘Astronomy?’ Gwinellyn echoed as she rose to her feet.

‘His Majesty has a keen interest in tracking the stars. He holds most of his meetings in the Astronomy Gallery.’ He dropped his voice and leaned in conspiratorially. ‘And he likes to remind us that he is very important and very clever by surrounding us with all of his fancy instruments.’

Gwin choked on a laugh, touching her fingers to her mouth to hide a smile.

‘It is also very high up and almost impossible to find, which is useful for losing his less determined ministers. But never fear, Your Highness. I’m an old hand at the journey by now. I’ll steer you right.’ He cocked an elbow.

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