Page 183 of A Queen This Fierce and Deadly

My head spun, and I stumbled.

“Pris…” Demos caught my arm and yanked me from the cave.

“I’m sorry.” Bile crawled up my throat, and I panted, clamping down on the urge to vomit.

“Don’t be sorry,” he said. “I should have thought… I’m the one who’s sorry.”

“How many more?”

“I don’t know. There are another ten proven spiders in that cave, and a handful of others died while traveling with Vicer and the hybrids.”

Kaliera and Zathrian walked toward us, surrounded by three guards. I’d managed to stifle my emotions when I interacted with them. But seeing them strolling toward us as iftheywere inconvenienced, watching my cousin, who was a traitor to our people by choice,directly after seeing Finley, whose will had been stolen from him…

Zathrian’s gaze met mine and immediately flicked away.

“Demos,” he said. “Put a sword in my hand.”

Demos’s expression was cold. “So you can use it to stab us in the back?”

“I’ll keep the manacles on. Just let me fight for the hybrids. Please.” Desperation and false sincerity glittered in his eyes. He was nothing but a honey-tongued liar.

“You’ve never fought for the hybrids a day in your life,” Demos said. “Why would you start now?”

I must have made some kind of sound, because Demos met my eyes. “You cannot be serious.”

Zathrian smiled. Because he thought I was soft. Weak.

I looked at him, and his smile disappeared. “He’s an inconvenience,” I said to Demos, my gaze still on our cousin. “A loose end. What kind of future does he have in our kingdom after everything he’s done? And I don’t want to begin my rule by killing a family member. He knows if he tries anything, Lorian will make his death last foryears. Let him die fighting instead.”

I’d shown him mercy. Dying with a sword in his hand was more than he deserved. Surely my grandmother couldn’t expect more than this. Zathrian and I stared at each other for a long moment. Finally, he nodded, his expression tight.

“Fine,” Demos growled. “Shegoes nowhere,” he said to the guards on either side of Kaliera. She gave my brother that cold, haughty stare I’d seen often while in her castle.

“Watch her the way you’d watch a poisonous snake slithering toward one of your children,” I said.

Kaliera looked at me now, and I could almost see her planning my death. I gave her a cool smile as Demos nodded at one of the guards, who unchained Zathrian, leaving the heavy manacles around his hands. They would stop him from interfering with my power, but he would indeed be able to swing a sword.

If he wanted to go down fighting while pretending that he truly did have our people’s interests at heart…

Fine. We needed every soldier we could get at this point.

Zathrian was silent as he followed Demos and me out of the forest and onto the shore. Just a hundred footspans from here, the ground became hard sand. A few hundred footspans more, and it turned soft. That sand would leach our soldiers’ energy with every step.

Marth took one look at Zathrian and shook his head at me.

I wrinkled my nose back at him, and he laughed.

Lorian appeared by my side. Leaning over, he whispered something in Zathrian’s ear. My cousin’s face drained of color, until he was almost gray. Lorian gave him a feral smile and slapped him on the back.

Demos gestured at one of the soldiers to give Zathrian a sword, and Lorian tensed, moving even closer to me.

A horn sounded.

Rough curses followed from everyone around me. I barely noticed. I was too busy watching the remainder of Regner’s army appear in the north.

They came in an endless stream, like a dark river flowing down from the cold heart of the mountains, their black armor swallowing the light. As they filed onto thebeach, it was as if they were crawling across the sand like lice, their armor a perfect match to the terrovians’ dark, oily pelts.

But it was the noise that replaced my heartbeat, turning my knees weak. Their march was a constant, oppressive rumble. A reminder of just how heavily we would be outnumbered. From my vantage point, it was easy to see their formation cutting across the landscape, as the army fell into line after line.

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