Page 47 of Conspirators' Kingdom

“Those vows were written by King Khety, a man who very much wants to see me dead, dishonoured, disgraced or destroyed, all so that I don’t threaten his reign. Those vows bound us, our lives magically linked. There can be no divorce, and there can be no other spouses. Most importantly, if I die, you die.”

Taisiya saw red. Gods below, all her plans had crumbled to dust, all because of another fae spell. She wanted to scream, but they were still in public. Taisiya settled for digging her nails into his hand.

“You slimy son of a whore!” she hissed. “Why on Oblivion would you swear that vow? Why would you letme?”

“The only reason I’m alive and free is that I swore to follow my brother’s ordersandtake a bride. He expected any bride of your land to bring me so much disgrace that my political ambitions would never recover. Now that he’s had his way, the last of the spell that bound my actions has fallen away.”

Damn him! She’d just attached herself to a man whose motivations left him on the bad side of his king. How she wished she could kill this scheming bastard.

“Why didn’t he just make you swear an oath to kill yourself?” she hissed, wishing his king had been bolder and finished him off before she’d ever seen his wretched face.

“A very helpful taboo. One you should be grateful for. Maat once had a king as cruel as he was paranoid, who made every blood relative swear an oath of loyalty and obedience to him. Then he ordered them to kill each other, plunging all of Maat into chaos. My ancestor, his queen, slew him and restored order. The royal bloodline of Maat was then prohibited from swearing oaths of loyalty to each other. Had my brother been free to demand it of me, your future would not look nearly as bright.”

“Bright?! You’veruinedmy future!”

“Your options are few now, Taisiya, as are mine, but they’re not necessarily bad ones.”

“I fail to see how this situation is in any way ideal!” Taisiya retorted.

She didn’t have to kill him to get even, did she? What was a little maiming in the grand scheme of things?

“Are your ambitions so small? What could you have amounted to in this empire? You are already a princess consort by my side, wealthier than even the empress.”

She could have been… she could have been the Dragonsblood heir. She could have carried out her family’s grand vision. She could have married some doddering old fool and lived the rest of her life as a wealthy, respectable widow. Now she had a title beyond her wildest hopes, but the victory tasted of ash.

“A title which has become sullied by your own admission!” she snarled.

“If that doesn’t please you, would the title of queen be to your liking?” he asked.

Taisiya laughed contemptuously.

“You wish to make me a conspirator against your brother? The one who outwitted you at every turn? You think I wish to be branded a traitor twice over? I have only just managed to drag my family out of that particular mire, I’m not about to step into it once again!”

“My brother is not some all-knowing deity. He is mortal, the same as I, and I have outwitted him before. I was content to wait to take his crown, but he has forced my hand. Fight with me, Taisiya, and I will make you a queen so powerful, so wealthy, you’ll pity your empress for her wretched lot. Not only will the mages beg your forgiveness for ostracizing you, they’ll be fighting themselves for your favour.”

Taisiya did like the sound of that, but she was much too jaded to take him at his word. Mereruka was not to be trusted.

“And what of this disgrace? How do you plan to rehabilitate your reputation?”

“As of now, only the fae here know of it, and the long sea voyage home is not without its perils.”

Taisiya was quiet as she thought it over. If her life was tied to his, she couldn’t risk his brother or anyone else killing him. Even if she divorced him, her life would always be at the mercy of his own. She also knew, given what little she understood of his magic, that it was unlikely she could keep him confined to Lethe. Much as it angered her, he was now her one and only option. If she were condemned to be the wife of this man, then he would damn well work to give her everything she’d ever dreamed of and more.

“If the queen’s crown is anything like the one I wore today, it will need to be recast. I have my own ideas about what would look best.”

He smiled, the look in his eyes wild with satisfaction.

“It will be my pleasure to place it on your head.”

“No need, Mereruka, I plan to take it from her brow with my own two hands.”

Gods pity the Land of Maat. Its king had made an enemy of Taisiya Dragonsblood, and she wouldn’t be satisfied until she made everything he possessed her own.

Chapter 22

Mererukawasdeeplyrelievedthat she’d bought his blatant lie about their lives being irrevocably tied. Such bald lies were uncommon in Maat, for the simple reason that a certain subset of the fae had the magic of truth-tasting. Such individuals rarely made themselves known, and so it was always better to err on the side of vagueness or omission when it came to one’s speech.

Taisiya’s anger and ambition pleased him. He had been blessed in this cursed land to find one such as her. Now, his lie would prevent her family members from killing him before they left for his homeland.

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