Page 140 of The Oracle of Dusk

“You!” she howled at Aurora. “Whore!”

Aurora glared back defiantly.

“That’s my wife you’re speaking to!” Theron snapped menacingly.

“You’re both clothed. There’s no proof! I demand you honour your vow and marry my daughter!” Flora screamed.

Theron chuckled.

“Oh, did Orithyia not tell you? I only vowed to wed before I left Boreas. I never once namedwhothat person would be.” Theron grinned.

Another set of footsteps echoed in the hall.

“Your Majesty, you cannot barge into my temple and disrupt sacred rites!” Myrina called angrily.

Myrina arrived at the door, glaring daggers at the queen.

“What sacred rites? Hmm? What proof is there that they’ve consummated the marriage?” Flora squawked.

Myrina’s brows pinched in worry. She looked at them again, as if she could see through them, her hand to her heart. Her relief was palpable. Myrina sighed, a smile on her face.

“The proof is that I can sense that the bond has been forged. Theron and Aurora have been bound by Passion, until their last breaths,” Myrina announced.

“And I’m to take the word of some disgraced Aurean royal, am I? I demand she be inspected by my royal physicians for proof of intercourse!”

Aurora suddenly felt ill. Flora couldn’t demand such a thing, could she? Theron’s hands clenched at his side.

“I will break them before they dare lay a hand on her,” he threatened.

Myrina’s face darkened.

“Maybe Orithyia lets you get away with such disrespect in her goddess’ house, but I am the high priestess of Passion and this is our temple. If you’re not here to pray or ask for succour, you will leave or I will charge you with heresy.”

“Heresy? Ha! For what? Calling your bluff?”

“For questioning the blessings of Passion!” Myrina thundered.

Divine magic suddenly choked the air, thick and heavy and menacing. The walls seemed to close in, like the gullet of a beast. Even Flora was affected, taking a half step away from the high priestess. Passion ruled over more than just lust within the bounds of Trisia. Wrath, too, was her purview.

Aurora had never felt divine magic so threatening in all her life. That it was directed not at her, but her enemy, gave her courage.

Myrina was right. They’d been blessed and bound by Passion Herself. She’d seen Passion’s fire in Theron’s eyes. How dare a mortal queen question the blessings bestowed by a goddess? How dare this wretched woman who had abused her daughter, neglected her sacred duties as queen, who planned sadistic tortures for any under her power and now insulted a high priestess, barge in here and ruin what should be one of the best days of Aurora’s life? Rage boiled over, her magic seething inside her. Now that Aurora was bound to Theron, she was his queen. No longer a cowering prisoner—she was Flora’s equal. Aurora would never have allowed anyone to treat her thus in her own time. Why should she countenance it now?

Theron was about to come to his aunt’s defence when Aurora stepped in front of him. She urged him to stand aside as she marched over to Flora. How dare this woman question their marriage? How dare she come in here and treat them as if they were the dirt under her sandals? After all she’d done to torture them, to terrorise them? After all the things she’d put Epicasta through, she dared come here and make demands?

Aurora put all her strength into shoving the queen off-balance and out the door.

“How dare you—” She pushed Flora back. “Come in here—” She shoved harder as Flora stared at her, bewildered. “And make disgusting demands—” Aurora huffed, succeeding in pushing Flora back into the hall. “Aftereverythingyou’ve done!”

“You promised my daughter would wed the king! Now you mean to steal him like the lowborn whore you are!” Flora raged back. “I offered you everything and you spit in my face!”

“You offered me chains and called them gifts! And you forced that vision out of me after you treated us like animals! You’re not fit to lick the dirt off our sandals, much less make demands! But instead of begging for the forgiveness you clearly don’t deserve, you question a goddess in Her temple! With every breath, you bring shame and ridicule to Viridis!”

Flora lunged. Myrina held her back.

“You want your proof?” Aurora rucked up her skirt so she could hook her fingers around her loincloth and shimmy out of it. She wiped her seed-coated fingers on the soaked fabric and tossed the sopping mess at the queen’s feet. “Here.” Aurora spat at Flora’s feet for good measure. “I’m the queen of fucking Aureum now, and I know what you planned to do to us at your party, so I’d suggest you watch your back, you thrice-damned bitch!” She glared daggers at the queen, whose face was apoplectic with rage. Aurora looked back at Theron, leaning against the wall, a satisfied smirk turning his lips up at the corners. “Do you have anything to add?” she asked him.

“No, I think you summed it up nicely.”

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