Page 70 of A Touch of Royalty

Emryn shut the words up. She wouldn’t say the words, because if she said them, he would say them back even if he didn’t mean them.

And she wanted him to mean that he loved her. She wanted him to mean those words with everything that she was.

But he couldn’t, and if that was the case then she was better off keeping it hidden.

Maybe forever.

And that hurt, but it would hurt more if he didn’t feel the same way she did.

They arrived at the palace and both of them took their leaves of the queen and went to bathe off the road dust and change for supper with the court.

“Do you want to tell me now, Emryn?” He smiled at her so gently that she nearly let the words slip anyway.

“It’s not important.” She shook her head. “I solved the problem already.”

“Oh.” He looked a little wounded, but covered it up quickly. “Well, should we go to supper then?”

“I’m famished,” she replied, taking his offered arm and letting him lead her out of the room.

Two days later,Asan turned up, planting himself directly in front of Emryn and beckoning to her. “Emryn, I need you to come with me.”

“Where are we going, First Wizard?” Emryn backed up several steps. “Is something wrong?”

“I need you to come and speak to the council of magi,” Asan said. “In order to remove the head healer from his offices, they require your testimony.”

“Oh.” Emryn nodded. “It was just me, Asan, and he is a-”

“It was not just you,” Asan said flatly. “It was not just you, Emryn.”

“I will go, just let me tell Cas.” She turned away, only to find her arm caught by Asan.

“It must be now,” he said.

“No,” she backed up again. “You- you aren’t Asan, are you?”

The person holding her arm snarled, yanking on her, pulling her toward an offshoot room.

“No,” she cried, screaming into the air of the silent corridor. “Guards!”

The man snarled again, reaching to put a knife to her throat and his other hand over her mouth. “Shut up, bitch.”

“No,” she said, the word muffled. She opened her mouth, clamping her teeth down on the hand. She bit as hard as she could, feeling and tasting the blood as it filled her mouth.

The man ripped his hand away from her face, and she spat something out that she really didn’t want to think about.

And then the corridor was full. Guards and people and her husband bearing down on her like a hurricane.

She screamed again as the guards surrounded them, reaching out for the man who was still holding the knife to Emryn’s throat. And then everything froze.

The mirror next to them opened and Asan stepped out, landing next to Emryn and looking at her assailant. “What’s all this?”

Emryn slid free of the frozen man’s grasp and spat the blood onto the floor. “He tried to impersonate you,” Emryn said in a shaking voice.

“We won’t have that,” Asan said, moving the man and manifesting a set of shining chains around his wrists before he waved and time unfroze.

The guards stumbled a little, looking at the pair of Asans in front of them. “The one with the piece missing is the one that you want.” He shoved the false Asan into the midst of the guards. “I will see to him later.”

Emryn collapsed as soon as the guards herded the man away, clapping her hands over her mouth to hold in the sudden heave of her guts.

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