Page 76 of Cruelest Kiss and Fairest Blood
“Please. Come with me.” There’s a strained pleading in his eyes.
“I must see my father.” I move around him, slipping through the doorway and into the throne room beyond. The room isbathed in shadows. Only a quarter of the usual candelabras and sconces have been lit. My father sits atop his throne, hand in hand with one of the most strikingly beautiful women I’ve ever seen. Her hair is the color of pure gold. It ripples across her shoulder in long silky ringlets. Her face is as pale as milk. Delicate features give her an unusually youthful appearance but her posture and aura scream of age and experience. How old can she be? The softest of sky blues fills her sparkling, cat-like eyes. She wears a long white gown constructed entirely of lace. Was that her wedding dress? My freshly mended stomach churns when I spy my mother’s jeweled crown atop her golden head.
Who is this radiant woman and where has she come from? I’ve never seen someone so fair. Even my mother, known to be the fairest in all the lands, pales in comparison to the ethereal star of a woman now sitting the throne. No wonder my father was enraptured with her loveliness.
That still doesn’t explain why he would marry her so quickly after my mother’s death. Especially when she’s a complete stranger.
“Father.” I bow. “I’m so sorry to cause you worry.”
My father sits statuesque. His eyes are glazed over, and a paleness, like a dusting of webs, coats his strong features. His posture is sunken. His beard is unkempt. “Please meet my wife, Catreena.”
My gaze passes between them, landing back on my father. That’s all he has to say? I’ve been missing for four days and he can’t bring himself to ask about my wellbeing before introducing his new bride?
“Aren’t you wondering what happened to me? Or where I’ve been?”
My father grunts before repeating, “Please meet my wife, Catreena.”
What has happened to him? He’s a ghostly shell of his former self. “Father?”
“How happy we are that you have returned safely home. The king was sick with worry. It’s taken quite a toll on him.” The new queen’s voice is much deeper than I was expecting with a smoky, sultry edge to it. The voice does not match her youthful appearance, and what is her accent? She isn’t from around here, that’s for sure.
“What is going on? I need to speak with my father, alone.”
Catreena smiles, but it does not reach her feline eyes. “Later, my dear. Guards!” Several of the guards move away from the wall and into the center of the room. “Please escort the princess to her room so she may rest.”
A guard whose face I’m unfamiliar with wraps a hand around my upper arm.
“You will unhand me! I am the princess.”
He moves away from the throne, dragging me with him. He ignores my protests, barking out a quick, “Walk,” when I stumble.
My eyes lock with Cassius’s weary gaze as I’m hauled past. He steps in front of us. “She needs medical attention. I am happy to escort the princess to the healer.” He extends his arm.
I’m jerked back before I can accept his hand.
A second guard removes his sword from its sheath and points it at Cassius. “You will not interfere with the queen’s orders.”
His eyes darken. “I must insist.”
“Cassius,” Catreena’s sensual voice calls out as she peers out the doorway. “Do return with haste. The king and I are in great need of your company.”
“I was just escorting the princess.”
Catreena waves a hand dismissively. “My guards have her well in hand. Return to me. By the king’s orders.” She reachesout to him. The lust dripping from her bright blue eyes can’t be missed.
Fucking hussy. It’s bad enough she married my father immediately following my mother’s death. Now she has the audacity to throw herself at Cassius. She isn’t even trying to hide it. She extends her palm, beckoning him.
Cassius tosses a grimace my way before accepting her hand. The two of them disappear into the Great Hall.
“Walk,” the guard commands when I’ve lingered too long.
Disbelief has the gossip-lined halls passing in slow motion. I know what I saw and heard, but my brain is finding it impossible to accept the current situation as the truth.
I was lost in the woods for four days and no one came to find me. Correction, I was lost in the woods and my father would not allow anyone to come and find me. I could have died out there alone. I did die. Four days of my body putting itself back together and healing after what must have been severe internal damage and blood loss. All that time and he wasn’t worried? Not just that, he was courting, celebrating, and marrying a goddamned stranger. My mother’s body has barely grown cold and he’s already placed another woman on her throne.
What the fuck is going on?
Where are the outraged cries and questioning glares from the rest of the court? I didn’t recognize a single person on my way into the throne room. Even the servants are few and far between. Where is everyone?
