Page 51 of The Crimson Princess
“What happens when they attack us?” Idris counters.
“They sense when someone wants to hurt me. In other words, don’t go trying to stab me in the back and you’ll be fine.”
“Where does that assumption come from, Satima?” my father asks.
“It’s not assumption but observation, and since you asked, father, when Bellar showed up during my hunt, they wanted to rip his throat out. When Raven did the same this afternoon, they stood down which is why I invited her to hunt with us.”
My father’s eyes burn with anger, a grit to his teeth as he orders, “Leave us, Idris.”
I can feel Idris’s heavy stare on me, but he simply backs away and joins his soldiers. “Do not speak against your future husband in front of our men.”
“I’m not marrying Bellar, and I’m going to tell you this right now, father. I’ll play nice with him, I’ll even let him court me, and think he has the chance to win me over, but only while you hunt the sorceress. I will not be your pawn nor a gift to your enemies. If you try to announce an engagement, I’ll publicly deny it and you.”
“You dare stand against me?”
“I’m protecting you.”
He snorts. “You’re clearly not right in the head, girl.”
Girl, I think. Did he really just call me that and say that to me? “What I am is omniscient and an empath like mom. For reasons I can’t explain, I didn’t even want to tell you, which says a lot, considering I should trust my father, and our king. I feel like I have to hide from you.”
“That’s silliness. I’m your father.”
“Who I barely know outside the pain you caused my mother.”
“You’re out of line,” he snaps, his teeth gritting together.
“Then you’ll really hate what I have to say next. Bellar intends to destroy you and use me to help.”
“Nonsense.”
“Are you an empath, too?”
“You know I’m not.”
“Then I beg of you, instead of calling me a girl who is out of my mind, listen to me. I love Ravengale, and despite everything, you, too. I will help you deceive Bellar while you defeat him, but I will not help him defeat you.”
“You will do what I tell you to do.”
“I’ll leave Ravengale in exile before I marry that druid.”
He stares at me and I can feel the pulse of his fury, I can feel him contemplating devious ways to force my hand. “Careful, father,” I warn. “I know what you’re thinking, and you will never force a union with me and Bellar and keep me silent. And I know our gales will be uneasy with an alliance with the druids.”
“You, my defiant princess, will lunch with me tomorrow, and we’ll discuss your behavior.”
“I wasn’t aware that protecting my gales was defiance. As to the lunch meeting, I will have to sleep at some point before tomorrow night’s party and my plan for the hunt tonight, if approved by my king, of course, is to trail any of the weres I can back to the villages where they hide and reveal their locations.”
“Very well. Meet me for dinner at five p.m. We’ll dine and leave for the party together. Bellar will be in attendance.” He doesn’t wait for my reply. He blinks away.
For a moment, I don’t move. I’m not sure what my father is capable of at this point. Or what he might do if I truly refuse what punishment awaits me. I do not want to give up my crown, nor do I think it will serve him well with our gales, but he doesn’t seem to be concerned with the court of public opinion. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be commanding me to marry Bellar.
Idris steps in front of me and there’s a shift in his energy, theagitation I generally feel with him toward me, along with his ever-present arrogance, now erased. “Are you going to marry the druid prince?”
“I’d give up my crown before I’d marry him and allow him partial rule of Ravengale. And that’s what Bellar wants. He intends to take us over. Him and his father. And I willnotallow that to happen.”
“Thank you,” he breathes out, relief washing over him. “And I will offer you my allegiance in return. Not that I intend to stand against your father, princess, but for the first time in the hundreds of years I have served him, I don’t know what he’s thinking. The druids have never wanted anything but us on our knees. And I tell myself he has the book, and he knows things we do not, but I can’t find reason in what he plans.”
“What he plans requires my compliance, and one thing I am not, is compliant.”
