Page 87 of The King's Omega
Then he held my hand up, splaying my fingers out, the knife in his other hand, and I understood. I swallowed bile, hoping I could withstand the pain that was coming. “Now, will you assign me your heir?”
Rigol moaned unintelligibly and Selene shook him. “Answer, you idiot.” But Rigol’s head lolled on his chest. For a heart-stopping moment, it looked like he had stopped breathing entirely.
Milian huffed. “Give him another dose.”
“But I need that one,” Selene protested. “It takes weeks to make the antidote.”
“We have a day, maybe less, before Starlak hears of this and rallies troops to join Mirren and what’s left of Rimholt,” Milian snarled. “If you had done your job, you would have been able to sign over the kingdom to me. I couldn’t care less if you suffer for an extra week.”
“I could die!”
“You could die faster if you don’t obey me, woman.” His hands slipped away from my fingers, and I shuddered.
“M-Milian?” Her bell-like voice broke on his name. His only answer was a raised brow.
For a moment, I felt a sharp pang of sympathy for Selene. She had believed in Milian’s lies and done everything she could to bring his dream of conquering Rimholt to fruition. It was never enough. She was only his tool. But she loved Milian; her eyes betrayed her wounded heart with every glance.
What would she have been like if she had loved a better man? If she had been raised anywhere but Milian’s harem, if she had been allowed a mother and father, a real life?
I hated the way that Milian’s generous and brave Omegas referred to themselves as broken. I could wish for a thousand years to be as courageous as Valerie, the woman who had saved Roya.
The young Omega’s face flashed before me. Roya hadn’t been treated any more kindly, and she hadn’t chosen the path Selene was determined to follow. Roya had stayed whole, somehow, grown hardy and fierce, like a wild rose.
But Selenehadbeen broken by her upbringing. Whatever potential she’d once held to be like the others, had been siphoned away from her, and only the broken pieces remained.
I could feel sympathy, and even move past her torment of me, but I would never forgive her for what she had done to Rigol. I shuddered, and Selene’s gaze shot to me.
Something about me enraged her. Possibly, it was just my presence here, while the love of her life reviled her so casually.
Brow furrowed and nostrils flared, Selene stalked to a table and snatched a small cup of dark amber liquid. She tilted it up to Rigol’s mouth, forcing him to swallow a mouthful. “It will take twenty minutes,” she said. “Let me hurt the little slut while we wait.”
Milian’s lips twisted into a cynical smile. “No. I couldn’t trust you to follow my plan over the past months. Honestly, getting captured by a brothel mistress? Unable to get the king to make you his heir after weeks in his bed? I am ashamed to think you were trained in my city. I should have my Spymaster flogged.”
Pink spots rose on Selene’s cheeks. “I wasn’t in Rigol’s bed. The idiot couldn’t even get hard after the first time.” She smiled coldly at me, and was about to speak again, when the sounds of distant swordplay filtered through the door.
“Watch her,” Milian shouted, turning to leave, his hand on his sword. He threw the door open, commanding two guards to remain while he and the others raced down the hall.
Selene didn’t waste a minute. “Now it’s just you and me, Novalia,” she hummed, picking up the dagger Milian had dropped on the table. “I’m so glad. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time.” The knife point was at the corner of my eye before I could take a breath.
“Selene, think,” I said, trying for calm. “You can’t trust Milian. He wanted you to become the heir, then kill Rigol. Why? So you could be queen? That was never his plan. He flat out told me that. He said it just now—he wants you to sign Rimholt over to him. So he could remove you and rule on his own.” Well, with me, when he thought I was on his side. But I would not remind her of that, not with that knife so close to my eye.
“Oh, Vali,” she said, letting the knife scrape over my face just hard enough to sting but not cut. “I knew that. I’m an assassin. Double crossing, poisoning, plans within plans? That’s me.”
“W-what do you mean?”
“I mean, Milian was dead the minute he got here. You remember that kiss we shared?” Her pink lips twisted into a strange smile. “Lip tint laced with adder bane. There’s an antidote—which I took, of course, though the flavor makes you wish for death. If you don’t ingest it within a few hours, well, it’s just a matter of time. Three days seems to be the limit before the victim dies. The heart just stops, like a clock unwound. It’s actually a kind way to kill.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“No, but Rigol does, doesn’t he?” she said, and rolled onto the bed next to the king, who was awake and furious.
“Let her go, Selene,” Rigol commanded. “I will never name you my heir.”
“Oh, you will,” she replied, sitting back up, grasping my hand, and stretching my fingers like Milian had. “I bet you won’t let me torture her for very long at all before you crumple. You see, you’ve been in and out of consciousness for days. Whining for your little Omega, apologizing for being cruel. Honestly, it was so sickening, I may have stabbed you a few times because of that alone.”
Goddess, she was horrible. My eyes flicked to Rigol’s face. He was still torpid and weak, I could tell. There was no way he would be able to save me from Selene.
She rolled off the bed and returned to my side. “Between the poisons and the torture, I was sure I’d killed you a few times—that was another reason Milian was so grumpy with me. But I knew you’d stay alive for her. And I know you’ll do anything to keep her that way.”
