Page 119 of Reign of Light
I laugh again, this time with the bitterness gone and replaced by utter disbelief. “And I thought he hadmefooled.” I shake my head, my jaw slackened as everything I want to say to her races through my mind, but I settle on one last question.
“Was any of it real?”
Her gaze hardens, and she shakes her head.
“No.”
Nodding slowly, I choose my next words carefully, and I barely recognize my icy voice as it falls on my ears.
“I thought you were my friend, Brynne. The one person who stood behind me for more than just her duty. I trusted you. I cared about you. But once again, I was deceived because I was weak and naïve. Despite all that, you helped teach me a valuable lesson. I won’t ever let anyone walk into this castle or my life ever again without being picked apart.”
I square my shoulders toward her and relax my face as I try to hide the flame of anger that is threatening to burn into an inferno. This next command isn’t coming from Lennox. It is coming from the queen, and I refuse to let my emotions bleed through.
“Briony Couling, you are henceforth sentenced to exile. You are stripped of your rights and protections of the kingdom of Blackwood. You are dishonorably discharged from the position you falsely obtained as the Second Guard, and by admission of guilt, you are convicted of conspiring against the crown, and assisting in regicide.”
The moment the formality has left my lips, my voice drops low, my tone so deadly I barely recognize it. All the fury I suppressed as the queen surges to the surface, as Lennox stands tall in her place.
“You are a fucked up, miserable, lonely person, who cared more about herself than being a decent human being. And now, you’re going to spend the rest of your life in exile. I pray to the gods that you never have a day of peace knowing that I won, and you didn’t.”
Weston clears his throat beside me. “My queen, I hear Berrendahr has a very secure island prison for exiled civilians.”
A laugh bubbles out of my chest.
What sweet justice, sending Brynne to an island prison where she will live the rest of her life, just as she and Dane left us to.
“Send her immediately. Tell Signee to have fun with her.” I step toward the bars again and see tears welling in Brynne’s eyes. “He may have manipulated and used you too, but I don’t feel even the smallest bit of sympathy. Not when you were responsible for killing my father, almost killing me, sentencing my mother to death, and ruining the lives of everyone I love. You deserve this future. You chose this, and I won’t miss you, Brynne.”
I turn on my heel and stalk back down the hallway, but stop short when I come to Guthrie. Weston doesn’t miss a beat, matching my pace and keeping his distance with my abrupt stop.
“What are your commands for the rest of them, my queen?”
“I’ll hear their cases individually, then make my decision starting tomorrow.”
“And with him?”
I turn and glare at a man I barely know, but who doesn’t deserve to disgrace the uniform he still wears.
“Exile. Get him out of my kingdom.” I start forward again, but before I make it more than a few paces, I stop, turning quickly to approach the bars. Looking down my nose at the man who has been glaring at me with hatred, one corner of my lips turns up in a smug smirk. “I guess I’m not a piss-poor excuse for a queen after all.”
His eyes narrow, but I don’t stay long enough to let him respond. I turn on my heel and continue onward. We haven’t even been here an hour, but I feel emotionally drained. I have one more cell to stop at before I cannot handle any more duties for the day.
He’s still lying on the ground when I approach, and even though I know he sees me, he doesn’t move a muscle.
“Why?” It’s all I ask, all I need to know. I barely knew Storm, but I watched as he walked around the island, hunting the Castaways. Hunting me. Why did he care so much that he was willing to go along with Dane’s plan? What was in it for him?
“He promised me money. Land. A title.”
While I was furious with Brynne, I feel nothing at Storm’s response. He did this for wealth, and knowing the island kept the healing waters from him, making it clear that it didn’t trust him to find them, I can’t say I’m surprised.
“That’s all?”
“It was enough for me.”
I make a sound of disgust, and step away, refusing to give him another moment of my energy. Someone who will play along with a plot to murder innocent people solely for material things doesn’t deserve it.
I hold my head high, and barrel out of the dungeons, the blur of the cells and the slam of the doors behind me the only thing I hear until I am back in the regular halls of my castle. I can feel Weston behind me. His presence is only slightly calming to the raging chaos inside me.
It hits me how different I feel as my footsteps pound on the stone floor. I’ve only ever shown rage like that to a few people, and one of them is still standing behind me. If I had before, no one would have listened, but now? Now they do. Because it isn’t the princess speaking, or just Lennox. It’s the queen, and it feels different. Like Weston said, I have always been the queen, but now, everyone around me sees it.
