Page 118 of Reign of Light
When I see Storm lying across the floor, staring at the ceiling with his head resting on his hands, I scowl. Of course he isn’t on his feet. I’m not his queen. Storm isn’t from Blackwood. I knew the moment Ishook his hand back at camp that it was customary to another kingdom. So why was he involved? Why, after all that time on Dawnlin, did he follow Dane like this?
We pass Guthrie, who also refused to stand, but unlike Storm, he sits with his back pressed to the stone wall, sneering. His beady eyes track me as we walk by, and I don’t break the contact. He deserves to know that he didn’t break me; that his words were only that, words. He may have been a snake, waiting for the right time to strike, but in the end, he did not win.
Weston slows as we approach the last cell, and I already know who I am about to come face to face with: one of the three people I thought cared about me for most of my life.
Surprisingly, Brynne is actually standing with her gaze trained forward and her hands held behind her back. When we stop in front of the thick iron bars, I step back as Weston instructed, giving him the foreground, but staying directly in front of her.
I want to look into her eyes as she tells me everything.
Or lies to my face.
“It is only because of the mercy shown by your queen that you are able to plead your case,” Weston says as he steps closer to her cell. His eyes narrow, and she refuses to look at him. “Your time starts now.”
“I have nothing to say.” Her tone is sharp, her mouth forming a line, but her face gives away nothing.
“I find that hard to believe. You manipulated the queen for years, lied to the crown, plotted to overthrow the king, and then murder the heir. Start talking.”
“I don’t deny it, and I know nothing I say will change whatever decision I’m sure you have already made for me. I know how this works.” Her stony gaze stays locked on the wall above me, and she looks completely unfazed that her life is about to change.
When I told Weston I wanted to be here for the questioning instead of having him report the details to me, I swore I was only going tolisten. I didn’t want to get involved. The weight of having some of my greatest fears realized, that she had been plotting against me for years and that our relationship, our friendship, was never real and was only part of her duty, her fake duty at that, was too much for me to handle.
But now that I stare her down, and recall the last conversation we had about her being proud of me, of wanting me to find Dawnlin, of worrying for my safety, all I feel is hatred.
“What kingdom are you from?” I snap. Her eyes fall to mine, but she stays silent.
“After what you did to me,” I snap, taking two quick steps toward the bars, “the bare minimum you owe me is answers.” From the corner of my eye, I watch Weston shift closer to my side, but my eyes stay trained on her.
“Nafria.”
“How long were you…there?” I feel the tug of something in my throat when I try to utter Dawnlin’s name, and I know instantly it is the magic, preventing me from spilling secrets to those who can hear from the other cells.
“I don’t know exactly. Eight? Ten years? It wasn’t easy to keep track.”
“Why did you do it?” I grind out. It’s the only question I really want answered. Why? Why did she choose me to be the victim of her lies and deceit, especially when I was so young? I’d done nothing but look up to her.
She glares at me, her jaw clenching and unclenching as the seconds drag on.
Weston loses his patience, and his growl echoes off the stone. “Your queen asked you why you manipulated and betrayed her. Give her a fucking answer.”
“Well, that’s just it, isn’t it?” Brynne snaps, finally turning to address him. “She wouldn’t have any clue about the real motivations behind what I did, because she was always going to be the queen. She sits here with her fancy clothes, in her big castle, with every need met.She never even had to leave to work for what she wanted. She doesn’t know what it is like to have nothing, to fight just to live. When someone offered me the opportunity for us to switch places, I fucking took it. Who cares if one little spoiled princess had to die to get what I wanted? It was worth it.”
Weston’s eyes darken at the mention of my death, and I can almost feel the tension roiling off his body.
“He offered you my kingdom,” I say directly.
“He loved me!” she cries, her stony mask finally cracking, as she turns her attention back to me. Her eyes glaze over, and there’s a slight quiver to her chin, but she doesn’t stop. “We were going to sit on the throne together. That is what all of this was for—to finally have my place, a place that Iearned, alongside him!”
“He didn’t love you,” I grind out. “He used you.”
She scoffs. “How would you know? You weren’t there. You know nothing!”
A bitter laugh erupts from my throat, and I try hard not to look at Weston. He knows what Dane was to me before him. He watched it all. I’m not hiding anything from him, but I still don’t like speaking about it in front of him.
Right now, I have no choice.
“I know more than you think. I know he was great at making you feel loved and seen, and giving you so many promises for what your future could be. He made you feel needed and wanted, but every single touch, every single word, was all a plot to get to his end. His goal. Which was never you or me. It was my mother.”
“It wasn’t.” Her voice trembles through her gritted teeth. “He only saw her as his path to the throne. He told me the exact plan!”
