Page 36 of The Royal Throne
“Were you going to allow Alina to be with the man she loved?” Sabine turned to face him, wondering if after she gave him an heir, if he’d release her to be with Evander. Not that Evander would want or be able to be with her since she was married. Regardless, the thought intrigued her.
“No.”
It felt like the door to her cage just shut and locked. “So your arrangement was that you could be with someone you loved, but my sister couldn’t? That hardly seems fair.”
“She was free to write to him,” Rainer admitted. “That was all, though, because there couldn’t be any question as to who the father of her children was.”
So Rainer could sleep with whomever he wanted while he had expected Alina to remain true to him.
“Alina knew what she was getting herself into,” he said. “You can wipe the look of disgust from your face.”
“I doubt she knew your sister intended to kill her.”
A flash of fury flitted across his face. “Lottie didn’t kill Alina.”
“She hired an assassin. Same thing.”
“This is never going to work if we’re fighting all the time,” Rainer said as he reached out and put his hands on her shoulders. “What is it you want?”
She stood there staring into his eyes, trying to determine if this was some sort of trick.
“Tell me,” he insisted.
She decided to be truthful. “I want your sister to pay for killing Alina, and I don’t want you to go to war with the other kingdoms.” There, she’d put it all on the line.
“Finally,” he said, releasing her. “It’s nice to see you’re capable of being honest for once.”
Another jab. She swallowed her retort though the irony wasn’t lost on her. Questioning him about the Bakley children and the need for food would prove him the liar, not her. However, it would get her nowhere. As to why he thought she wasn’t truthful, she had no idea.
“You keep talking about war,” Rainer said. “Why is that?”
“Because it looks like you’re preparing for war.” She tried to keep her face straight so as not to reveal every emotion and thought she had.
“I don’t plan on going to war.”
“Then why all the troops at the border? Why the ships off the coastline?”
He chuckled, the sound low and menacing. “Oh, I plan on taking over Carlon, Nisk, and Bakley. I just don’t see them putting up a fight. My soldiers will go in and establish control. No fighting. No war.”
She didn’t know the state of either Carlon or Nisk’s armies, but she knew Bakley’s army was basically non-existent. It would be so easy for Rainer to take over. Anton’s words from the ball last night came back to her. He’d said her father had agreed to have Carin come to Bakley to marry Viktor, bringing along with her ten assassins to train with their army as part of the marriage contract. Perhaps her father feared Rainer would invade. While ten assassins didn’t seem like a lot, she knew how lethal and potent they could be.
“And what about the League?” she asked. “They’ll never approve of you ruling over other kingdoms.”
“Then it’s time to dissolve the League. It has served its purpose, now it is no longer needed.”
“And that’s it? Your mind is made up?”
“It is.”
“I came to Lynk thinking we were going to be partners,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “While I wasn’t naive enough to believe this was a love match, I at least thought you’d look to me for guidance and support. I can see now how wrong I was.”
Rainer’s eyes narrowed. “Partners? I’m the king of Lynk.”
“And I’m its queen.” While she understood that Rainer had grown up without a mother and queen, she thought he’d want those things. He had no idea how powerful the two of them could be if they worked together.
“In name only,” he said, clearly annunciating each word. “Once you’re cleared to have marital relations, you have two months to give me a child.”
That sounded like a threat. “Or what?” she asked, afraid to hear the answer. “You can’t take Heather’s baby and pass it off as mine. It’ll never work.”
