Page 140 of The Kingdom's Reckoning
A guard shoved Rian in the back, and Rian stumbled. When he steadied himself, his gaze swept across the room, his eyes narrowed. Confusion streamed off him and soaked Myra’s feet.
Myra squinted down the aisle toward the man pushing himself off the golden throne. Anger rippled around Myra, twisting around her ankles. But she could no longer decipher her rage from Rian’s, the two intertwining.
Although Sebastian shook his head in disappointment, the stench of victory seeped from his pores. The gold crown encrusted with red rubies rested on a plush pillow atop a pedestal beside him. Myra was marginally surprised it wasn’t already sitting on Sebastian’s head. By the way Ferencia and the guards spoke, she would have assumed Sebastian had already claimed it. Crown or not, it seemed Sebastian was one step closer to garnering the title as whispered conversations brushed her ears as they descended the aisle.
A few wandering eyes turned to Myra, but none stayed too long, their attention fixed on their king. Myra recognized a few of the people standing around the perimeter of the room—staff members whom she had dined with only a few months ago, handmaidens she had chatted with daily. When they looked at her, they quickly averted their gazes, letting their attention fall to the floor. She found Bax standing among the guards. When their gazes connected, he pursed his lips, and Myra sensed a faint trace of apprehension and failure drifting off him.
But he wasn’t the only one who had failed.
She tried to tamp down her rising anxiety, but the rattling of the chains accompanying her every step only enhanced it. As she scanned the room, two things became abundantly clear: none of the winged guards were present, and Laurince was nowhere to be seen.
Sweat dampened her neck, soaking her hair.
Once they reached the front of the room, the guard forced Myra into a seat. She fell into the chair with anoomph. Several guards inched closer, their hands resting on the hilts of their swords. But Myra barely noticed them as she spotted Ferencia standing in the front row among some of the council members.
Myra’s brows drew together.
Sebastian and Rian’s mother was absent from the audience.
When Ferencia’s eyes met Myra’s, a small smirk rose to the woman’s lips. Ferencia swiped a finger across a sparkling necklace adorned with a dozen brilliant rubies.
Myra curled her hands into fists. Her nails bit into the flesh of her palms as she sneered at the traitor. Laurince had trusted her, yet Ferencia had betrayed them. And for what? A shining new necklace from Sebastian? Was that the price of her betrayal?
Sebastian stood and approached the edge of the dais. He signaled for those gathered to sit, and everyone in the room obeyed his command.
Myra tried to grab the threads and shift them, but they slipped through her grasp like water. Not before she sensed the amusement and triumph coming from Sebastian in waves as he observed his brother.
"Kneel," the guard beside Rian ordered.
"I yam yer eng," Rian spat around the restraint, his words mangled, but the meaning clear enough.
The guard only sneered, as if Rian’s title was meaningless. He grabbed Rian by the shoulderand forced him to his knees. Rian tried to fight him off. He tossed his hands in the air, and his chains clanged violently.
Myra looked toward the staff members, the people—to anyone who might help. But instead of friendly faces, she saw only the horrified looks of the onlookers as they watched their king lash out. How had Sebastian turned Rian’s own people against him so quickly and effortlessly?
Then Myra felt it.
Beneath the anger and terror, pools of betrayal, dissatisfaction, and hurt soaked the throne room. And their emotions were all directed at Rian.
The whispers brushed her ear, sinking into her skin.
"Where has he been?"
"Has he been hiding away this entire time? While we suffered and grieved? While we buried our dead?"
"Why did he let those traitors into our kingdom?"
"Why didn’t he protect us?"
The people believed Rian had betrayed them. They believedhehad abandoned them. When they were grieving, when their temple had burned to the ground, Rian was hidden from sight. It was Sebastian who was there to hear their laments.
And this display? Rian’s anger and refusal to repent were only making it worse.
Sweat dripped down her neck as the emotions of the room whipped around her.
When Rian locked eyes with Myra, she shook her head, silently begging Rian to stop resisting. Didn’t he see he was only making it worse?
"It breaks my heart to see you like this, brother. It truly does," Sebastian said.
