“There’s actually nothing precarious about my position,” I said. “I’m wanted for treason in my homeland, and here you’ve taken my freedom, my dreams, and my brother’s life. Everything I care about is gone, and you wear my dead brother’s baldrick as proof. What more could you take from me?”
He reached up, wrapping his hand around my neck, his thumb gently tracing a line along the hollow of my throat. He pressed harder, and I felt the flutter of my pulse under his touch.
“Trust me, Princess,” he whispered. “There’s always more to take.”
I weep for you, my brothers and sisters,
I weep for us all,
For though my days here can be counted,
Your years of struggle have just begun.
—Song of Venda
CHAPTER EIGHT
RAFE
I sat at the table directly across from Kaden. Staring. Cutting him into small pieces with my eyes.
Why they’d brought me in here, I wasn’t sure. Maybe they intended to feed me. Or perhaps let me watch them eat. My hands were still bound behind my back. Kaden sipped an ale, periodically eyeing me, stewing almost as much as I was, I guessed. He had seen Lia kiss me. It ate through him like a stomach worm.
Several of the governors milled around, some shoving my shoulder and encouraging me to drink up, then laughing at their thin joke. A full mug rested on the table in front of me. The only way I could drink was to suck at the foam like a pig at a trough. That was a show they’d have to wait a long time for—I wasn’t that thirsty.
“Where is she?” I asked again.
I thought Kaden was going to answer with more silence, but then he sneered, “What do you care? I thought she was only a summer distraction.”
“I’m not heartless. I don’t want her hurt.”
“Neither do I.” He looked away, engaging a governor who stood just to his right.
A mere summer distraction. I stared at the sloshed foam puddling around the mug, thinking about Lia’s glare again when I said the words, her lip lifted in disgust. Surely she was playing along. The glare was just to strengthen our position. She had to know why I said it. But if she was playing along, she played her part too well.
Something else ate at me too, something I had seen in her eyes, her movements, the tilt of her chin, something I had heard in the hardness of her voice when we were in the cell. It was a Lia I didn’t know, one who spoke of knives and death. Just what had these animals put her through?
Kaden glared, his attention turned back to me again. The worm dug deeper. “Do you always take such an intimate interest in your prince’s affairs?”
“Only when it suits me. Do you always dance with the girl you plan to murder?”
His jaw clenched. “I never liked you.”
“I’m wounded.”
A governor stumbled into the table, then righted himself. He realized it was Kaden he had bumped into and laughed. “The Komizar still holed up with that royal visitor? A blue blood has to be a first even for him.” He winked and staggered away.
I leaned forward. “You left her alone with him?”
“Shut up, Emissary. You don’t know anything.”
I sat back. Strained against the shackles cutting into my wrists. Felt the burn at my temple. Wondered about all those weeks on the Cam Lanteux and everything Lia had had to endure.
“I know enough,” I said.
I know when I get these chains off, I’m going to kill you.
CHAPTER NINE