The scene in the throne room was chaotic at best. Looking around, Eli quickly ascertained the situation. While the revolutionaries and several members of the Princess’s Guard had the upper hand, there were still twenty or thirty members of the Queen’s Guard and military doing their best to defend the door to the queen’s chambers.
Across the room, Eli caught sight of a familiar set of dark eyes grimacing in his direction, and the Commander narrowed his focus as he stared him down. Scar face didn’t take his eyes off of Eli as he began to work his way through assailants, cutting them down easily as he moved toward his target. As he advanced, the aura of pure evil shifted the room such that darkness seemed to blot out everything around them until only Eli and the man who’d tried to end him remained. One of them would not walk out of this room.
His concentration was broken when he heard another recognizable voice shout, “Goedwig! You&rsqu
Across the room, Eli heard a shout and a roar of laughter. He could hardly let the situation distract him, but his head flickered in that direction for a moment, and he saw Danyen on the ground, grasping his middle. Drake was there and ended the laughing soldier who’d stabbed Danyen, but the Representative looked seriously wounded. Looking around the room, as he saw Vin trying to take advantage of his distraction, out of the corner of his eye, Eli spotted a member of his own guard who had just finished a man off. “Nen! Go to the infirmary and fetch Armant, as quickly as you can!”Eli hardly had time to see the guardsman nod in understanding before Vin’s persistence paid off, and his sword caught Eli in the left shoulder. It was a glancing blow as Eli dodged to his right, but this wound was deeper than the last and hurt more. It was not enough to slow him, though. Eli came flying back at Vin with a vengeance, thinking of his comments about Kit, how he h
Watching the battle take place from the hallway had been unsettling for Kit, especially when she saw Eli faltering. For a moment, it had looked as if Vin might be victorious. Her attention had been pulled away when she learned Danyen was injured. Despite Galter’s best efforts to stop her, the princess insisted on going in and tending to him, and she had been there, placing pressure on the wound when Armant arrived. Danyen apologized for not being as handy with a sword as he was a quill, but Kit had only kissed him and assured him he was perfect in her sight.And then she’d seen hesitancy in Cassius and Eli as they considered mercy for Vin, the monster who had hurt and tortured so many. Ending him seemed like the right thing to do for all of the people of Yewforia, though she could never fault her men for weighing the costs of taking a life, even when that life was as worthless as scar face’s.She’d been stunned to see Jecob standing on the dais,
No longer frightened of the woman who used to terrorize her, Kit raised her arms between her mother’s bringing them down to the sides quickly so as to prevent her mother from ever making contact with her neck. Rona’s arms snapped down and she winced in pain. Her eyes bulged in surprise at her daughter’s strength. Kit took advantage of her mother’s stunned expression long enough to plant her fist in Rona’s right eye. Her mother rocked backward, grabbing at her face as Kit felt Eli’s familiar hand on her shoulder, seeking to calm her. Clearly, the older woman was no physical threat to Kit or anyone else.The bejeweled, golden crown atop Rona’s head wobbled as the queen staggered from the blow. It slid free, tumbling toward the floor. Kit reached out a hand and plucked it from the air. “The goddess have spoken!” she declared, ignoring the fact that it was the force of her own strike that had dislodged the crown. Nearly everyo
“We love you, Kit. We’ll always be here for you,” Jate said to her right.“Even when we’re broken,” Danyen added, getting a giggle out of her and the others.“It’s our privilege to be with you,” Drake said in his deep, steady voice.Reeve took her hand. “Your belief in us has shaped us into who we are.”“And given us the confidence to stand with you as you become queen,” Landon said in her ear.“It’s all been well-worth it, Kit, to see you take the throne.” Cassius was still battered, but he looked much better now, with a smile on his face, than he had since Kit had found him in the dungeon.Kit shifted her eyes to Eli, assuming he would also say something. His eyes darted around several times, and she could tell he was attempting to come up with something no one else had said, but they’d all expressed themselves so well, it was a difficult
Eventually, Kit stepped back, signaling she was done, and her party faded into the hallway. Eli was right, there was much to be done, and Kit wasn’t even sure where to begin with the task of restoring the realm to its former glory. But there was no doubt her first appointment with the council would be to approve the new law that would allow her to rule before the end of her Choosing, one that would allow her to keep all seven of the men who stood around her now.As if reading her mind, Zora, her great-aunt and a distinguished member of the council stepped forward. “Queen Katrinetta, I would like to present to you a new law, passed by the council earlier this day. All it needs is your signature.”Confused, Kit took the sheet of parchment and began to read. When her eyes reached the bottom of the paper, she looked up. “How did you know...?”“Junno explained everything to us,” Nil said, stepping forward. “And we agree
The west garden in the spring was Princess Katrinetta’s absolute favorite place to occupy her free time. Between her lessons and the hours she spent at court, those precious moments were few and far between. On the eve of her eighteenth birthday, she had found a few moments to scurry away. It had been difficult, particularly since her mother and the rest of the council members found it suitable to constantly school her on the upcoming ceremony. She couldn’t even bear to think of the name. Every time she did, a fluttering would stir inside of her stomach, like the beating of a thousand butterflies’ wings. It didn’t matter that her cousins and the other women who had already gone through similar proceedings assured her that ripple didn’t originate in her stomach but slightly lower in her abdomen. They said it wasn’t fear that made her insides stir; it was longing, but Princess Katrinetta knew her own anxiety when it reared its ugly head. The closer
A smile did creep in then as she thought about the Exploration. Kit couldn’t help herself, and she imagined her blue eyes were sparkling, though she couldn’t see them reflected in the deep pools of green that looked back at her. So far, her mother must not have considered that during the Exploration she was free to be with whatever man she chose. If Rona had, then Eli would’ve likely been sent away long ago, along with several other more fetching members of Kit’s guard, the ones her mother often chastised her about. “Try not to stare,” she’d say in her harsh voice. None of the others mattered as much as this one, though, and Kit was fairly certain her mother had deduced that fact.“Do you think…?” Kit stopped herself, still too unsure to even prompt the question. How could she ask him, her friend since childhood, if he thought it would ruin their friendship if she sought him out during her Exploration?&ldquo
The informal throne room near her mother’s chambers was not nearly as imposing as the one used for formal occasions. In the grander room, the queen would greet visiting dignitaries and noblewomen or meet with commoners who had managed to gain an audience with her. A few times each year, Queen Rona would hold court there and decide whether or not prisoners should continue to stay in the dungeons--catacombs and labyrinths of cells beneath the castle--or actually be released. Most of them would have already spent more time in the unsanitary, disease ridden prison than anyone cared to measure by the time the queen saw them.Kit preferred to meet with her mother in the smaller chamber because it usually meant a more select audience. Though she was certain members of the Royal Council would be present, she didn’t know for sure if it would be all of them or just those closest to the queen by blood or loyalty.She still wore the same pink gown she’d had on ea