“Hello, Vilhelmina,” said the queen, draped across a red-velvet chaise, a glass of blood held aloft. The queen was the embodiment of beauty and evil in the flesh. Very similar to her son, the larger, masculine version of herself stretched out in a massive brown-leather armchair. The queen shifted her legs on the chaise, her silvery gown glittering like scales under the candlelight, her black hair coiled in tiny braids atop her head and gleaming like snakes.
Her man, Radomir, the hard-looking, square-shouldered one who never left her side, stood at ease next to the mantel, his gray eyes watching Mina, his hands clutching the shoulders of little Izzy in front of him.
“Izzy!” She started to run, but the two soldiers grabbed her arms on either side and kept her still.
Izzy’s wide blue eyes blinked furiously, her chin quivering, but she said not a word. The nightgown she’d been kidnapped in was smudged with dirt, her white slippers soiled as well. They hadn’t even given her a change of clothes.
Mina reined in her rage for Radomir, who’d imprisoned her in the tower at Briar Rose right after he’d murdered her dearest friend. Now, it burned brighter than ever at the wickedly gleeful expression he wore, holding a child prisoner as if he enjoyed it.
“Why have you taken her?”
Mina was easily controlled by Dominik’s elixir. They didn’t need the child to force her obedience. There was another sinister reason, she was sure. A strange tingling, almost a tickling of her empathic senses. It was the secret that kept itself hidden from her, wanting to spill out.
Dominik stood and strode toward her with ominous steps. His ice-blue gaze lingered on her before flicking to the blond holding her right arm. “She looks good in that dress, doesn’t she, soldier?”
The Legionnaire stiffened, realizing his mistake too late.
With a lethal swipe of his claws, Dominik opened the soldier’s throat, his tight grip on Mina’s arm knocking her sideways. The other soldier caught her before she fell; the warm spray of blood splattered her face and chest. She watched in shock as Dominik put a boot on his chest, reaching down to grip his head, “No one looks at what is mine.”
The soldier only gurgled in response before Dominik twisted with his powerful hands, the snapping of bone and sinew as he wrenched and tore the soldier’s head free with a final grunt. Bile rose up Mina’s throat as she turned to Izzy.
“Close your eyes, Izzy,” she commanded. The girl obeyed at once, squeezing them tight.
Dominik stood, wiping his hands on his pants legs, “Dispose of this mess,” he commanded the other Legionnaires, who quickly obeyed him. He then took his place, sinking back into his leather chair.
The queen didn’t bat an eye or seem surprised at this display of murderous violence for something so small as a lustful glance. Mina was truly in the hands of monsters.
Morgrid sipped her glass of blood, ignoring the men dragging the bloody corpse from the room, her gaze on Mina. “Oh. I almost forgot.” She stood, setting her glass on a scalloped, black-lacquered table, and glided forward. “I believe I owe you a curtsy,” she said, mockingly. She dipped her knees but not her head or her eyes, her lips tipped in a slash of mockery. “Your Majesty.”
Rather than cower or wither under the queen’s ire, she remembered who she was. And who she’d become since she’d come awake at Briar Rose. “I am the rightful heir of the Arkadian throne, Your Majesty. I hardly see how it is a surprise that I should claim it.”
Morgrid studied her, fingering a string of black pearls at her throat. “I will admit it was quite a shock. Not that you claimed what was rightfully yours but that it was you who did so, my dear.” She examined Mina, presumably expecting a break in her composure at the insult. When Mina didn’t even flinch, she went on. “It matters not anyway. You’ll take my son as your husband.”
“No. I will not—”
“Yes, you will,” Dominik said.
A lightning rod of pain bowed her spine. She crumbled to her knees with a sharp gasp.
“Pwinthess,” Izzy cried on a tiny sob.
Mina shook her head at her.
“Say yes,” he commanded.
“Yes,” she grated through clenched teeth, the pain subsiding at once. Catching her breath, she finally looked up at the queen with burning anger thrumming through her body. The queen quirked a brow.
“Well, well. It seems someone has grown more defiant since her bloodless sleep, rather than more obedient, my son.”
“Yes. She has,” he noted from his lounging posture, a predator at rest but still watching its prey with interest, picking all the places he wanted to gouge his teeth and claws.
“You’ll have to tame her, darling,” the wicked queen crooned. “If you’re going to get a child in her.”
Acid churned in Mina’s belly at the thought.
“Unless she has one in her belly already,” he said with menace.
The queen hissed. “What?”
“She’s lain with another man.”
“Who?”
“The Captain of the Bloodguard that Friedrich hired to replace his Legionnaires.”
“Stand up,” commanded the queen.
Mina didn’t try to refuse, especially when Dominik stood and circled behind her. The queen moved close and pressed her palm hard against her abdomen, closing her eyes in concentration. She smiled, a triumphant smile creasing her eerily beautiful face. Dominik was at her back. The heat of him too near, but she didn’t dare try to inch away.
“Good.” Morgrid glanced to her son over Mina’s shoulder. “Nothing to worry about. She’s not with child.” The queen exhaled a ragged breath as if she’d actually been scared for a moment. “All is well, though she nearly ruined it. We would’ve kidnapped the whelp there for nothing.”
“What are you talking about? Tell me why you’ve taken her!”
The queen’s icy eyes glowed white hot, then she cocked back a hand a slapped Mina so hard she stumbled. Dominik grabbed her by her upper arms from behind, straightening her.
“That’s for giving yourself to someone other than your husband. A royal should know better.”
Izzy whimpered and cried behind them. The queen glanced over her shoulder. “That little girl is going to ensure my success.”
“How?”
“Didn’t that schoolteacher ever want to know who she belonged to back in Korinth?” The queen shrugged. “I guess not. The wench took in whatever peasant fell on her doorstep. It took me entirely too long to find Stephanus’s bastard he beget with his favorite mistress.”
“What?” Confused, Mina’s heartbeat pounded faster with new dread. “Why do you need your son’s child to ensure your success?”
The queen leaned forward, narrowing her eyes to serpentine slits. “Varis blood is potent, my dear. The perfect sacrifice to get a child in that belly of yours.”
“No!” The horror of what she spoke turned her blood to ice.
Mina could take the stranglehold of their horror and disdain no longer, rage making her voice tremble. “No matter what you do, whatever black magic you use, I will never be yours to rule.”
Dominik laughed at her back, still clutching her arms. The queen smiled.
“Don’t worry your pretty little head, my dear. We need you alive.” She turned and lifted her glass of blood. “For now. Your husband can decide what to do you with you after your first child is born.”