“DO YOU HAVE a description of the thieves who robbed my northeast garrison?” Irina’s voice was cold as she turned to face her castle steward. Viktor stood framed in the doorway between her balcony and her sitting room, his pale skin and exquisite cheekbones gleaming in the faint light of dawn.
“Only one was seen—a girl who created a distraction by burning down the stables. She had a gyrfalcon helping her.” His blue eyes were steady as they met hers, but his fingers worried with the perfectly tied cravat at his throat. He hesitated before handing her a piece of parchment with a drawing of the girl.
Irina stared at the drawing, her heart thudded painfully and her chest squeezing until she thought the pain would send her to her knees as she looked into the face of a ghost with long curly dark hair, pale skin, red lips, and brown eyes.
“This can’t be.” Her voice shook. “She’s dead.”
Viktor reached up to brush his fingertips against her cheek. “It could be anyone. If the princess was still alive, we’d have heard something by now. It’s been nine years. This is just some mountain girl who bears a faint resemblance to your sister.”
Her nails dug into the parchment until it tore.
“The garrison is on Kiffen land. A robbery that big required a team of people, which means someone somewhere is talking about it. Lord and Lady Kiffen arrived in the capital yesterday. Bring them to the front gate within the hour. They’ll tell me what they know, or they’ll regret it.”
He caught her hands before she could walk away. “Don’t use magic. Please. I see the strain it causes you. There’s no need to make an example of anyone.”
Because she wanted to lean against his touch the way she always had since she’d been a lonely girl of fourteen and he’d been the impoverished son of the tutor her father had hired, she stepped back and straightened her spine. Met his gaze and drove the warmth from hers until all that was left was the single-minded purpose it took to be queen.
“Never assume that because you sometimes share my bed, you also share my throne. You are dismissed.”
Irina arrived at the castle’s front gate as the sun cut through the morning clouds and bathed the capital in its hazy morning glow. Raz curled around her shoulders, his forked tongue tasting the air as they swept past the guards who stood at attention in a half circle around Lord and Lady Kiffen.
Irina locked eyes with Lady Kiffen, whose puff of gray hair framed a stern brown face with unflinching dark eyes. “A girl helped rob the garrison on your land three days ago. She had a gyrfalcon with her. Who is she?”
“I wouldn’t know, Your Highness.” Lady Kiffen’s voice was steady.
Beside Lady Kiffen, her husband clenched his jaw and stared at his polished boots.
Raz uncoiled himself from Irina’s neck and hissed.
The queen stepped closer. “What rumors do you hear of the thieves?”
Lady Kiffen held her gaze boldly. “I don’t listen to rumors.”
Irina’s smile could cut stone. “Tell me what you’ve heard, or die for your silence.”
Her husband glanced between his wife and the queen and then said, “There are rumors the prince and princess roam the Falkrain Mountains—”
“Frederick, no!” Lady Kiffen whirled to face her husband.
Irina lunged for Lady Kiffen. Snatching the woman’s gown, the queen drove her to her knees. “You dare stop him from answering his queen?” Irina’s voice was lethal.
Lady Kiffen raised her eyes to glare at Irina. “You are not his queen. You are a Morcantian mardushka occupying a throne that isn’t yours.”
Irina leaned down and said quietly, “You have just committed treason, Lady Kiffen.”
Turning to her guards, Irina pointed toward a section of the castle’s wall that stood next to the edge of the apple grove. “Put her there.”
Lord Kiffen threw himself at Irina’s feet, grasped the hem of her gown, and sobbed out, “Please, my queen. Spare my wife, and the Kiffens will be your staunchest allies. I beg of you.”
Irina shook the man free of her skirt and turned to look at the castle, its thin spires and scalloped balconies silhouetted against the dawn sky like slivers of shadows slowly crystallizing into something solid.