A small smile slipped across Aunt Lucienne’s face. “They told me you were loyal to your charge as well. It’s good to know that some, at least, of my information isn’t faulty.” Her voice hardened on the last line, her gaze dwelling on my face.
I flushed slightly. “So it was a test.”
“Of course. You can’t think I’d actually harm my own niece.”
I barely kept the scowl off my face. The pain of the attack compositions had been real enough, as would be the bruises from where I’d hit the ground.
Aunt Lucienne glanced down at her guard. “I don’t suppose you’d care to release him?”
I shrugged. “The power has to go somewhere. Would you prefer I transferred it to you?”
Her eyes flashed, but she said nothing in response to my impertinence. The restraint was probably all the acknowledgment I was going to get that she had wronged me.
Layna looked between us. “Perhaps it could be redirected to bind his speech, or some such.”
I sighed. “Take control.” As soon as I connected with the power, I directed it to bind his speech.
He immediately jumped to his feet, his eyes flying to his queen. He looked chastened, as if he thought he had failed. But she smiled and nodded at him.
He bowed low. “Your Majesty.”
All three of them looked at me, obviously wondering why he could speak.
“I bound only your ability to speak of me,” I told him. “You poured a lot of power into that composition, so with such limited parameters, it should last a long time.” I shrugged. “You might have a better idea than me of how long since it was your composition to start with.”
A look of respect crossed his face along with something less welcome—fear. I didn’t want to be feared, not even by him. At least not now I knew he had been attacking me under orders from the queen. I couldn’t blame him for obeying her.
But when his eyes moved from me to my aunt, I stiffened. He wasn’t afraid for himself, he was afraid for her. He thought I was a threat to his queen. And if she thought the same thing, then I was in deep trouble indeed.
“And now, dear niece,” Queen Lucienne said, “we need to talk.”
Chapter 2
With a wave of her hands, my aunt indicated for the two guards to draw back out of earshot. They both hesitated. With an arch of her eyebrows, the queen sent her own guard bowing and hurrying to withdraw. Layna stayed obstinately at my back for another second before I also waved her away.
She stepped back to join my aunt’s guard, the two of them studiously ignoring each other and keeping their eyes on us, although they were too far away now to hear us.
“That was an impressive performance,” my aunt said.
“Are you aware your personal guard is maintaining some open workings?” I asked. “That seems dangerous.”
“How do you—” She cut herself off. “You needn’t be concerned about him. They’re not of sufficient energy draw to put his reserves at risk.”
“Did you send my parents away on purpose for this?” I asked. “Or were you just taking advantage of the opportunity offered? You must know how they would react if I was attacked in their presence.”
“My dear brother and his wife failed to tell me about their daughter’s unexpected discovery of a new and powerful ability,” she said, not answering the question.
I shook my head. “You can’t blame them. They didn’t know.”
She raised a single eyebrow, watching me in silence as if waiting for me to catch on.
I gasped softly. “You mean they didn’t tell you when we returned from Kallorway? But you’ve known all summer. I assumed…”
“Your brother recognizes his duty.”
Of course. Of course it had been Lucien. Why had I not considered that possibility? Even after weeks, Lucien was still furious with me for keeping my abilities a secret. Raised as our aunt’s heir, he considered my silence a betrayal not only of our family but of the entire kingdom.
I had tried to explain to him that I never meant for events to unfold in such a way, and that I had always intended to tell my family the truth myself—eventually. But he wasn’t interested in what he called my pathetic excuses. He couldn’t see that his reaction was the entire reason I hadn’t told anyone for so long.
In retrospect, I should have known he would run to our aunt with everything he knew.
And so, when the opportunity arose, my aunt had sent my parents away in punishment. And then she had used their absence to test me—to see if the unbelievable report could possibly be true.
“But surely you can’t doubt my parents’ loyalty to you or Ardann,” I said, unable to completely keep the heat from my voice. “They’ve devoted their lives to this kingdom.”
“If you mean do I suspect them of having greater loyalty to Kallorway or the Sekalis, of course I do not.” She watched me with a keen eye. “What I think is that—like so many before them—there is something they place above me. Or rather, someone. Their children.”
Affection for my parents filled me at the suggestion, but I shook my head. “How can you say that when they gave you their firstborn?”
My aunt’s face softened for the first time. “Lucien is still your parents’ child and your brother. Never doubt that he cares for you, Verene.”
I snorted, and a slight smile crossed her face.
“For all he tries to hide it behind a controlled facade, Lucien has much of your mother in him.” When I frowned, she continued. “You didn’t know her when she was your age, but your mother used to have quite a hot head. She appeared from nowhere and blazed so brightly she burned our whole world down.”
“You say that like you disapprove of her.”
My aunt shook her head with a faint air of surprise. “Not at all. She helped us build a better world in place of the old one. But you cannot blame a monarch for being wary of such firebrands.”
“And you think I might be like my mother as well,” I said, full comprehension blooming. “You’re wondering if I intend to burn down your world anew. And if maybe I have the power to do it.”
“Do you?” she asked, her eyes boring into me.
I shook my head emphatically. “I have no desire for such a thing. All I ever wanted was to prove myself to you—to be worthy of the family I was born into.”
She raised an eyebrow. “And yet you told us nothing.”
I sighed. “I was naïve before. I didn’t understand how much it would change everything to discover I possess a power others would covet.”
“That a crown would covet, you mean,” my aunt said in a flat tone. “And now the future crown of Kallorway has requested that we relinquish you to a marriage alliance.” She paused. “Or rather, he has asked for your parents’ blessing on such a union.”
I watched her carefully. Was this another reason my parents had been sent away? Did my aunt resent that Darius had applied to them and not to her for permission for our betrothal? Did she fear their silence on the topic meant they were putting their love for their child above the good of Ardann as they made their decision?
If so, it was a surprise to me. They had said nothing all these long weeks to suggest they meant to consider my wishes as paramount. I had been open about my feelings for Darius, but it hadn’t seemed to lessen their concerns. And Darius had made it clear he wouldn’t ask me to marry him if he had to do so in the face of my family’s disapproval. From his perspective it was an act of love to refuse to steal me from my first home and family.