Rebel Spring A Falling Kingdoms(30)
This coaxed a laugh from Magnus. “Mother, don’t worry about me. I can handle the princess, even if there is a shadow of vengeance within her. She’s only a girl.”
“She hates us.”
“Of course she does,” the king said gently. “I took her throne, her father’s throne, her sister’s throne. I took it with force and blood. And I apologize for nothing.”
“Find Magnus another bride,” the queen urged. “I can think of several who’d be much better suited for him. Whom he might fall in love with in time.”
“Love? If Magnus wants love he can find it in a mistress, as I did. Not in a shrew of a wife.”
The queen blanched at this. “I only speak from my heart.”
“Mark my words, Althea . . .” A coldness entered the king’s tone. “Everything that will happen from this day forward, be it good or bad, shall happen because it is my choice. Because it serves me. And I warn you, do not cross me or—”
“Or what?” She raised her chin and looked directly into his eyes. “Will you take a blade to my throat as well? Is that how you silence every voice that opposes you?”
Fury flashed through the king’s gaze and he took a menacing step toward her, fists clenched at his sides.
Magnus stepped between them and he forced a smile to his face. “Tempers are rising with the heat of the day. Perhaps it’s time we leave.”
The king’s fiery glare fixed on him instead and slowly cooled. There was still a smudge of blood on his cheek from before, just under his left eye. “Yes. It’s time. Meet me outside when you’re ready.”
He turned his back on them and, a guard at each side, moved out of the cavernous temple and back into the bright light of day.
“We must go.” The queen’s voice caught as she turned in the same direction.
Magnus placed a hand on her shoulder before she’d taken more than a few steps. He turned her to face him and raised her chin so her tear-filled eyes met his. The pain he saw there reached into his chest to squeeze his heart. “I don’t remember the last time I saw you cry.”
She pushed his hand away. “And you shouldn’t be seeing it now.”
“He doesn’t take well to argument. You know this already.”
“He deals with argument as he always has. With an iron fist and a heart carved from ice.” She searched his face. “You don’t want this marriage, do you, my son?”
“What I want is irrelevant, Mother.”
It always is.
She was quiet for a moment. “You know I love you, don’t you?”
Magnus willed himself to remain impassive in the face of this unexpected sentimentality. The woman before him had been cold and distant for so long he’d forgotten she could be the opposite. “What has triggered this, Mother? Are you really that distraught over my being placed into a loveless marriage to strengthen my father’s grip on this slippery kingdom? Or is this due to something else? Lucia’s condition perhaps?”
The queen’s expression shuttered as she drew in a long, shaky breath. “It’s been a difficult year for us all. So much loss. So much death.”
“Yes, I know you were quite heartbroken over the king’s mistress being incinerated.”
A muscle in her cheek twitched. “I don’t mourn Sabina’s passing, nor do I spend much time distressed over the manner of her death. All I care about in this world is you and Lucia—you’re all that matters to me.”
Her unfamiliar words of devotion confused him. “I don’t know what you want me to say, Mother. My father wishes me to wed the Bellos girl, and if it truly comes to that, I will do so without argument. It will strengthen my place in the kingdom.” And it would keep him fully in his father’s confidence when it came to the road and the secret search for the Kindred.
Queen Althea searched Magnus’s face. “Is that what you’ve come to crave, my son? Power?”
“It’s what I’ve always craved.”
Her lips thinned. “Liar.”
The word felt like a slap. “I’m the crown prince, Mother, in case you forgot. The heir to the throne of Limeros—now the throne of all of Mytica. Why would I not want that, and more?”
“Your father is a cruel man who searches for a treasure that doesn’t even exist. His obsession borders madness.”
“He’s driven and focused on what he desires most. And I would caution you not to call the king mad. He wouldn’t take well to such statements.”
Now that the king had left their presence, she didn’t look concerned. She looked more confident about her words with each one she spoke. “Will you tell him?”