Page 2 of Their Rejected Queen

Sofia squeezes my fingers as if she’s likewise haunted by similar memories. Her delicate fingers, designed for piano lessons and elegant sips of champagne, feel frail in mine.

“We’ll stick together, right?” Sofia asks.

I can barely make out her bright blue eyes in the dim light. Three of our four lanterns have gone out.

Our captors don’t want us dead, just disoriented, so there has been ample food and water and, until recently, light from the hanging lanterns to survive.

Monsters didn’t consider that we might need warmth in the depths of a transport ship. They forgot that little human necessity.

“Unchain them!” a gruff voice barks down the stairway to our small enclosure that reeks of sweat, sea, and fear.

Apparently, it’s our turn to surface.

“Together,” I whisper to the only friend I’ve had in this floating prison. Sofia is like me, from a life at court where the game was just as lethal as any game we will play out here, but I’m more accustomed to games wrapped in corsets and polished smiles.

Here, the game is survival.

As the salty breeze of chill air intrudes in the cabin, I remain completely still while dark silhouettes of men block out the morning sun.

They think I’m prey.

But I’m not.

I just know how to play my part. Years at court taught me exactly what men want to see when they look at me.

Eventually, they find a way to get me alone.

It never ends well for them. With a brother like mine? I had to learn how to survive.

My fingers brush the magicked glass vials strapped around my thigh that I smuggled with me. I’ve already sampled one of them to give me the strength I’m going to need for the next few minutes.

The entire holster is spelled for stealth. The powerful magic hides them from view and dampens any sounds they might make.

The stealth spell is rare, coveted, and cost me one of my best pieces of jewelry to acquire, but it was well worth it.

The tonics are my lifeline, giving me strength to survive in a world constantly beating me down.

There are seven of them.

I took them from my brother’s hidden stash, one for each promise I intend to keep.

Because I’m not the first Rinhold to have been banished here.

I have a twin.

And I’m going to find her. That’s my first promise. One that makes my skin prickle with anticipation that I’ll now finally have a chance to fulfill it.

One of the dark silhouettes takes shape in the stairwell. A henchman with a bushy beard pointedly avoids eye contact as he wields a rusty key. Approaching us, he grunts at me as I present my wrist on the same chain bound to Sofia.

What little sunlight trickles down the stairwell glints off the dagger at his waist.

Men are so stupid.

He huffs as he shoves the key into the lock, completely unaware that his dagger is right within my reach.

But I need to be unbound before I act.

The heavy chain makes my arm shake, but I hold still. When it drops, I swallow the whimper as pain shoots up my arm.