Page 120 of North Queen
“I’ll stay here with you until tomorrow,” she replied. “And then you’ll return to Mercia.”
Return to Mercia?What?
She ducked into the tent, where the Northmen soldiers scrambled to arrange things for their queen. The Destroyer followed her in and stood to the side. Alexander stepped in behind them, glaring. He still couldn’t believe it—the commander of their greatest enemy stood mere steps away, and Norah acted as though he were a friend.
Alexander dropped his voice low. “Norah, are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
“Leave us,” she said to the other soldiers inside, and they emptied the tent.
He glared at the Destroyer. “She saidleave us.”
Norah shook her head. “He won’t go.”
“I’ll make him go.” Alexander stepped toward him.
She reached out and clasped his arm, stopping him. “No. He’s been ordered to stay.”
Ordered? “By whom?”
She swallowed. “By the Shadow King… to whom I am betrothed.”
Her words cut his heart from his chest. He couldn’t breathe.Betrothed. “Betrothed?” His shallow breaths came faster but still starved his lungs for air. “But you’re to marry the king of Aleon.”
“I’ve changed my mind.” Her voice cracked as she spoke.
Alexander stepped backward. No.No. “You were to unite our kingdoms.” His eyes cut back to the Destroyer. “He’s the monster we’re fighting. You betray Mercia!”
“I am saving Mercia! Now there will be no war. No more death. The winter carries on, but our people will have food.”
“Aleon will give us the provisions we need.”
“But the Shadowlands will give us peace! Yes, Aleon can help us, but Phillip will bring another Great War with him.” She shook her head. “I have to do what is best for Mercia.”
“They will destroy us!” he seethed, with tears of rage in his eyes.
“They don’t want war.”
Alexander shook as he stepped in front of the Destroyer. “No? This one lusts for it,” he said between his teeth.
The monster eyed him from underneath the wrap around his face. Alexander bared his teeth. This was a beast of a man, but he wasn’t afraid. Only a coward would cover his face.
Norah stepped between them. “I need to write a letter to my grandmother,” she said. “And it will take me some time. Distribute the food to the army. There will be more tomorrow.”
“The army won’t eat food from the Shadowlands.”
“They will if you tell them to. Prepare for the journey back to Mercia.” Her voice broke again, and it threatened to break him as well. She didn’t want this. He had to find a way to stop it.
“Go,” she said.
But he couldn’t leave her. Not with this monster.
“Go!”
His face tightened in overwhelming bitterness, and it crushed him, but he obeyed and stormed out of the tent. He stopped just outside, pausing to suck in a deep breath and swallow back the bile rising in his throat.
Norah was to marry the Shadow King?No. That wasn’t going to happen.
He wouldn’t let it.
