Page 152 of War Queen
“I’ve been thinking, a lot, just about everything,” she started.
He nodded. “I have too.”
Promising. “I still have questions.”
“Ask them.”
It was a genuine invitation, but it didn’t make it easier. “Why didn’t you try to kill me again? Why only come after me once?”
“I came twice, actually.”
She stopped. “What?”
“I came once before, when you traveled to marry the king of Aleon.”
Her pulse beat faster.
“But by the time I arrived, someone had beaten me to you.”
The tunnel of vining flowers fell away, and darkness surrounded them, but moonlight painted the scene. They stood in a travel camp off the road she had journeyed on her way to wed Phillip in Aleon. The remains of her army lay around them, all dead.
Yes, Mikael had reached her first. Her stomach twisted at the sight.
“It’s when I found this,” he said, opening his hand and revealing her mother’s crown.
She gaped back at him. “You had my crown all that time?” Her mind swirled around her. If Mikael hadn’t taken her, she still wouldn’t have made it to Aleon.
“Then came news of your marriage to the Shadow King,” he continued. “That… was a surprise.”
It had been to her as well, she remembered.
Lucien looked back at the crown. Then he dropped his hand, and it vanished into the night. “It was never really about you, though, Norah. I wanted Alexander. I thought he’d accompany you to Aleon, and he didn’t. But, when his blood touched your skin in the Shadowlands, I knew he was there with you. He was so close; I couldn’t not come.”
“So it was neveraboutme, but you came tokillme?”
His eyes were harsh and piercing now. “I came to kill the both of you.”
It still didn’t make sense to her. Alexander, yes… “But why me?”
“Because Alexander was sworn to protect you, and I wanted to show him he had no power to do so. And you weren’t innocent—you so willingly allied yourself with a monster, the Shadow King. To turn a blind eye to everything he’s done, that makes you complicit!”
She quieted. She wouldn’t deny that—she’d been guilted by it many times over. But she was working to change things. Mikael was changing.
“And the Shadow King loved you,” he added.
Compelling reasons. He certainly had motive. “Why didn’t you try again?” she asked.
He paused, and his anger seemed to fade. “Because… you were not as I’d expected. And… I didn’t want to, after that.”
His words left her speechless. The tone had shifted between them. She hadn’t forgotten that he’d kissed her in the Free Cities. A far leap to make, from trying to kill her to kissing her. She’d get to that. Eventually.
“How did you get into Kharav?” she asked.
“You ask me my secrets?”
“Do they really still need to be secrets?”
He’d said he would tell her everything, and if he shared this with her, it could mean a budding trust and that they were on a path toward friendship. If they were on a path toward friendship, it was a path away from war.
