Page 1 of War Queen
Chapter one
Again.They were here again.
Norah’s eyes drifted around the empty Kharavian throne room. It wouldn’t be empty in a few moments. She sat in her chair on the dais and tried to push down the unease creeping in as Mikael took his own seat. She watched her husband and the calm that sat over him—not the calm of peace, but the calm that comes before battle.
“I hate this room,” she muttered.
He turned to her. “Why?”
So many reasons. It was the coldest room in the castle; even in the warmth of summer, she practically needed a cloak. It was the room where they received bad news. And it was where the Kharavian nobles incessantly judged them, judged Mikael. She didn’t say those things, not when they were about to face another slew of judgments—judgments that threatened Mikael’s crown—and not when he worked so hard to protect her from the worry of it all.
“Because you’re too far.” She reached out her arm, unable to stretch even half the distance between them. It wasn’t a petty complaint. They could face anything together, but here it didn’t feel like they were together. She couldn’t touch him, couldn’t get strength from simply putting her hand in his. When he faced challenges from his nobles, she couldn’t put her hand on his arm to help settle him as she usually would, to remind him he wasn’t alone.
Norah looked down at the bottom of her chair. “And these gods-damned things were built into the floor. I can’t even scooch over.”
He raised a brow. “Scooch?”
“Yes.” She frowned. “I can’t move to come closer.”
The corners of his mouth turned up ever so slightly. “Ah. Well, scooch just your body here then.”
“What?”
“Come here.”
She glanced at the closed double doors at the end of the hall. The nobles would arrive soon, but she rose and moved to him anyway. He reached out his hand, and she took it, and they threaded their fingers together as he pulled her closer. His lips held a smile she hadn’t seen in months.
“Why are you smiling?” she asked. He shouldn’t be smiling with what was coming in the next moments.
He brought her hand up and kissed the backs of her fingers. “Because I have you.”
His words brought a wave of emotion as she caressed the side of his cheek. “I love you.”
“I know,” he whispered. “And I love you.” He pulled her into his lap, and she laughed.
“This is a good compromise,” she said, grinning. “Yes, I like this much better.”
Mikael shrugged. “This is how we’ll sit, then.”
She laughed again. “You can’t address your nobles with me sitting on your lap.”
“Why not?”
Norah drew her brows together. “It’s not… kingly.”
“I don’t care about being kingly; I care about making my salara happy.” He pursed his lips through a small smile. “Which also makes me happy.”
“Well, I don’t want them seeing me like this—they already view me as a distraction to you.”
“The most beautiful of distractions.”
His body responded underneath her, and she swatted him. “Stop it!” she warned with a grin. Then she rested her hand on his chest. “I should start my journey back to my chair now if I’m going to make it there by nightfall. I’ll miss you.” And she kissed him deeply.
His body hardened more, and she smiled as she pulled away and walked back to her throne. He protested with a rumble in his chest.
Norah took her chair just as Salara-Mae entered. As soon as she saw the woman, the smile fell from her lips. For a fleeting moment, she’d forgotten what they were facing, and the woman’s hard countenance pulled her back to the reality of their situation. Mikael’s mother rarely joined them in the throne room, but she did now, no doubt to support her son.
The nobles were displeased. More than displeased. Kharav’s alliance with Japheth was broken, and a new enemy—Rael—was on the horizon, an enemy they felt Mikael had underestimated. He had. They all had. Who would have thought a kingdom of freed slaves would be such a threat?
