Capture the Crown (Gargoyle Queen #1) -Jennifer Estep Page 0,100

is the one who comes out on top?”

Corvina shrugged again. “Then Maeven will most likely kill my mother, and Milo too. I’ll claim that I had no idea what my mother was scheming, and Maeven will have no choice but to believe me. She still needs my family and our magic, money, and connections too badly to get rid of me as well. Then, after an appropriate amount of tears and groveling, I’ll suggest to Maeven that I get engaged to Leonidas to heal this ugly rift between our families. I’ll handle Leonidas the same way I have Milo, with soft words and sweet promises I never keep.”

She grinned. “Then, when the time is right, I’ll stick a dagger in Leonidas’s back and slit Maeven’s throat. It might take longer than I want, but make no mistake. One way or another, I will be queen of Morta.”

“Well, then, allow me the honor of being the first to pledge allegiance, my queen.” Wexel lowered his lips to hers.

The two of them started kissing again, although Corvina quickly broke it off and tilted her head toward the open door. “Let’s go inside. Someone might see us out here.”

Wexel grinned. “I thought the risk of getting caught was part of the appeal.”

Corvina returned his grin with a wicked one of her own. “Definitely. But it’s too cold to fuck out here. I want a warm bed tonight—with you in it.”

She grabbed the front of his jacket and tugged him inside. The door banged shut behind them, and Corvina’s soft laughter drifted out through the glass. I remained frozen in place on the balcony railing, still clutching the drainpipe.

Milo was fucking Emperia, his fiancée’s mother, while Corvina, his fiancée, was fucking Captain Wexel, Milo’s personal guard. Talk about tangled webs—and deadly ones as well. Everyone had their eyes on the Mortan crown, and they would scheme, fuck, kill, and do whatever else it took in order to snag that ultimate prize.

If Maeven found out about any of this, especially Milo’s plot to depose her, then she would probably kill every last one of them, including her own son. Milo, Emperia, Corvina, and Wexel thought that Maeven was a fool, but they underestimated the queen at their own peril.

Maeven might be older now, but she was no doubt wiser, given how many of her own schemes against Everleigh Blair and Grandfather Heinrich had failed over the years. I was willing to bet the queen had her own plans in place to counter any move that Milo, the Dumonds, or anyone else made against her.

My head was spinning with information, but I still needed to get down to the ground. Corvina and Wexel might come back out onto the balcony, and it was too risky to stay here. So I wrapped my hands around the drainpipe again and stepped off the railing, but my feet were numb with cold, and my toes just wouldn’t grip the slick stone. My hands were chilled too, and they started to slide downward.

I lurched to the side. I managed to get one foot back onto the narrow balcony railing, but my other foot slipped off.

That one small motion threw me even more off balance. I lost my grip on the drainpipe completely and plummeted toward the ground.

Chapter Twenty

Somehow, I managed not to scream. My arms and legs flailed wildly, searching for something to latch onto, but my fingers and toes met only cold, empty air.

Desperate, I reached for my magic, trying to use my mind magier power to propel my body toward the palace wall, but I couldn’t quite get a grip on my power, and the ground rushed toward me at a dizzying rate. I cringed and braced for impact—

At the last instant, right before I would have slammed into the ground, a shadow darted underneath my body. I landed directly on top of it, knocking it down. The shadow grunted and dropped like a heavy brick.

Thump-thump.

The shadow hit the courtyard, and then I plowed into the shadow a moment later.

The hard, jolting impact knocked the air from my lungs and made my head spin again, but I rolled to my right, dimly wondering what had broken my fall. I slipped off whatever I’d landed on and ended up hitting the flagstones after all. Pain spiked through my ass and rippled up my spine, and a low groan escaped my lips.

Something shifted beside me, and a shadow loomed over me, blocking out the light streaming out of the palace