Capture the Crown (Gargoyle Queen #1) -Jennifer Estep Page 0,143

. partners?”

My voice hitched on the last question. It wasn’t the one I truly wanted answered. No, I wanted to know why he had kissed my hand on the balcony, and then again in my chambers. Why he had danced with me in the throne room, and all the other times he had touched and looked at and spoken to me as though he actually cared about me, as though I were truly special to him. But I’d be damned if I’d ask any of those questions—not a single bloody one—no matter how much my heart yearned for the answers.

“I really did bring you to Myrkvior so that the bone masters could heal you. I didn’t want to trust your well-being to someone I didn’t know, especially given how . . . important you are.” His voice hitched just like mine had.

“And then I insisted on staying, just like a fool.”

“I hoped that if you stayed that it might ease tensions between Morta and Andvari. I wanted you to see that we aren’t all vile and corrupt,” he replied. “That all Mortans are not evil. That my family wasn’t all bad. That even though I’m a Morricone, that I’m not all bad either.”

“Your family? Not all bad? Look at what your brother did to me.” I gestured down at my own unconscious body. “And don’t even get me started on your mother. Princess Gemma Ripley survived the Seven Spire massacre, remember? I saw what Maeven did to the Blairs. She orchestrated the murders of children. She is a fucking monster, just like you are.”

Leonidas opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off.

“Your mother might be a monster, but you’re even worse than she is,” I hissed. “Everyone knows what Maeven did at Seven Spire, and she had the audacity to murder King Maximus in front of an arena full of people. But you? You brought me here and pretended to be considerate and honorable and fucking noble. Well, guess what? Your plan worked, and I did see the Mortans as people instead of monsters, especially Anaka and Delmira. You made me feel things for them.”

For you. I didn’t say the words, but they hung in the air between us like a dark, ominous storm cloud.

Leonidas flinched again, but he didn’t look away from me. “I didn’t think anyone else would recognize you. You had cut and dyed your hair, and no one in Myrkvior had ever seen you in person before, besides my mother. Even on the off chance that someone did recognize you, I was confident I could protect you.”

“Well, your confidence was sorely misplaced.”

He didn’t dispute my point. He couldn’t.

“How long were you going to let me stay here?” I demanded. “How long were you going to let me risk my life on the slim chance that Maeven wouldn’t recognize me?”

“I was going to sneak you out of the palace tonight, but Mother must have realized what I was planning. She summoned me to her chambers right before the ball began and told me that she had a way to fix everything and to stop Milo’s plot against her. She said that all I had to do was follow her lead during the ball.” Leonidas paused. “And that if I didn’t, then she would be very displeased—and take her anger out on Delmira.”

Maeven had threatened her own daughter to get her son to cooperate? Just when I thought the queen couldn’t surprise me anymore, she achieved a higher level of cruelty.

“I’m sorry, Gemma,” Leonidas murmured, his voice a harsh, ragged whisper. “So very, very sorry. More than you will ever know. I promised to protect you, and I utterly failed. I will never forgive myself for letting this happen to you.”

Rage continued to hammer in my heart, but the colder, more logical part of me could appreciate the impossible situation he’d been thrust into and even understand his reasoning. If I’d been forced to choose between my father and a man that I . . . mistakenly cared about, then I would have chosen my father, just as Leonidas had picked Delmira over me.

“I didn’t want it to come to this,” he continued. “After the ball, Mother promised me that you wouldn’t be hurt. She swore that you would be imprisoned, nothing more. I thought I could release you from the dungeon and smuggle you out of the palace.”

“You didn’t think Maeven would have me tortured?” I shook my head. “That makes you either naïve or

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