Capture the Crown (Gargoyle Queen #1) -Jennifer Estep Page 0,67

it still angered and frustrated me, especially since I’d never been able to forget him, no matter how hard I had tried.

And I had fucking tried—for years.

“I am not yours to command,” I replied in an icy tone.

“Please.” Leonidas ground out the word, as though saying it pained him even more than uttering the Ripley name. “Please go home. Before it’s too late.”

“No. You can either help me or stay out of my way. Your choice.”

His eyes narrowed. “I am not yours to command either.”

“At last, something we both agree on.”

Leonidas glared at me, then dropped his head and leaned a little more heavily against the liladorn vine that had twined around the column, as though he needed the support of both the sturdy plant and the stone underneath. A weary sigh escaped his lips, but he lifted his head and raised his gaze to mine again.

“I’ve been trying to uncover Milo’s plot for weeks. All my spies mysteriously vanished for several days before their bodies turned up in various parts of Majesta. They all had one thing in common—they had been tortured before they died.” He kept staring at me. “I don’t want the same thing to happen to you.”

Once again, his concern seemed genuine, but I pushed it aside.

“I can easily pass for a noble, if that’s what you’re worried about. After all, nobles rarely do any real work, and their main occupations are complaining, scheming, and making other people’s lives difficult.”

“You are certainly making mine difficult,” Leonidas grumbled.

I ignored his complaint and considered the rest of my Lady Armina persona. “Being a jeweler is no big stretch for me either, and metalstone magic is easy to fake, especially for a mind magier. All I’ll have to do is wave my hand and move some rocks around.”

I was already quite familiar with such a charade. Throughout Andvari and the other kingdoms, Princess Gemma Ripley was known as a metalstone master with a moderate amount of magic. Only my family and a few trusted friends knew that I was really a mind magier.

And Leonidas, of course. He had seen how dangerous I was, even if he didn’t seem to bloody remember it.

“You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?” he muttered.

I grinned. “I do try.”

He rolled his eyes. “Well, you might be pleased with your scheme, but Milo is sure to be suspicious of anyone I come into contact with, especially a mysterious noble lady no one has ever heard of before that I supposedly rescued from bandits. I’ve read fairy tales that weren’t so ridiculously dramatic.”

I arched an eyebrow. “And yet, that’s the story you conjured. Does Prince Leonidas have a deep-seated wish to play the part of the dashing hero?”

He barked out a bitter laugh. “I am no one’s bloody hero. But I wouldn’t have had to come up with such a ridiculous story if you had just stayed in your room. I was going to smuggle you out of the palace without anyone important realizing you had even been here.”

Yet again, he seemed sincere. Leonidas had gone to a lot of trouble to save me from the mine, bring me here, and have me healed. Those gestures warmed my heart, but I couldn’t forget how he had betrayed me in the past—and could do so again at any moment.

“Well, since I’ve already ruined your plans, then you might as well go along with mine,” I said in a cheery tone. “We both want the same thing, and we have a far better chance of finding out what Milo is plotting by working together, rather than trampling over each other like we’ve been doing so far.”

“What, exactly, are you proposing?” he asked, his voice wary.

“A partnership,” I replied. “Milo might be suspicious of me, but he will still focus his attention on you. So you keep your brother and his spies occupied, and I will roam around the palace, pick up gossip, and find out what Milo plans to do with the stolen tearstone.”

If I was anywhere else but Myrkvior, I would have taken my chances spying on my own. But this was Leonidas’s home, not mine, and it would be far better to align myself with the prince, especially since he could blow my Lady Armina cover at any moment. Also, if I kept him close, then perhaps I could anticipate any moves he might make against me—and escape another dangerous betrayal.

“And then what?” Leonidas asked.

“And then I’ll leave.”

His eyes narrowed. “You’ll leave Myrkvior once you uncover Milo’s