“Why?” Killian demanded, and Lydia’s eyes flicked to his gloved hand, which kept twitching toward the hilt of his sword. “What is it that you wish to say that you don’t want me to hear?”
“Nothing!” Hacken practically spit the words, but Lydia had spent her life surrounded by politicians—his anger was false. “It’s only that I wish for her to be the one to respond to my words, not you. And with you present, Killian, that seems an impossibility.”
“We’ve a mob of starving civilians outside the palace gates.” Killian’s hand was on his sword now. “There’s not a chance that I’m letting her out of my sight. Say what you need to say, and be done with it.”
“For the love of the Six!” Malahi flung open the door to a side chamber. “Killian, you wait here while I talk to the High Lord. I’ll be in plain sight the entire time.”
Hacken inclined his head and started into the room, but Killian caught the Queen’s arm as she went to follow. “Malahi, no.”
Malahi hesitated.
“You are Queen of Mudamora, my lady.” Hacken’s voice held a bite that it had not before. “Yet why should the realm follow a woman who allows herself to be bullied about by her own watchdog?”
Malahi’s face hardened. “Stay here, Killian.”
“I don’t want you alone with—”
“She need not be alone, you imbecile. You.” Hacken snapped his fingers at Lydia. “You seem like a girl who knows her place. Get in here and watch over your mistress.”
Lydia froze. Why had he chosen her? Out of all the guardswomen standing in the corridor, why did it have to be her? From the tightening of Killian’s jaw, he was thinking the same thing.
“Surely a woman you handpicked to guard Her Majesty will be more than capable of forestalling any untoward behavior on my part, Brother.” The corner of Hacken’s mouth turned up in a sneer. “The gods may have gifted our family a great deal of brawn, but as everyone knows, every last bit of it went to you.”
“Get in here, Lydia,” Malahi hissed. “And be quick about it.”
Lydia’s feet felt like lead blocks as she walked past Killian, his expression full of warning. As if she didn’t know she was walking into the lion’s den.
Malahi slammed the door behind them. “I know you’re up to something, Hacken, so why don’t you spit it out.”
“That’s a bit of the pot calling the kettle black, Malahi,” High Lord Calorian answered, taking a seat on one of the sofas. “After all, it is your plotting that has brought us all together this fine night.”
“You’re in the middle of a starving city, so I fail to see how the night is fine.”
“Fine in that tonight will be the beginning of the end of Mudaire’s plight. And fine in that you’ll be choosing yourself a husband.”
Lydia trailed after them, stopping a few paces back from the chair on which Malahi sat. There was only one entrance to the room and no windows. No closets in which attackers could be hidden, no shadows of feet behind the heavy drapery. Hacken Calorian was the only potential threat to the Queen, and it wouldn’t be a physical attack—it would be with words.
“Yes, Hacken. After the war is won.”
Hacken exhaled a long breath. “No, Malahi. You will announce your betrothal tonight or I will withdraw my support. And without it, you will cease to be queen and all of this will have been for naught.”
“And am I to assume that the betrothal I’m announcing is to you?” Malahi’s voice dripped with venom. “Let me remind you that if the other High Lords were interested in you as king they would’ve skipped my little scheme and bent the knee to House Calorian.”
“And yet you’ve shown my house such favoritism.” Hacken rubbed his chin. “Why do so if you didn’t intend to choose me when all was said and done?”
The Queen went still, not even seeming to breathe.
“You never intended it to be me you wed nor, I think, any of the other High Lords you enticed to your party.” He cocked his head. “It was a fine little ruse. You quite nearly had me convinced you were true to your word with the obvious measures you were taking to bolster my name with the people, making it seem as though I were singlehandedly holding the kingdom together with my wealth and resources and connections. With my … charitable nature. I confess,