The Glass Queen (The Forest of Good and Evil #2) - Gena Showalter Page 0,20

suggested I was a fool for asking. “My wife, Queen Andrea, rules in my stead. But she is none of your concern. Let us discuss the reason for your visit.”

His new wife, my stepmother, was none of my concern? And what did he mean, “visit”? I wasn’t here to stay?

“You have other concerns.” Radiating smugness, he waved at a tall, raven-haired man who stood ahead of me, off to one side. I directed my full attention at him, and my stupid heart skipped a stupid beat. Massive azure wings arched at his sides. Azure. Wings.

Saxon. Here in the flesh. Standing inside the palace. He was several inches taller than I remembered and a hundred pounds of brawn heavier. The muscles in his broad shoulders bulged with suppressed tension, as if he wanted to turn around but he refused to heed his body’s demand.

As if I’d said his name aloud—had I?—he finally glanced over his shoulder, his whiskey-colored gaze finding me. The way he looked at me...such furious heat, with a tinge of yearning.

This boy longed for my misery.

He had long lashes, high cheekbones, and soft lips. A shadow of stubble dusted his strong jaw. He’d shaved the sides of his hair but had grown out the top strands to create spikes. The danger he emitted...

Tremors swept down my spine as he dropped his attention to my mother’s ring, then jerked his gaze back up to mine, hitting me with pure, undiluted hatred.

My next tremor almost rocked me off my feet.

“Tomorrow, a tournament for Dior’s hand in marriage will begin,” the king said. “If you’d been a normal girl, Ashleigh, you would have been the prize. Alas. A husband likes to know his wife will survive the wedding night.”

Laughter sounded behind me, setting off a chain reaction inside me, different parts of me beading with cold sweat.

Saxon reveled in my discomfort, unveiling a slow, wicked smile. A mere baring of his perfect pearly whites. “I hope you’re ready, Princess.” His deep, rumbly voice rang inside my head, a challenge. A curse. “Your life is about to change, and not for the better.”

I gasped a breath as I looked to my father, who rose to his feet.

The king told me, “I’m sure you need no introduction, Ashleigh. Prince Saxon has agreed to participate in the tournament, and you are to act as his royal liaison. What he needs, you will provide.” His tone told me what his words did not: or else.

My head spun. Obey Saxon for three weeks? “Do all tournament participants receive a palace liaison?” The question escaped through clenched teeth.

“Only the royals. I chose you to serve Prince Saxon so that you may make full restitution for your past misdeeds at long last. Your new duties will begin after the first battle. If he survives, of course.”

More teeth grinding. Serve the one who’d sent his men to harm me, when I’d already been banished? “No,” I said, shaking my head. “I won’t do it.” I’d endured enough for a crime I couldn’t recall.

Gasps sounded from the crowd.

So what? I refused to back down. I had to talk Father around. “Prince Saxon served as Roth’s second-in-command, did he not? They are notorious best friends, as loyal as brothers. How can you trust him, even for a moment? What if he’s here to aid King Roth and take back the kingdom?”

A muscle jumped beneath my father’s eye. “Am I a simpleton who would fail to consult his oracle? I have been assured the prince’s intentions are as pure as my own. And, Ashleigh? You will do as I tell you, which means you will do everything the avian tells you. Without argument.”

Saxon turned to face me fully, sweeping that whiskey gaze over the rest of me. I shivered even as my blood heated.

“King Roth has aligned with an evil sorceress,” Saxon said, “and Princess Farrah betrayed my trust in the worst way.” Truth rang in his tone. “I’m no longer interested in aiding your cousins.”

I shouldn’t ask.

But I did, my curiosity too great. I had to know. “What are you interested in, then?”

A brittle pause before he quietly admitted, “I live to ensure you receive the fate you so richly deserve.”

3

Caught up in a plight?

Do your best and fight.

SAXON

Finally, Princess Ashleigh Charmaine-Anskelisa is in my hands.

How I despised her. And yet, every time I glanced her way, I experienced an intense and familiar connection to her. A pull I could not deny. A sense that I’d finally found the missing puzzle