past, my father had stabbed me while I slept. My mother had watched. Crying, yes. The first time she’d ever shed a tear, and yet she’d offered me no aid as my father chased me through the halls. I’d managed to stumble onto a balcony and take flight. But avian had excellent night vision, and my father had followed. At some point, I’d spotted Roth and Farrah and crash landed nearby. They’d bravely fought off the avian king, then summoned healers, saving my life.
My people had no idea how many battles I’d won in Roth’s name, or how many times I’d saved Farrah from certain disaster. Now I had to earn their admiration to prove I was the ruler they needed. And I had to do it without appearing as, well, craven as Craven, who had killed anyone who’d disagreed with him, upset him, or even looked at him wrong. They would expect me to be the fool who fell in love with a wicked witch thrice over.
The pressure...
As the soldiers spotted Ashleigh, their wariness faded. Each one grinned with pride, pleased to see I would gain much deserved reparation from the Glass Princess. They didn’t know she was a reincarnation of Leonora, either, only that she had insulted and injured me as a teenager, during a funeral no less, and then denied any wrongdoing. A fact as humiliating as it was correct.
“Take me back.” Trembling anew, she attempted to scramble up and behind me. “Take me back to the palace right now.”
I secured my grip, keeping her in place. “Be still.”
“Not them,” she beseeched. “Please, not them.”
Them? The guards? As I descended, her quaking magnified, baffling me. Leonora had feared nothing and no one, but Ashleigh was terrified of avian soldiers who wouldn’t touch her without my express permission? Why?
I landed as gently as possible, a courtesy Ashleigh didn’t deserve. As I strode forward, my bracelets clinked together, the noise actually calming her, as if her thoughts had just curved into a new road.
She buried her face in the hollow of my neck and asked, “What do the bracelets mean?”
“That is none of your concern,” I replied, giving her back her own words. Each band pointed to a significant event that had occurred or would occur in my life. The day of my birth. The battles I’d won, and the warriors I’d killed. One day, I would give the marriage bracelet to my wife and queen, whoever she happened to be. “You, fetch Eve,” I demanded, motioning to a nearby guard. I wished my friend Vikander were here to aid me instead of these strangers. I trusted the fae prince in ways I didn’t trust the avian. Unfortunately the irreverent warrior with a taste for sex and fine wine had been called home for an emergency.
Ashleigh lifted her head, and she was nibbling on her bottom lip again, drawing my attention there, making my gut clench. “Who is Eve?” she asked.
“My second-in-command. At the moment.”
Adriel, the one posted in front of the tent, opened the flap and stepped aside. As I strode past him, Ashleigh watched the male the way a wounded animal watched an approaching hunter. Only when the flap swished behind us, sealing us inside, did the tension seep from her.
I set her down, glad to have her out of my arms. Yes, glad. “I’m going to untie your wrists. If you use your magic, I’ll cut off one of your hands. If you attempt an escape, I’ll cut off one of your feet.” It was the Craven way.
The Leonora way? To do it, anyway.
“Would you really mutilate me?” Ashleigh asked.
Always follow through. But...
“Enough conversation.” I palmed a dagger and cut the tie as promised.
She scanned the area with growing horror, taking in the mess I’d created just for her. “This is where you’re staying?”
A slow grin spread. “It is.” The other two Leonoras had despised cleaning. In fact, during both of our first and second lifetimes, we’d argued about her messiness, how she would drop whatever she didn’t want on the floor, wherever she happened to be, expecting servants to clean for her.
That’s what you pay them for, she’d liked to say, and the lack of respect had infuriated me. Now I had the distinct pleasure of offering a small measure of restitution to all the servants she’d abused, while proving the truth about her identity to Noel.
She is Leonora. She is.
“You will clean my tent from top to bottom, and you will do it before