A Queen of Gilded Horns (A River of Royal Blood #2) - Amanda Joy Page 0,51

with sinking dread.

“I suppose that’s mine?” Baccha asked, trying to keep his voice light.

“Join me, be welcome, and tell me only the truth, Lord Hunter.” She held out the cup.

“And if I decline?” The power in her first command had waned enough for Baccha to start dreading the next. “You don’t have to compel me to answer your questions. You’ll recall I answered your request to come home without complaint.”

“You also flouted my mother’s orders on your mission in Ternain. I’ve no doubt you told more than a few lies while you were there and may have gotten used to such subterfuge,” Ysai said. “Drink up.”

Baccha inclined his head. “Fair enough.”

He settled down across from her and took the cup, watching the firelight reflected in her black eyes. He tipped his head back and drank. “You know, your mother only ordered me about when she had to. She found it a drain on her magick otherwise. Your blood is valuable—you should not waste it so.”

Ysai canted her head. “Interesting. Tell me about the Usurpress, Hunter.”

Her orders smothered the flip comment Baccha wanted to make. “Raina was born to the first generation of humans gifted—”

“Tch.” Ysai held up a hand. “You know who I mean.”

“If you require absolute truth, Mother, then you must speak in terms we both agree upon,” Baccha murmured, voice devoid of amusement.

“The Princess, then,” Ysai said, waving a beringed hand. The glossy, bone-white claws curling over her fingertips reminded Baccha of his first meeting with Eva.

She’d recalled the story of one of his first missions for the khimaer Queens. Where he’d chased down a fey man obsessed with cutting off the hands of beautiful maidens.

“When I arrived in Ternain, per your mother’s request, I hid my presence with the help of two of our contacts. I lived for weeks in the library of the Temple, leaving only by night to learn of the rumors in the city. I had no plans to go to Court.”

In fact, Baccha had spent nearly every minute of his seclusion wondering exactly how he was meant to break the humans’ dynasty while barely catching one glimpse of them. He’d been busy discussing such with Sarou when the young librarian was whisked away by an apprentice.

He listened in on their hushed conversation, noting the mention of a “noble” guest. He hadn’t made a conscious attempt to lure the Princess to his lair. Moriya and the Elderi’s rule not to seek the Killeens held him in place. He’d let his scent drift through the library’s stacks days before, hoping to lure an Auguri or a Sorceryn he could mine for Ternain gossip. Sarou had no mind for it.

Baccha had been shocked when Eva and Falun stumbled upon him, and further knocked off-balance when Eva’s scent dragged him centuries into the past. He’d tried to maintain his air of being perfectly at ease, but he was overwhelmed. When he shut his eyes, there was only Raina’s face—pale, sharp, fire of ambition in her eyes.

This Princess was entirely different, her confidence edged in worry. Still she was warm and entirely too trusting. He was immediately charmed by Eva’s knowledge of his oldest legends, and her beautiful guard, who rightly did not trust Baccha at all.

“How did you meet, then?” Ysai asked, drawing Baccha back to the present.

“She found me in the library. I did not reveal my identity—she guessed and knew of my history with Raina,” Baccha answered.

Ysai watched him over the rim of a teacup, steam rising from the top, eyes tight with distrust. “Our contacts in the South sent word that you moved into the palace to . . . instruct Eva?” She said the name like a curse. “Why is that? When the Elderi wisely instructed you to stay away from Court, why go right to the humans’ den?”

“There were rumors when I arrived in Ternain, about the young Princess who spent her last years away from the capital. Her older sister was, and still is, favored to become the True Heir. There was already a divide between these Princesses and the Queen. I sought to sow further chaos.”

“By arming one with the magick that broke us in the first place?” she asked in a voice like smoke. “What else am I to view that as but betrayal?”

Beneath her anger and with her blood working its magick, Baccha felt his will shrinking inside him. When said that way, he couldn’t defend his decision.

Except that no part of his lessons with Eva felt like