A Queen of Gilded Horns (A River of Royal Blood #2) - Amanda Joy Page 0,84

draw more magick with her tattoos, but losing contact with his skin at this point would sever their connection.

Tell them to lay their weapons down, she commanded, but she met a wall of magick, roiling power, and will. A vein throbbed in Mateen’s neck as he managed a minute shake of his head. “I’ll not let you use me as a puppet, girl. Release me and you will find we are not your enemy.”

Isa exchanged a glance with Eva, and at her sister’s sharp nod, she backed away from the General and let her magick ebb away.

Anali, Fal, and Aketo charged forward in an instant, moving faster than her eye could track. When the Prince reached Isa, he shoved her behind his back and said, “You and Eva will run with Kelis and the rest. We’ll hold them off.”

“Hold off thirty soldiers?”

“We don’t have many options here,” Aketo replied tersely.

Behind them Mateen held up a hand. “Wait. We are here for the Princess. We intend you no harm, but if you insist on a fight, we can do that as well.”

Eva walked forward until she stood at Isa’s side. Isa could sense the soldier’s shock at the sight of Eva. Mateen’s gaze swept from the horns atop her head to the wings flared out behind her.

Isa registered the unsheathed sword in Eva’s right hand just a moment before Eva drew the naked blade across her opposite palm. Eva groaned as blood welled, but the glare she gave Mateen did not waver.

A sigh hissed out between Eva’s teeth as luminous crimson magick dripped from her palms to envelop the long, curved blade of her sword. Blood magick licked at the air like a living flame. “If you hope to take my sister back to Ternain, we do insist on a fight, General.”

“I should have been more specific.” He made a sharp gesture behind his back and the soldiers lowered their weapons. Then Mateen surprised them all by bowing deeply. “We are here for you, Princess Evalina.”

Chapter 20

Eva

I didn’t want to trust him.

Even when General Mateen invited us to join him at their camp and presented a letter written in Papa’s economical script, listing the five Queen’s Army Generals I could trust to remain loyal to him in the event of his death, I couldn’t shake my distrust. The letter was dated less than a week before his death, and an inexplicable surge of wrath made me want to crumple the letter.

Papa had written this when we were together at Asrodei; he could have just told me. I was beginning to accept I might never forgive him for all these secrets.

When Mateen’s soldiers unmasked themselves, I noted that besides a few fey, most, including Mateen, were human. I saw the way they assessed my body. Their eyes flew wide at the sight of my horns, claws, and wings. I could hear the words none dared express: monster, beast.

I lifted my chin, threw my shoulders back, and stared down any whose gazes lingered too long.

Kelis emerged from the rock outcrop where she’d remained to watch over my cousins. All three followed behind her, clearly not pleased to find themselves among a company of soldiers. Lady Lirra took in the scene while palming her belt knife, Tavan twitched in that avian way of hers, and even steady Osir checked the leather straps around his shoulders that held vicious half-moon axes.

The General stood in front of me, waiting for a response to the letter and his declaration. He was a large man, towering above me by well over a foot. “Explain it all to me, Mateen. How did you come to have my sister’s signet ring? The only way that I can think of is that my mother gave it to you, which flies in the face of your supposed loyalty to my father. And why the tricks with your magick?”

“At the end of High Summer, the Queen called our entire battalion, the first and the second, to Ternain. A few weeks after that, I was summoned before the Queen. She asked if I could be discreet and said she needed us to track Princess Isadore, because you had kidnapped her. She said we were to tell Isadore that she was to kill you before we returned to Ternain.” Despite the General’s crisp, matter-of-fact tone, my mother’s cruelty once again hit me like a slap. Mateen went on. “She also told me about the King’s true heritage, and made it clear I wasn’t to share