A Queen of Gilded Horns (A River of Royal Blood #2) - Amanda Joy Page 0,92

you say, to guard her.”

He cocked his head, his smile edged in laughter. “I speak Common perfectly fine. Your Khimaeran is abysmal.”

“Do you just listen poorly, then?” she asked, baring her teeth to outmatch his wickedness. “I am telling the truth, Princeling.”

His nostrils flared at Princeling, but he finally relented. He dropped her arm and took a step backward as if fearing retribution. The blade rasped as he eased it back into its scabbard.

“Finally,” Isa said, rubbing at the spot below her wrist where his warmth still lingered. He’d been careful to keep a tight grip, but it was not painful. “Aketo told me your name but I can’t quite re—”

“Dthazi,” he said, still watching her warily. “Are you truly her, then? Princess Isadore?”

D-thazi. She wanted to roll the name around on her tongue a few times to get the feel of it, but refused to give him the satisfaction.

“What, unimpressed?”

“Not . . . unimpressed. I am simply wondering why it is you are still alive if it is as you say. If you are indeed Princess Evalina’s prisoner, why hasn’t she killed you yet?”

Well, that was one way to state it plainly. “If I could understand every decision my sister does or does not make, I doubt I would be here. You’re free to ask her when they finally get around to searching for me.”

“Or you could be lying. Maybe you aren’t lost. Maybe you escaped.”

“Or maybe my sister was too weak to kill me and granting me freedom is the only way to assuage her guilt for ever considering it.”

That was Isa’s best theory at this point. Few things were more powerful than a guilty conscience, especially when one needs to believe in their personal goodness.

Isa rarely let herself feel guilty over the things she’d done. Her mother taught her early on that being good did not get you what you wanted. Only being ruthless could ensure that.

“Then I should do her a favor and kill you, as I have no such weakness.”

Isa shrugged, eyes sliding past him and into the trees. When would they search for her? “You are welcome to try, though I’ll warn you. If it were that easy, I assure you I would be long dead by now.”

“So you say.” His voice did that spine-tingling thing where it seemed to move with the wind as it blew through the trees. “And you are quite good at feigning fearlessness, but I can hear your heartbeat from here and it tells a different story.”

She leveled a flat look in his direction. It wasn’t fear that made her pulse race, but his beauty. She pulled off her scarf—despite the cold, sweat dripped down her back—and lifted her chin, suppressing a shudder as a snowflake landed on her bare neck. “Do your worst.”

Dthazi stepped toward her, but the sound of snow crunching underfoot sent them both flying apart, hands grasping for weapons.

Isa noted with some amusement that Dthazi took a half step, positioning himself in front of her. A second later Aketo came crashing through the trees, arms open, a smile so wide it seemed to split his face in two. He slipped into Khimaeran, speaking too quickly for Isa to understand much.

Then the two young men were embracing, both wiping away tears of joy and relief.

Their joy struck Isa the most profoundly. It was like looking at the sun, their mental auras too bright with happiness to stare. Kelis and Anali followed Aketo through the trees, Eva on their heels. When her sister caught sight of the brothers together, her face softened. But just like Isa, she could watch for only a moment before looking away, and joined Isa.

She shifted uneasily, eyes flitting to Isa and away again, until she finally whispered, eyes on Aketo and Dthazi, who were still embracing, “Hard to imagine that.”

Isa laughed because she’d been thinking the same thing. This display of familial affection should have been normal to them, yet it was anything but. Once Isa had hoped that when Eva returned to Court, they would have such a reunion, but that was before Eva spent those years away ignoring every letter Isa sent.

Isa and her sister looked on and it was with some comfort that Isa noticed Eva felt just as awkward as she did.

“Kelis and Falun lost track of you?” Eva asked. Worry that this was some attempt at an escape rolled off Eva’s skin, mingling with anger at her guards.

Isa shrugged, trying and failing to smother her annoyance. “I