The Queen's Assassin (Queen's Secret #1) - Melissa de la Cruz Page 0,128
much. They keep their distance.
When I turn back to the queen, she motions to me. “Come here, child.”
“You’re hardly my mother,” I say, feeling bolder by the second. “You shipped me off to be raised by the Guild, and only appeared when you felt like it.”
“You have no idea what you speak of,” she says. She looks stricken. But it was her decision to send me away, to ensure that we were estranged.
“If I hadn’t asked for his pardon, you would have left Cal in that prison cell! He uncovered the conspiracy and found the enemy’s true face! You had no qualms about leaving him to rot, when he was only following your orders! That was cruel, Mother.”
She opens her mouth, but she’s interrupted by a tinkling sound from across the room, then more noises joining in. People are tapping their crystal goblets with their rings, spoons, anything they have at hand.
The king stands at the front of the room. He puts his hands up to quiet everyone first, then looks at Queen Lilianna and me, holds his hands out toward us, and says, “My future queen!”
He’s inviting me to sit at the front of the room alongside him, a visual display of our combined power. The people want to see us together. Want to believe in a love match, the symbol of a new peaceful future for our two kingdoms. That’s fine. I’d rather sit there with a fake smile plastered on my face than continue to talk to my mother.
I do my best impersonation of an elegant stroll to assume my place next to my fiancé. Once I’m there, footmen begin their service.
Queen Lilianna takes her leave, nodding to Hansen and me. The rest of the party returns to their gossip and wine and food, and my betrothed returns to ignoring me, leaning his body as far from mine as possible to speak to the beautiful courtier next to him. The one who looked at me with so much disdain when he handed me some wildflowers not too long ago.
I am alone in a foreign court, and the whereabouts of my only friend are a mystery to me.
CHAPTER FIFTY
Caledon
CAL MUST SPEAK TO SHADOW but he can’t bear to attend the engagement party. He slips away in the wave of people migrating from the great hall to the grand ballroom and retires to his room in the tower instead, where he lies on his bed and listens to the hum of revelers below, their flits of laughter drifting up to him from outside on the balconies.
He doesn’t want to see Shadow—Princess Lilac—no, Queen Lilac—with King Hansen, and he’s already had so many shocks that morning, he doesn’t think he can handle any more. None of it seems real. He’s gone from certain death by hanging to uncertain death by battle to . . . well, practically wishing the first had come true so that he won’t have to witness Shadow’s union to another.
He’s alive and may return to his home in Renovia, but he must return without the only thing he cares about. He must leave Shadow behind.
The vizier told Cal that King Hansen would want to winter here in Montrice and set out to Renovia in spring, to summer there. The king has never even been to Renovia. Now, along with Shadow, he will rule it. He will be Cal’s sovereign.
The duke’s body has been spirited away to the catacombs, and there is no sign of Jander. If Cal is to burn the body, he must do it soon, but how?
There is a knock on the door.
The door opens. Queen Lilianna walks inside. Cal leaps off the bed and bows quickly. “Your Majesty.”
She nods in greeting. “Caledon Holt, you uncovered—and eliminated—the Aphrasian spy, and more important, you brought my daughter to Montrice safely. Without you, this alliance would never have been possible. Our two kingdoms no longer need live under constant threat of warfare and strife.”
Cal bows reluctantly. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“Caledon Holt, the greatest assassin of our time, it is I who must thank you for your service. There has been a plot against my daughter’s life since before she