Ruins of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms #3) - Amelia Hutchins Page 0,163

the items inside the cabin. Silently, I waited for Knox’s command on where to go and what to do. I felt the eyes of his men outside the door as they took in what was happening. My skin itched with the wool, forcing me to scratch where the arms chaffed.

“Come, witch,” Knox snapped, and I followed him out of the cabin. We moved through the line of people that turned and snickered, laughing as I passed them. “Enough,” he growled, causing them to stop, but the looks they gave me said more than their laughter ever could.

Knox stopped in front of his horse, hefting me up without giving me time to prepare. I lowered my hands, lifting my sore core off the hard saddle. Men cheered, and my eyes closed, shutting out the world as they praised their king’s virility at creating the soreness between my legs. Knox mounted behind me, pushing my body down as he yanked me back against his chest.

We rode out of the valley in silence, my eyes sliding to the proud statue of Bel, who watched us leave his Beltane Circle behind. Knox’s fingers brushed over my belly, and I did my best to ignore him. He was aware of the discomfort wool caused, or he wouldn’t have asked Brander to secure it for me to wear. Maybe I deserved it for taking a low blow at his family, but he’d turned something beautiful into something cheap. He assumed I was nothing more than a tool Hecate had created to wield against him. The man was so wounded that he grasped at anything or any reason to turn against me.

“Do try to stop your body from making that scent, or I’ll turn you around and bury myself into it again. You’d probably enjoy being taken on a horse, wouldn’t you? I could turn you toward me, wrap those delicious thighs around my waist and fuck you all the way to Norvalla, and you’d let me, wouldn’t you?”

“No,” I replied icily.

“No? I think you need to be reminded of what being Queen means, wife,” Knox laughed against my throat.

“I’m not a queen. I’m merely a puppet for you to pull my strings. You can use me as you did this morning as a whore, hurting me because you felt something with me. You can abuse me and strike me down because you allowed your walls to drop ever so slightly, but you won’t ever touch me, Knox. You will never touch me deeper than I allow.” I whispered, knowing they all strained to hear the barely audible words. “You will never touch my soul, and your beast will never get my womb unless I permit it to happen. The only way Lennox will ever get my womb is if he rips it out of me and fucks it without my help. I am not your Queen, and you are not my King. You’re nothing to me, as I am to you. Do you know what the scariest creature in the world is, King Karnavious?”

“No, what is it, wife?”

“A woman who has nothing left to lose and chooses to build chaos since she is left in only ruins.”

Chapter Forty-Two

We approached a settlement, stopping on a rise that overlooked the sprawling stronghold surrounded by a winding village. It was bathed in dark shadows, but the scent of freshly spilled blood wafted on the soothing breeze. Torches burned through the town, alerting us that someone below had lit them to ward off the darkness of night, and yet not a single noise was heard as we waited above the village on a cliff that overlooked the valley.

“Fucking hell,” Knox growled, staring at the same thing I saw.

The Hecate flag flew on all four corners of the battlements. The only way for the flag to be erected was for a Hecate witch, directly related to Hecate herself, to fly it. My heart pounded against my ribs as blood coursed through my ears, deafeningly. My hands shook with the reality of what it meant. I was about to be blamed for this regardless of what I did or didn’t do. My blood relations, only my sisters, my aunt, and I had enough blood to fly that flag.

Flags directly related to a royal line were magically enhanced and unable to fly without spilling the blood of that line to place them. Since they flew on each of the four corners, I was willing to bet it was about to get more than