A Savage Debt (The Beholden Duet #1) - Zoey Ellis Page 0,42
In the palace? Among people who want you imprisoned?” She shot him a look. “I find that hard to believe.”
Maddoc said nothing, but his eyes had a softness to them as he watched her. And that made her nervous.
“Is the Oakenshire forest as wild as they say it is?”
“Yes.”
“Do all your men also believe in magic, fairies, and folktales?”
Maddoc growled in annoyance. He rose from the bed and headed toward his pile of clothes. Searching through them, he lifted his pants and dug his hand into the pocket to collect something, then approached the table of food and indicated for her to follow.
Ana scrambled off the bed and did as instructed, apprehension growing in her stomach. Father surely would have poisoned the food by now, and even though she had been completely fine with the idea of poisoning him earlier that day, the idea of it now was… unsettling.
Maddoc held out his hand again, and in the center of his palm sat a large blue pebble. It didn’t look like it came from anywhere on the royal grounds; it was an unusual color, almost as though it were a gem. “This was created for me by a woman whose life I saved,” Maddoc said. “It detects harmful substances.”
“How is it able to do that?”
“When I hold it near poisonous or toxic substances, no matter how small a dose, it burns bright blue.”
Ana laughed nervously. “Is that what you were doing yesterday?”
Maddoc nodded. “Yes, I was checking if the food was poisoned. It seemed too good to be true for the king to feed me, although I’ve made it quite difficult for him to kill me outright, at least for now.” He turned to face the table holding out the pebble in his palm.
Ana watched his face to see how much he truly believed what he was saying. There’s no way this could work.
To her utter surprise, the pebble began to shine blue almost immediately. She gasped and Maddoc stiffened. He held his hand over the table, watching the stone, and it glowed when hovered over every dish, even over the mead. But when he moved his hand over the water, it faded back to its normal blue color.
“It seems the king was trying to trick me into a false sense of security,” Maddoc said, his voice low. “The man has no honor.”
Ana frowned. “Because he tried to poison an outlaw?”
“Because he’s supposed to be honoring the Royal Promise,” Maddoc barked. “He shouldn’t be trying to kill me by sneaking poison into my food while he is paying off a debt. He will have to suffer for this.” Maddoc growled, turning from the table agitated. “I wonder sometimes if I should bother waiting for his demise. I should just kill him.”
Ana’s stomach plummeted. Fear twisted back into her stomach, along with a heavy dose of annoyance. “You won’t succeed.”
Maddoc turned to her, his eyes blazing. “Anything I want to do, I do it.”
“Then why didn’t you?” she said sharply. “You keep insinuating you can kill him any time you want; you claim you had the opportunity to do so when he was injured. Why didn’t you then and why don’t you now? I’m starting to think you can’t do anything to him, only find ways of punishing other people to make him suffer.” She huffed out a breath as her heart pounded in her chest. “Instead of using other people, and causing them pain, why don’t you just do it?”
“Have you ever heard me say I want to kill the king?” Maddoc thundered.
“It’s obvious you do. It’s what you tell the villagers, and it’s the point every time you strike a blow at the crown,” Ana said hotly.
“This is what makes you ignorant,” Maddoc said, stepping toward her. “You believe everything you’re told, you do everything they say, you don’t learn things for yourself or try to make sense of the illogical facts they present to you. Lies upon lies upon fabrications dominate this kingdom. You even watch them,” he accused. “You watch them playing their games of gossip, and yet you believe that everything you are told is the truth.” His expression was of such disgust that Ana flushed.
“Are you saying that you never did any of those things?” Ana asked, knowing she wouldn’t believe him if he said no.
Maddoc said nothing for a moment. He took another step and she stepped back at the same time, the tension between them so thick it was like being tethered to lightning.