Page 136 of Crown of the Courtesan

“Don’t be insolent,” Erah snaps, “and quit following me. I granted you an audience tomorrow morning. Leave me be.”

“No. We are going to talk about this right now.”

Bottles rattle, but she doesn’t respond.

“I cannot hold her off for much longer,” he continues urgently. “Tabitha is beginning to wonder why you won’t meet.”

A bottle plunks down onto a tabletop. Sharp and out of patience, she hisses, “Because we want her to be desperate for this alliance. There’s no turning back once the plan is set into motion. The girl is a risk, win or lose.”

“So what? I convinced her to agree to the marriage even after you forbade me from attempting it. You can’t say I didn’t take initiative. In fact, you can’t say I didn’t go above and beyond for the Beast Realm in securing her and her lands. We need only deal with the scum left behind in her castle now. You should be proud of how resourceful I was. I even gave her that damn nectar to increase her lust for me. She won’t be going anywhere.”

I clutch the wall, sliding down to the sandstone step, my legs weak and shaking against the grit. I want to yell out, scream at them that I’m here, but instead I bite the hand tightly covering my mouth.

“She’s a Lady Courtesan. Don’t be a fool and trust her loyalty. We need her completely powerless and unable to leave if we’re to expand our empire.”

Rett emits a choked bark. “Powerless is the last thing she is.”

Tears burn and well up in my eyes as tension thickens the air, silence growing heavy. Erah’s frigid voice finally challenges, “Is there something you aren’t telling me?”

“Spend any amount of time with her, and it becomes obvious she embodies a unique blend of fae and witch. Even in her untrained state, she possesses potent magic. It’s not normal. The magic of the Metalla bloodline diminishes with each generation, evident in the old king—yet hers grows more dangerous by the day. I want to find out why. And I want to know how that northern bastard marked her with the eyes of the Devana.”

“He’s a thorn, but it may not have been him. Her mother possessed the same heritage and the same uncanny eyes.” Erah pauses for a long moment before her tone turns sharper. “On second thought, your marriage with her should commence immediately if we want to control her power and claim Alexandria. I will not provide the soldiers otherwise. If we’re not very careful with our strategy, the Witch-King could halt all of these plans.”

“I’ll deal with him,” Rett growls. “I won’t allow him near her.”

“Avoid embarrassing yourself,” Erah seethes. “It’s been centuries of hostility between their kingdoms and bloodlines. Most don’t even know how it all started, but I do.”

He scoffs loudly.

“Three hundred years ago, an Alexandrian prince bought a generational curse from the Spirit-Fae Cathedral and declared war on Ashland, dooming it to death, ashes, and misery. The only way for it to end is for every drop of Metalla’s royal blood—her blood—to be eradicated. Every last one of them needs to be wiped from existence in order for the Witch-King to be free of his ancestor’s ill-gotten curse.”

My stomach twists, and I grip the wall, my nails scraping into the damp stone.

Worry laces Rett’s voice. “The Witch-King won’t stop his pursuit until she’s dead?”

“I’m warning you now not to get attached. Marriage is one thing, but tender feelings are another.”

“Tabitha is different,” Rett says, deadly quiet, causing my heart to squeeze painfully.

“I’m not saying she’ll be of no use until the inevitable happens, but it will happen. He’s been trying to kill her since the moment she became queen, and somehow, he captures her yet allows you to gallop away with the blood of his enemy? Trust me, this isn’t over for him. He’ll follow her to the ends of the map to set his people free.”

“She is to be my wife. I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her.”

“Think long and hard before you put your life on the line, and absolutely never trust her. She’s a courtesan, true to nobody but herself. It’s the way of her kind.”

“You don’t know her.”

“Oh, but I do,” she hisses. “I was supposed to be King Xander’s second bride after he lost his first wife—my dearest sister and her babe to birthing fever. But instead of doing what was right, he secretly married that Theodora harlot after spending one bloody day with her. She knew he was already betrothed, but she didn’t care…”

“You don’t understand. Tabitha isn’t like that. She would never betray me. She saved me. You should have seen her in the Border Forest. I’m only here now because of her.”

“You act just like your brute of a father, stupid, weak, and in love.”

“Perhaps, but that’s still better than you, cold-hearted and presumptuous,” he says in a hollow tone.

Erah says, “I might be both of those things, but I’m still your mother. That is why I tell you the truth—what you need to hear.”

A slam of the kitchen’s main doors finishes their conversation. Rett’s boots stomp away. Shortly after his departure, Empress Erah retreats, gently closing the latch behind her.