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“Actually, I do,” I somehow found the courage to say. “What can you actually do to force me to do anything?”
“What can I do?” she echoed with another laugh, walking back over to the couch to sit. “What can I not do, my dear son?”
“You… you don’t have any kind of power here,” I said unsteadily. “You’re not a queen here.”
“You think that would stop me?” She shot me a vicious smile. “You really think I haven’t spent the last few years ensuring that you are…” She cleared her throat delicately, lips curving once again with a sly smile this time. “Still within my grasp?”
My mouth dried out. “What does that mean?”
“Oh, nothing nefarious.” She tutted. “Nothing unseemly. Well, except having to associate with the lawless fae who choose to live in this polluted, grimy realm. But I have been making useful connections, my dear. People who can easily dismantle this sad little life you’ve been living.”
“I don’t believe you,” I croaked. Her delicately arched brow rose.
“No? So I don’t have the manager of your bank at my beck and call, ready to drain your account and leave you penniless? Or a city officer who can declare this squalid little house condemned and force you out of it?”
I felt sick. “You can’t—”
“Or a government official ready to shut down that disgusting wrestling business the moment I tell him to?” She inspected her manicured fingernails. “Or a judge willing to issue a warrant to have the assets of that slimy empyn running the place seized? His business, the buildings he owns…”
I swallowed hard. “Why would you—”
“And, of course, there are those unscrupulous colleagues of yours,” she added lightly. “Who I’m sure you regard as friends. Do they have the skills to do anything but writhe around in front of a braying crowd of rabid creatures? I highly doubt it. What would they do if they were suddenly unemployed, I wonder? All because of you. I can’t imagine they would want to associate with you any longer. In fact, they’d probably all despise you.”
My throat closed up as I thought of Vince. I had no doubt that she really would do all those things if I refused to obey her, and I couldn’t bear the thought of ruining his life like that.
Having him hate me again. Not now. Not after everything.
“Of course, it won’t come to any of that.” She smiled at me in cold satisfaction. “Because you’re coming home and you’re marrying Ianthe.”
“I… I don’t want to marry Ianthe,” I said hoarsely. “Please.”
Her brows pinched delicately. “Do you think that makes a difference?”
“Please,” I croaked again. “You… you don’t even need me. Ariyon can—”
“What your younger brother will or will not do when I tell him to is irrelevant here,” she said sharply. “You are still failing to realise, my dear son, that it doesn’t matter what I can get from others. This is what I want from you, so this is what I am getting.”
I was trembling as I stood there, sweat dampening my shirt. When my mother rose from the couch, I flinched.
“You know, you really have made this so much more difficult than it needed to be,” she said lightly, holding out her hand for her gloves. The guard presented them in silence. “If you had just come to me and discussed your misgivings instead of fleeing like a coward, I might have reconsidered.”
That was an utter fucking lie. I’d begged her not to make me marry Ianthe. I’d promised to find myself someone else, someone I actually liked and could see myself being with, someone who would still be able to deliver the only thing she wanted from me—children to continue her bloodline.
She had completely ignored me.
“Now, however…” She tittered, sliding on her gloves. “I find myself stubbornly digging my heels in. Just like you attempted to do. But in a battle of wills, my son, I never lose.”
“Please,” I rasped, hating myself for pleading with her. “Please don’t do anything. Please. I—”
She tutted. “Don’t be silly. I won’t need to, because you’re going to come home. I just wanted to remind you that it would be very easy for me to take this all away. That what little you do have here can be gone in an instant.”
One of the guards silently lifted the tea set while another folded the table. A third picked up the silk she’d been sitting on and began to fold it neatly.
“You’ll be home in one week,” she said as she approached. I flinched when she cupped my chin in a gloved hand and smiled at me. “You see? I can be understanding, my dear. At least I’m giving you time to say goodbye to all your little friends.”
“I’m… I’m not coming,” I said weakly, almost a whisper.
“Ah. Well. That would be unfortunate. Then I suppose you’d better start searching for a new job. A new house. Really, a whole new place to live in this dirty little realm.” She laughed lightly. “Because by the time I am done with you, my dear, you will have nothing, and I will make sure it stays that way, which means your only chance of surviving would be to disappear to some far-flung corner of this world. So it really would be best for you to just come home.”
