ETAN

Etan was about to move for his sword, the fury on her face was so dark. But then the Queen blinked and sat back, measuring him with her eyes.

"Those were the thoughts I had then. But because you were both gone, there was time to consider the entire picture," she said carefully. "Time to think about both my daughter's well-being, and the potential implications for our people. I was not going to let you—or her father—ruin everything we had built, and trained Ayleth for. I have tried to teach Ayleth and prepare her to rule, to mother, and to wife since her birth. Her father may see her marriage as a political pawn, but I sought to find her more than that. To make her more than a jewel in some other Kingdom's crown. I sought to make her a strong, capable human being, female or not."

She was about to continue, but Etan interrupted her. "That is what I want for her too," Etan said quietly. "That is one of the reasons I love her. You succeeded in that."

The Queen drew herself back, her chin rising. "I did not!" she hissed. Her lip rose in a sneer and her eyes flashed with repressed rage. "I did everything in my power to ensure that she would be drawn to, and desired by the strongest and best nations rulers on the Continent. And then… you. You of all people, are the first to touch her? You are the one who wins her heart? You? Our enemy who attempted to take and kill her?!"

Etan stood. "I had nothing to do with that plan—didn't even know of it until it was done. And done poorly. No matter what, I vow to you that Summitras will never take such base actions under my rule!"

"Pretty words from a pretty man who doesn't even know he is nothing but a pawn," she snapped.

"I am no pawn," Etan growled.

The Queen huffed a single, dry laugh, then shook her head at him. She rose slowly, as if she'd merely decided it was time to stand, then she clasped her hands primly in front of her. "Do you think the pawn on the chessboard knows it's a pawn?"

Etan just glowered at her, his stomach twisting. Where was Borsche? Where was Falek? Where was his wife?! "You said you believed me that my love was true!"

"Oh, I do and it sears me to my bones. I want to vomit." She bit the words off. "Had you some political agenda, some measure of calculation or ambition, I might have been able to work with you, to mold you to my purposes. But you stand here, shameless. You are my enemy, and I will not release my daughter into your poisonous hands!"

Etan raised his hands, palm out, in a show of surrender, but she only glared harder. "My hands are not poison," he said quietly, and as gently as he could. "They are the hands that will love your daughter, protect her. I put my life at her feet!"

As if the claim offended her, the Queen stormed around the small table between them and descended on him, putting herself right at his toes, her eyes glowing with the fire of hate—and the power that she wielded.

Etan took hold of his sword hilt and prayed.

They faced each other, toe-to-toe, Etan vibrating against the urge to draw his sword. To do so in her presence was a capital offence and would only give her reason—and justification—to take him from Ayleth.

"Your daughter is cherished nowhere more than in my hands," he growled.

The Queen looked at him like she might laugh. "Do you really believe that I, of all people, would see your love and loyalty as a virtue? That would you steal my daughter away to be a broodmare to my enemy—that you would twist and shape her into the very thing I designed her to fight—is offence enough. But that you spout this pledge to her and your devotion, as if I will somehow find it endearing?!" Her expression turned dark and she pointed at his chest with a single finger. "You are my enemy! You tried to kill my daughter six years ago, and now you will succeed in bringing her death just by clinging to her against her own father. Your devotion means nothing when she ends up dead!"

"No! I will fight for her! Protect her!"

"That is precisely my point! Can you not see what will come of this? Her father will attempt to kill you--which, if he succeeds, will take her from us as surely as if she were the one who were dead. Or, if he fails, then when you take her with you back to your snake pit, and leave her to bear your barbarian babes, her father will wage war and kill you—and her—and probably half of our Kingdom to do it. No matter which way I turn, my daughter is dead and removed from me, and for what?!"

"For a love that would keep her safe! A love that would sacrifice itself for her—how can you see that as evil?"

"Because anything that removes my daughter from me, from her father, from our people is evil!" she snarled, her beautiful face twisted with hate and derision.

Etan gaped. "I wish nothing more than that our families, our Kingdoms could come together, not be torn apart—"

"Then you should not have married my daughter. But it is too late, and so you leave me no choice."

Etan froze, hand tightening on the hilt of his sword. "No choice for what?"

She smiled a vindictive smile that made Etan's heart race. "You are vowed to protect her to your dying breath, yes? Oh, what a very special vow. Do not forget it when you hear this, oh pretty prince: If you do not convince my daughter that you have abandoned her, if you do not leave our Kingdom appearing to prepare to marry someone else, I will kill her myself."

*****

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