Chapter Thirty-Eight The Lady’s Vicious Creature
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
The Lady’s Vicious Creature
“I don’t care who dies,” Lady Emer, the Iron Maid, told Queen Lia.
They were the last words she ever said to Lia, before the queen died.
Excerpt from the Once and Forever Emperor series, ANONYMOUS
She found her lady on the floor of the throne room, in a pool of black and blue and red. Emer slipped in the blood as she ran to her, fell to her knees and took her in her arms.
When she turned the body over, she expected to see Rae’s dead face.
Instead, she saw Lia’s.
Emer woke with a shudder in Forge’s tumbled bed. Lady Katalin had taught her as a child never to disturb her mistress’s sleep.
She found Lia already awake, studying Emer’s expression. Emer worried if Lia looked long enough, she might learn her secrets. Emer’s dark dreams. Emer’s kiss with Forge.
Emer said, “I’ll do it, my lady. I’ll be your pet Valerius for the brutes.”
“I’m glad to hear it, Emer,” Lia murmured. “May I ask why you changed your mind?”
“Because your plan is to make our way into the palace,” said Emer.
“I need to see Lady Rae. She said the Cobra was sending her letters the Emperor couldn’t read.
But Key pretended to be worse at reading than he was, when Lady Rae was teaching him her letters.
So she would be impressed with his progress. ”
It had seemed such a small sin, harmless and sweet, that it had completely slipped Emer’s mind. Until in her dreams, she feared for Lady Rae, and woke knowing why.
In the morning after market, she told Forge she had agreed.
“I hope you won’t regret it,” Forge said.
“Why would I regret it?” Emer asked, refusing to look at Forge in case she found she wished to kiss her again. She felt like a hedgehog who had eaten another hedgehog, prickly inside and out.
“Because Lia has a power, perhaps a greater power than yours,” said Forge. “Lia makes you want to believe in her. All I’m saying is, maybe you shouldn’t.”