Chapter 2
Chapter Two
LINDY
“What did you say to Elise?”
Corbin barked the question as he pushed off the wall beside her door where he had been waiting, arms crossed and a stormy expression on his face.
His dark hair and strong brows were a mirror image of his father—at least according to the portrait gallery.
Lindy had only seen the king with white hair, deep wrinkles, and age spots, but there was a definite resemblance in the paintings that had been done when the king was still young and married to his first wife.
The wife he had truly and deeply loved for thirty years before she died, childless. His second wife had given him his first five sons, and the third had produced the younger two.
With that many heirs, Lindy wasn’t entirely sure why she had been needed.
She stifled a weary sigh. The funeral had been long and drawn out, and while she couldn’t fault the people of Cygnus for mourning the passing of their king, the constant streams of accusatory whispers and withering looks that accompanied her through the service, the internment, and the somber feast in Theodor’s honor had drained what little energy she had to begin with.
All she wanted to do was ditch the sallow-faced guard dogging her footsteps, hide in her room, and cry in peace before facing more of the same at the formal dinner later than evening.
She masked her exhaustion with a tilted eyebrow, keeping her shoulders back and summoning snark as her armor. “You’ll have to be more specific. Ellie is my lady-in-waiting; I tell her lots of things.”
His eyes narrowed in a glare. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
“Please,” she gestured toward him. “Enlighten me as to what it is that I know.”
“You made her cry.”
“She was hardly the only one today.”
“She was fine until she left to get you, and when she came back, she was crying. What did you say to her?”
Guilt pricked her heart, but Lindy covered it with an eyeroll. “By that logic, I’m responsible for the tears of everyone who started weeping after they saw me today.”
Corbin took a step forward, crowding her space. The guard behind her took a step back, as if fully content to allow the prince to do whatever kind of damage he might desire. Corbin growled, “Stop playing the fool, Belinda. You know exactly what you did.”
She was not a small woman, but Corbin was tall enough that she had to tilt her head back in order to still meet his gaze.
She had dealt with enough bullies in her life to know that he just wanted to intimidate her, and she refused to give him the satisfaction.
“I didn’t say anything to Ellie that you haven’t already told her yourself.
If you have a problem with that, maybe you should look in the mirror. ”
His jaw worked back and forth, and his voice dropped to a dangerous whisper. “I don’t know what kind of magic you worked on Father to convince him to marry you, but whatever it is you’re planning, I will stand in your way.”
“So I’ve noticed. I was planning on going to bed.”
His eyes flashed. “Is this all just a joke to you? My father is dead because of you.”
Lindy’s patience snapped, and she drew on her anger, using it to coat her words with steel. “I didn’t kill Theodor.”
“Don’t say his name.”
“Why not? In case you forgot, Corbin, he was my husband. And until your coronation, I am still your queen. Now step aside and let me pass.”
“Or what?” he sneered. “You’ll curse me, too? Turn me into a frog, like you did to Dorian?”
“I don’t have to.” She gave him a falsely sweet smile. “You’re already a toad.”
Lindy stepped around him, but he snagged her wrist and yanked her back. “This conversation isn’t over.”
She shook his hand off. “I have nothing more to say to you, which I think means it is.”
“You may have bewitched my father,” Corbin pushed on, ignoring her. “But I’m not going to let you take Cygnus.”
She breathed in through her nose and let it out slowly. “For the last time, Corbin, I don’t want your throne. Keep your crown, keep your country. I don’t want it.”
His eyes narrowed and darted back and forth, as if he believed he would find the answer he looked for somewhere in her pale face, and with a rare earnestness he asked, “Then why are you here? What do you want?”
A home.
To feel safe.
To be loved.
Lindy hesitated. Showing vulnerability meant allowing him to have power over her, but she also knew that any kind of relationship going forward would require some kind of concession.
She opened her mouth, prepared to answer as honestly as she dared, when Corbin cut her off with another question, his earnestness replaced with loathing.
“What could you possibly hope to gain?”
She swallowed the words on the tip of her tongue and lifted her chin, shoving aside the idea of concession.
“Absolutely nothing you’re willing to offer.
” She spit the words out and spun on her heel, reaching her door and throwing it closed behind her before he could react.
She leaned against it wearily, tilting her head back and slowly sinking to the floor as the last tenuous thread holding her emotions together began to fray.
I should have known better than to think that coming here would be any different. I’m neither wanted nor welcome.
Her eyes wandered over the room, gliding over the furnishings that had been chosen by the former queen.
King Theodor’s previous wife had been a fan of velvet and gold and dark wood, and the room felt nearly oppressive in its luxuriousness.
It wasn’t at all what Lindy would have chosen for herself, but she hardly felt confident in a welcome reception should she request to redecorate.
As it was, she had arrived from her home in Nedra with little more than the clothes on her back and a small trunk, and the only personal touches she had left on the room were the tiny framed portrait of herself and her younger sister on the bedside table and the lumpy, uneven shawl spread over the bed.
Her sister Eliza had knit it for her during one of her extended stays in Kysta, the tiny coastal country that neighbored her home to the south, and though it looked ridiculous, it was one of the last gifts that Lizzie had given her before she was cursed.
The reminder of her sister’s cold, unfeeling eyes was another knife in her chest, but Lindy pushed past her guilt and grief. She refused to allow herself to regret the loss of the one person in her life who had truly loved her.
Lizzie asked for it.
She sat in the silence, staring sightlessly at nothing in particular for so long her legs and seat began to grow numb, and she barely registered the sound of the door opening and closing in the sitting room adjoining hers.
A heavy sigh from the interior door roused her from her stupor, and she turned her head to see Elise standing in the doorway with her hands clasped loosely in front of her, a concerned expression pulling at her brows.
“Have you been there all afternoon?”
“Where else would I have been?” Lindy’s voice sounded hollow and far away even to her own ears.
“A chair, for one. Perhaps your bed? Someplace a little more comfortable than the floor.” Elise stepped into the room and offered Lindy a dainty hand. “Come on; you need to get ready for dinner.”
“Why?”
“Because even queens need to eat. Get up.”
“No, I mean why are you still here?” Lindy stared dully at her hand for a moment before giving in and accepting the help. Elise was small, but she was stronger than she appeared. “Didn’t Corbin tell you to stay away?”
“His Royal Highness is not the one in charge of my position,” Elise replied briskly. “Nor does he have a say in who I choose to associate with.” She kept hold of Lindy’s hand and led her to the ornately carved dressing table and pushed her onto the stool in front of it.
Lindy met her gaze through the mirror. “You should listen to him; he wants to marry you.”
“Then he should realize listening goes both ways.” Elise set her jaw stubbornly and began to pull out a few of the pins in Lindy’s hair, readjusting and smoothing out the places where her curls had become mussed. “Corbin has many admirable qualities, but he’s not always right.”
“I cursed a prince.”
“So you said.”
“I cursed my own sister.”
Elise’s hands faltered for a moment, but she kept working. “There’s a story there, I’m sure.”
The desire to snatch up the bit of hope that her lady-in-waiting was offering was overwhelming, but Lindy knew better than to allow herself to give in.
It would only hurt worse when she inevitably was rejected.
She snapped, “I’m not innocent, Elise! I’m not some mistreated, misunderstood damsel; I’m the villain. I’ve done some dark things.”
“I never said you were innocent—I simply said that I’m sure there’s a story.” Elise finished with her hair and stepped back.
Lindy spun around on the stool. “Why are you being so stubborn about this?”
“Why are you?” She put her hands on her hips.
“I’ve watched you since the moment you arrived here.
You have done nothing but quietly go about your own business, even when those ridiculous princes have done everything in their power to make your life miserable.
A snake in your bed? Not a word. Spicy pepper in your soup?
You ate the whole bowl without batting an eye.
They took you on a picnic and left you stranded in the woods.
You walked home and cleaned the mud from your dress yourself.
If you were truly the evil witch Corbin tries to make you out to be, you would have dealt with them the first time. ”
“Maybe I’m just biding my time.” Lindy tried and failed to keep her voice from trembling. The princes’ antics were well-known, but she had assumed Elise—like everyone else—didn’t care.