First Queen by Amabel Daniels

Author:Amabel Daniels [Daniels, Amabel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amabel Daniels
Published: 2023-05-28T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Disbelief.

I choked on it. Swallowing back a scream, I tried to rationalize what he admitted. Anger bubbled and I fisted my hands until the scrapes on my knuckles bled again.

The corga purred, nudging against me.

“What did you say?” I bit out.

Still, he stared me down. Serious. He’d meant it. Kane actually thought the best course of action would be to abandon Thea in the hands of the enemy to look for a stupid sword.

How could he, though? Why? He’d risked himself this far. He raced across the mainland to reach Thea before Devota could. He’d understood the urgency to save her in my stead. How could he change directions like this?

“You don’t think she deserves to be saved from the same hell and fate I just barely survived?”

He sighed, lowering his shoulders but maintaining a firm tone. “I don’t think she’s in danger of it.”

I gaped at him, stunned. “They have her already! They took her, before you could—”

“Lianen got her. He took from the village.”

I slammed my fist to the ground, ignoring the pain. “Yes! The queen’s brother, acting on her orders.”

He shook his head, confusing me even more. “Lianen got her just when I reached the village. He didn’t want to surrender her to me. And when the Somman troops arrived with dragons, he didn’t surrender her to them, either.”

Sweat trickled down my spine as I sat there and tried to make sense of it. I couldn’t look at him, too enraged at the suggestion he wouldn’t agree with me about my sister’s fate. But could he be right?

“I think Lianen might have been operating on his own.”

I agreed with that statement even more. The little I knew of the Somman royalty—before Devota became queen—supported that disconnect. She was bold and took charge. He was submissive and tried to find his place.

She’d bound him, too. In my brief stay at the Somman realm, I’d discovered the memory loss and hesitance that came with a binding spell. Xandar had to have cast it, or maybe Devota had. I had no problem believing Lianen endured a rocky relationship with his sister. I knew how manipulative she was.

But it was another thing altogether to think I could trust Lianen with my sister’s life.

“He didn’t harm her,” Kane continued to say. “He wasn’t rough with her when he captured her.”

I huffed. “He wouldn’t have needed to exercise excessive force. She can’t run. She’s too weak to fight back.”

Kane shook his head, and I glared at his stubborn hold on this ridiculous idea. That, what, Thea was safe with the queen’s brother?

“He was gentle with her. But fierce to fight me back from her. And the Sommans he should ally with. His people. Unless they are not his. If he’s deviated from what the queen wants.”

“That’s all speculation. You can’t know any of that. For all we can assume, he took Thea straight to Devota.”

Leaning against the biggest boulder in the clearing, he crossed his arms. Settling in, it seemed. “I’ve known Lianen for years.

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