Of Deceit and Snow by Ashley W. Slaughter

Author:Ashley W. Slaughter [Slaughter, Ashley W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy romance, women authors, ya fantasy, ya fantasy romance, young adult fiction
Publisher: AWS Writing
Published: 2022-11-07T14:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Three days.

That was how long Gryffin told me I had until the wedding ceremony.

After the execution, Gryffin had jumped onto his horse behind me, yanked the reins out of my hands, and bolted toward the courtyard.

“You thought you were being clever,” he’d said into my ear through a snarl. His eyes had flashed with a red anger. “You’re lucky I don’t kill the rest of your people here.”

It was hard to sound intimidating through chattering teeth. “Then you will have to kill me too.”

He’d scoffed at that. “You would rather die than just surrender quietly?”

“Over and over again.” My voice had held no waver.

By the time we’d reached Snowmont’s main gates, I’d been drenched through with snow. He’d lowered his mouth to my ear and murmured, “We’ll be waiting for your precious scout to show his face here in Viridi.”

I hadn’t had time to respond before Gryffin pulled me out of the saddle and shoved me toward a guard standing at the entrance. “Take the queen up to her chambers and lock her doors. Go with caution and allow no visitors until I say otherwise.” His eyes had darkened, hardly any blue to be seen no longer. “She is ill.”

Though I’d kicked, struggled, and screamed up the four flights of stairs, no one had turned an eye toward me.

Now I sat in front of my courtyard window, door locked, guards posted outside once more. I’d still been kept in the queen’s chambers, but I was more like a prisoner than ever.

Celeste had been taken from me. She’d banged on my door, then Gryffin’s down the hall, until there was some scuffle outside and she’d been pulled away.

Gryffin’s harsh three days reverberated painfully through my skull.

Just over the Atrium’s wall, I saw that the execution platform was still in place, still bloody, still silenced by death. Eventually, castle workers did appear to move the platform away, back to wherever it had been stored for the past six years, and once they were gone, the falling snow hid the blood that had dripped onto the street.

Aside from the Viridian citizens avoiding the square, there was no indication that two people had died there today.

Though I felt a surging sadness, the guilt that tugged at my heart was not the same as I had felt over Sterling. Sterling’s death could have been avoided, had I not acted so stupidly.

Cassia’s and Xal’s, though, were a martyrdom. They had chosen to help me do what I needed to do, and somehow, they’d been caught. I could not control their deaths.

The maid’s door opened quietly, and Vasilie came into my room with a cloth over her nose. Gryffin’s word of my “sickness” had spread, apparently.

“Vasilie,” I said quietly. “I’m not ill.”

She looked from me to the clean linen in her hand. “Best not to take chances, Your Majesty. Atroxis took my parents.”

If only she knew that Atroxis had originated in her kingdom, from the actions of an unhinged prince.

As she shuffled through my chambers, I was grateful that my grieving had company.

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