A Landscape of Shadows by Julie Upshur

Author:Julie Upshur
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: royal intrigue, he falls first, strong female lead, enemies to lovers, black fantasy, morally grey character
Publisher: Blazon Publishing
Published: 2024-02-23T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

As soon as Solara and Tessan arrived back from the city, a messenger came to the apartment to inform them Nikara required their presence at dinner. Solara, silent and seething, said nothing when Tessan told her they were going. She said still nothing when he left her, and still nothing when he came to collect her and led her to Nikara’s suite, which was extravagant and dull like everything else in the palace. Solara was so sick of it all she could barely look at it. Aliss wasn’t even there, so there was nothing to interest her.

She sat at the dinner table eating woodenly, her head lowered.

“How was your shopping trip?” Nikara asked.

“Expensive,” Tessan said dryly, and Nikara laughed. The last time we sat at a table together, Solara wanted to say, you threatened to kill each other. But now here we sit, laughing and eating at the table of a woman who poisoned her last rival.

“I heard you bought two daggers?” Nikara said. “Has that story gone to your head, Solara? The rest of us had better watch out.”

Solara didn’t respond. She didn’t give a damn what Nikara had to say. She stabbed a piece of her steak and the fork clanked against the porcelain plate.

“I also heard you were running about with your hair down like a whore.”

Something inside of Solara snapped. She slammed her fork down on the table and lifted her head, her eyes narrowed to slits. “Yes,” she said. “My hair was down. Because I’m a woman who can do whatever the flying fuck she pleases, and not give a damn what any of you noble bastards have to say about it. And I’m going to keep wearing my hair down because I don’t give a fuck. Not a single one. Not a half a fuck. Not even a quarter.

“Call me a whore. Call me a bitch and common and whatever the hell you like. I don’t care. Because when Tessan guts you, I’ll dance over your fucking corpse.”

She stood up so swiftly her chair flipped over, and she whirled and stormed out of the room. The servants coming in with dessert scattered out of her way and the door slammed behind her, but not before she heard Tessan explode in laughter.

She pounded down the hall and through the first promising door she saw, which led down a set of marble steps into a section of the garden. She paced through it, headed toward the distance towers of the hedge maze, footsteps staccato with the heel of her expensive slippers. Solara cursed and kicked them off. Then she cursed and tore the pin holding up half her hair and chucked it as far as she could.

“Fuck,” she screamed.

“Good evening to you, as well.”

She whirled around. Roon. The king of the castle sat beside a pair of rosebushes, watching her. She curtsied, mortified. “My apologies, my lord. I didn’t realize you were–”

He wasn’t alone. Aliss stood at attention behind him, holding a tea tray like a glorified table.

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