Frost’s Forfeit by Laura Greenwood

Author:Laura Greenwood [Greenwood, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-10-14T15:31:24+00:00

8

Mila sat at the centre of the room balling her eyes out. But as upset as the little girl was, Nieves couldn't focus on that. All she could feel was the relief that her daughter was alright. So long as there wasn't a scratch on her, everything would be fine.

She rushed forward and scooped the crying child into her arms as she collapsed to the floor, her vast skirts pooling around them both. She rocked Mila back and forth, humming a soft tune that she knew would send the little girl to sleep. Or it had when she was still a baby, at least. Nieves just hoped that this time it wasn't any different.

"What happened?" Jack barked at the two fae guards who were standing shakily by the door, neither of them meeting his eyes.

Anger grew inside Nieves. There was no reason for them to be so weird. Not if nothing had happened to make them so. But the fact they were avoiding eye contact with a man, was concerning.

"Answer him," Nieves demanded from the floor, breaking off her song, but continuing to rock Mila back and forth. The cries had turned into soft whimpers now, and she knew the little girl would drift off to sleep soon. She was just pleased she hadn't lost her touch in the time since she'd let Mila go.

"We're not sure, your majesty," the first guard answered. "We were on the other side of the door."

"And no one was in here with Mila?" Nieves demanded, her nostrils flaring and her eyes boring into the two women.

"We thought she'd want privacy," the second one answered, her voice shaking, and an uncomfortable look crossing her face. They clearly didn't want to admit to whatever was going on.

"She's a child, she doesn't get privacy where her safety is concerned," Jack replied before Nieves could. While it was sweet he was being so protective, Nieves was a little frustrated by it. She'd told him how things worked here, and yet he seemed to be completely ignoring that in favour of whatever he was doing now.

"Jack," Nieves warned.

"Sorry," he muttered. She nodded, glad he realised where he'd gone wrong, that was a start. "If you have nothing left to tell us, you can go," Nieves dismissed the two guards, who left the room in a hurry, probably thinking themselves lucky she hadn't been in a worse mood.

Realistically, that wouldn't have made a difference. She wasn't the kind of Queen who wanted to punish people for honest mistakes. It would lead to too much dissent amongst her people. Instead, she hoped her way of not just going off the rails at people would lead to their loyalty. Though, on the flip side, it could just lead to her people thinking she was soft. Probably not the way she really wanted to go with that one.

"What do you think it was?" Jack asked, looking around the room and trying to assess if there was any damage.

"If I knew that, then I wouldn't be needing to ask the others," Nieves pointed out.

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