would be moving the army at full speed toward us, so if I just kept moving toward them we were bound to meet up at some point.
“You’ll never get the gate open,” a dry voice announced from behind me. “The bar across it takes three of the empress’s strongest guards to move. You’ll not be able to lift it.”
I straightened up, turning to face a young man with messy black hair and broad shoulders. He looked like he was only a few years older than me. He stood in front of me with his hands shoved in the pockets of his dirt- smudged black trousers.
“Go away.” I looked from side to side, staring at the guards who had all turned to stare at us. I guess they
“If you somehow got past all of us, you could try to climb the wall.” He looked up and narrowed his eyes at the top of the wall. “But it’s been sanded smooth so getting up will be difficult. Even if you did manage to make it to the top, it’s covered in broken glass so there’s no real solution there, either. Not to mention the thirty-foot drop on the other side with nothing but rocks to break your fall.”
“So what do you suggest then?” I asked sarcastically.
“Suggest?” He stepped closer, peering down at me. The sides of his mouth flickered upward, but his eyes were cold, filled with hate.
“Since I can’t open the gate and I can’t climb the wall, what do you think I should do? Just give up? Let my aunt take my throne? Get down on my knees and beg? That isn’t going to happen.”
He reached out for me, and I stepped back, pulling my sword from its scabbard and pointing it at him. “I won’t surrender to her. Or anyone else for that matter.”
“You should put that down before someone gets hurt,” he said, his voice low and even.
“Come closer to me and someone will.” I backed toward the door, putting it at my back so that no one could sneak up behind me.
“I doubt it.” He stepped closer again, and I jabbed the sword out slightly, trying to ignore the way the tip was shaking.
“I will hurt you,” I said quietly. “And anyone else who gets in my way.”
“No, you won’t.” He turned to look at the rest of the guards who’d made a semicircle behind him, forcing me back against the heavy wooden gate.
“I will,” I swore, twisting my head side to side, desperately looking for some way to escape. “I’ve done it before. I’ve fought in battle, killed my enemies.”
“I’m sure you have.” He stepped closer, and I watched as my sword point trembled. “But you’ve never killed anyone in cold blood. Now come with me.”
I steeled my expression. “Why?”
“Because if you don’t come willingly, we’ll drag you back into the palace by force. At least this way you can keep your dignity. Even if you are as soaked as a river nymph.”
“I’m being held hostage here,” I said angrily. “There’s no dignity in that.”
He stepped closer still, the tip of my sword now nestled underneath his chin, and I could feel my hands shake even harder. “Really? Then do it. Prove that you’re some sort of warrior queen. Reclaim your dignity.”
“W-w-w-what?” I turned to stare at the soldiers who had crowded in three-deep behind him, all of them staring at me.
“Kill me.” He grabbed the back of my sword blade and positioned it so that the sharpened edge pressed against his neck and the tip of the sword dug into the skin. “It’s easy. Just push.” He let go of the sword and leaned against the tip. “Do it.”
He grabbed my wrists in one hand and then jerked my sword out of my still-quivering hands. “They should have taken this from you the minute you arrived.” He tossed the sword to the side, into the dirt, and jerked me closer so that we were almost nose to nose. “They think these walls will keep you in, but I know better. I know that you won’t be broken that easily.”
“You’ll never break me,” I spat. “Not even if you locked me in the Bleak, chained to a rock and gift wrapped for Kuolema himself.”
“Oh, really?” He raised an eyebrow at me. “Maybe we should open the Bleak and try it, see if you’re all talk.”
“Go ahead.” I gritted my teeth and glared at him.
He pulled a pair of heavy metal shackles out of his pocket and grinned at me. He fitted the cuffs around my wrists and then stepped back, looping his finger through the chain and tugging at my wrists. “You’re brave enough, I’ll give you that. Even if you are just a queen.”
“I’m a queen whose army is marching here to burn your country to the ground.”
“Then you’re a foolish queen, at that. The Palace of Night has never fallen, and when your army is destroyed, we will break you. By the time the empress has finished, you’ll be begging to spend your eternity with Kuolema munching on your bones.”
“You haven’t seen my army.”
“I don’t need to.” He smiled at me again. “I’ve seen the monsters our wizards can create, and no one can defeat them. Not even a stupid queen and her toy army.”
“There’s a first time for everything,” I snapped.
“There is.” He pulled me forward by the chain of my shackles so that we were almost pressed against each other, his hot, rancid breath wafting across my face. “But I suspect today is not that day, Your Majesty.”
“I think you might be surprised,” I retorted. “And just so you know, when my boyfriend gets here, you’re going to wish I had killed you.”
“Oh, come now, Your Rosiness.” He chuckled as he began pulling me toward the castle, the other guards stepping aside, chuckling and leering as we passed them. “We’re going to be seeing a lot of each other. We might as well be friends. Make the best of things, as they say in your world.”
“I’ve been kidnapped by an enemy queen, and I’m being guarded by a jerk with serious dog breath and his bunch of idiots. There’s not a whole lot to make the best of here.”
“Oh.” He turned and clutched his free hand to his chest before rolling his eyes at me. “You wound me. And to think I was going to do you a favor.”
“What?” I asked warily. “Are you going to throw me out another window? Been there, rode that ride, didn’t like it enough to buy the T-shirt.”
“You’ll see.”
“Tell me,” I demanded, trying to sound more confident than I actually was considering I was being held hostage and stuck in a pair of handcuffs.
“You’ll see,” he repeated as he half led, half dragged me to a narrow set of stairs carved into a stone wall and began to climb. “Come along now.”
“No.” I tried to dig my heels in, knowing that fighting him was futile but refusing to give in.
“Stop it.” He jerked me forward hard enough to rattle my teeth. “I will carry you if you force me, and the drop is much less forgiving here than it is from above the pool.”
“I don’t care,” I bluffed, thinking about what Talia had told me a few moments before. Let him drop me off the side of a castle. They’d all be in for a shock once they realized I was still alive—probably paralyzed with all my bones broken, true, but still alive.
“Don’t be that way.” He grabbed me around the waist and hoisted me against his side, dragging me up the stairs like that instead. “What I have planned for you really is a lovely surprise.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you’re just brimming with lovely surprises.”
“I could be,” he said as he stopped at the next floor and dragged me down the corridor to a black wooden door at the end. It had a heavy metal padlock hanging off it. He ran his hand over the lock, and I heard it
“My name is Queen Alicia Munroe, first of my name, and by the grace of the Pleiades the Golden Rose of Nerissette.” I sneered at him as I finished.
“And I’m Mikhail, Hound of the blue brujahs clan. If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ring the bell so I can be sure to come running.” He tightened his grip on my waist and started to pull me into the room.
