Rowan smirked. “All men are the same. We do what needs to be done, just as the women should, without second guessing ourselves, without question. You have that responsibility running through your very blood.”
Katryna struck Rowan with an open palm. The slap echoed around the stone room, exacerbated by the ensuing silence.
“My lady! You cannot do such things!” Jerrem Denar said.
“Don’t you ever use me like that again, do you hear me?” Katryna demanded, as a red handprint appeared on Rowan’s cheek.
Rowan wiped his mouth with his hand before uppercutting Katryna straight in the jaw. The sudden impact threw her backwards into the door, her brown hair flying over her face. She felt warm blood flow from her torn gums.
Finn pushed his brother away from Katryna, shouting at him to stop. Katryna’s head began to spin, and everything sounded muffled for a few moments, like she was underwater.
Rowan began to shout at Katryna as Finn held him back. “If you ever do something so stupid to me again, I will have that pretty little head of yours removed from your shoulders and hung up over Castle Bower, do I make myself clear?! I will be king soon, and you have no right to strike me!”
Katryna did not utter a single word. She stormed out from the room, holding her aching face. The pain was immense.
Finn promptly followed Katryna out of the royal physician’s quarters. “Kat, wait. Are you alright?”
“Our brother is reckless and dangerous. Worse still, he is a fool.” Katryna said, walking fiercely through the castle’s hallways with her brother by her side. She needed to get as far away from his as she could.
“Kat, you really should not have hit him.”
Katryna stopped and stared into her brother’s eyes. “I will not stand by and let him get away with such selfish and hurtful things, Finn! I tried playing nice, I tried making amends. I tried to establish a common cause for us to work towards, and he repays me with…with…”
“Politics, Kat. It’s just politics.” Finn looked so innocent as he spoke.
Katryna realised that her brother was still so young, so naïve to the harsh reality of the world he was growing into. All he wanted was for everything to be alright.
“I am not for sale, Finn. I am not some prize sow. I am a human being. I am not up for bartering.”
Finn nodded, smiling proudly at his sister’s strength. “You still should not have hit him, though.”
Katryna pulled her hair out of her face, wiping another spot of blood from her mouth. “Rowan forgets that while father is still breathing, I am queen regent of Camridia.”
“You what?” Finn said. “But you are…”
“A woman?” Katryna interjected. “Do you not remember your studies of Camridian law, Finn? The responsibility of regent falls to the oldest child of the crownbearer until their death, not the oldest son. It only came to me just today.”
Finn considered what Katryna said, appearing gobsmacked and confused. “So why not tell Rowan that? Why let him continue thinking he is in charge?”
“Because I wanted to see how he acts when he thinks he is in control, with no consequences to be had. And now I know. I know I cannot trust him. It seems I am learning more and more about who our brother is.”
Finn stopped Katryna in the middle of the well-lit hallway where they stood alone. Her statement was sounding accusatory.
“What are you saying, Kat?”
Katryna took a deep breath in but didn’t hesitate to spill her thoughts to her younger brother. “I think Rowan poisoned mother and father.”
Finn snorted in disbelief. “No, there’s no way.”
“Think about it for a moment.” Katryna was careful to lay down her thoughts, and keep her voice hushed so that no one in the castle heard what she said. “Who stands to gain the most from the death of mother and father?”
Finn rubbed the back of his head nervously. “Rowan does. He would become king.”
“Who had access to mother and father?” Katryna asked.
“Anybody within the bailey walls these past few weeks could have had access to them, Kat. We employ hundreds of servants, handmaidens, cooks, butlers, stable boys.”
“Right, but Rowan has no restrictions when it comes to accessing mother and father. He could have planned for them to be poisoned quite easily and paid someone off to do it.”
Finn did not look all that convinced. His eyes pointed down to his shoes as he considered the new information.
Katryna continued. “Then I learn from the Emberian diplomats that Rowan convinced father to marry me to Prince Tesh, as a means of fostering stronger relations between our kingdoms. It seems to me like he is trying to plan one step ahead, for when he becomes king. And need I remind you where Rowan was while father lay on his deathbed? Out hunting!”
Finn looked away, as if realising something. Katryna caught him doing it and stared straight at him.
“What? What is it?”
Finn bit his lip and fidgeted. “I did as you asked. I questioned Jerrem Denar about the poison used on mother and father, just before.”
“And?”
Finn looked away again. “After some prodding, he told me that he thinks he might know what poison it was. But… he appeared nervous, like he was worried about something. He was shaky, lowered his voice, and perspiring. Well, more than usual. And then Rowan stepped in, right before you arrived at his quarters. Jerrem Denar became silent as a grave from then on. I don’t think he wanted Rowan hearing what he had to say.”
That is strange.
“If Rowan is responsible for this, we need to act quickly, before he strikes again. I fear he
