“I’ve made no plans to address anyone today.” The guard looked back at him, dumbstruck, uncertain, and fearful. Magnus waved him off. “Go,” he snapped, and the uniformed boy scurried off.
The two bottles of wine had taken their toll. His vision blurry, Magnus wended his way through the crowd, studying faces that looked eager and flushed with excitement.
This was Cleo’s doing. She was going warn to everyone about the Kraeshian attack, which she herself had orchestrated.
How long did she plan to play this game?
The crowd quickly swelled to several hundred. Magnus continued to scan the scene around him, noticing that not a single person present gave him even a second look. Surely none of them were expecting to see the crown prince milling about the commoners, especially not with breath that stank of wine.
Suddenly, the boisterous activity in the square quieted to a sudden collective hush. Magnus looked up, following the crowd’s gazes, to see Cleo, standing on the balcony overlooking the square.
“Welcome, welcome to you all,” she began, her voice strong and confident. “And please accept my sincerest gratitude for sacrificing your time and duties to come here and listen to this important announcement.”
Magnus felt his head go hot, his blood begin to boil.
He watched her put on a calm smile as she waited for the crowd’s cheers to cease. “The last time I stood here was during my wedding tour, a ceremony to introduce me to everyone across Mytica as the wife of Prince Magnus, heir to the throne of his father, King Gaius. I’m sure many of you were here that day to hear the prince’s speech, his claim that our union was one of choice. That we began as enemies and ended up two people in love, who wanted to spend the rest of their lives together.”
Cleo paused and looked out at her audience, who appeared to collectively lean forward breathlessly as they waited for her to continue.
“This was a lie.” Gasps and chatter began to spread through the crowd like a plague, and Magnus gritted his teeth. Cleo went on, and once again the people grew quiet. “King Gaius murdered my father and stole his throne. He spared my life only because he saw me as a way to ease his way into his reign. By marrying me to his son, he would show the people that I had accepted the Damoras as my new family, just as the Auranian citizens were expected to accept King Gaius as their new leader.
“Ours is a marriage into which I was forced by threat of death, and all I could do was wait and hope for a chance to change my situation. And hold on to the hope that I could one day reclaim my throne.”
Magnus stared up at her, utterly astonished. She meant to overthrow him right here and now.
“I know that Limerians have endured years of fear,” Cleo said solemnly. “Ever since your kind and benevolent King Davidus died, and was replaced by his cruel and sadistic son, Gaius. You have lived under his dark shadow ever since, and now Paelsia and Auranos have had to endure the cruelties of this King of Blood as well.
“I’ve gathered you all here today to tell you that that the king is in collusion with Princess Amara of Kraeshia. He has given Mytica—and therefore, all of you—over to the empire. They are sailing to our shores as we speak. We are now at risk of imminent occupation by Kraeshian forces.”
uld finally be time for him to answer for his crime of treason, and he would soon understand fully why his father was known as the King of Blood. Magnus didn’t expect any mercy.
And he swore to himself that he wouldn’t beg for it.
During his sleepless night, Magnus had given a great deal of thought to the messages he’d received from Kraeshia. Something about his current situation felt desperately wrong, had left him with a sour taste in his mouth that he couldn’t get rid of.
Both of the messages had been written by and sent from rebels—rebels who knew one another, had worked together in the past.
Felix Graebas had sent along a swatch of his own skin to prove he’d shifted loyalties from the Clan to the rebels. But why should Magnus believe that it really was his tattoo, his skin? And what kind of coincidence was it that Felix had sent his message just as his compatriot Jonas arrived at the palace?
And then there was the message from Jonas that arrived last night, warning of imminent danger, striking dark fear into Magnus’s heart.
A stark realization stole his breath.
Even now Cleo was working against him, with both Felix and Jonas.
Despite all her pretty words, all her pleas for him to believe her—pleas he’d started to believe—Cleo still thought of him as her enemy, an obstacle she needed to eliminate.
Of course. King Gaius would never be so stupid as to align with someone like Amara. The king knew what a deceptive creature she could be, that she was a sly manipulator, almost as skilled as Cleiona Bellos herself.
The sick feeling that had settled in his stomach lurched once more as he stumbled over a possibility he’d tossed aside the night before: that Cleo might be aligned with Amara.
They could have been working together from the very beginning, from the second Amara first set foot on Mytican soil.
Head spinning and in a daze, Magnus made his way to the Ouroboros. The familiar owner raised his bushy eyebrows high as Magnus pushed through the door.
“Food,” Magnus barked. “And a bottle of Paelsian wine. Now.”
“Yes, your highness,” he said, this time making no efforts to deny that he had alcohol on hand.