Glint (The Plated Prisoner 2)

“I’m only loyal to myself.” Her tone holds no guilt, no shame. But can I really blame her? In this world, giving loyalty to anyone other than yourself is dangerous.

“I don’t want to have to tell your secret, Auren. But I will do whatever it takes to gain my own freedom.”

With the look of unrelenting determination on her face, I have no doubt in my mind that she means it. She will do whatever it takes, and despite the fact that it puts me in a horrible position, I find that I’m not angry at her. I want to help her.

I just hope it doesn’t come back to bite me.

“Fine,” I finally relent, and Rissa’s sharp inhale reveals just how much she was hanging on my answer. “Don’t breathe a word of this, to anyone, and I’ll get you your gold. One payment. Enough to buy your freedom and start fresh. Nothing more.”

“When?” she asks, eyes alight with impatience.

My mind whirls, trying to think of what I can do, how to do it. No one can know. Especially not Midas.

“I can’t turn anything gold now. When we’re back with King Midas, I can do it then.”

“Why? You need to touch him to recharge?” she asks with a coy tilt of her head, fishing for more information.

I give her a flat look. “When we get to Fifth Kingdom, Rissa. That’s the best I can do. Take it or leave it.”

Two beats pass between us, and then she nods. “Deal.”

We walk back to the front of the tent in silence, passing the guards one last time.

“Time’s up,” Lu tells me.

“We’re done,” Rissa assures her with a friendly smile.

But that smile fades when she stops quickly in front of the flaps, nearly causing me to run into her. I jerk to a halt, blinking at her in surprise.

Her voice drops quieter again, and she pins me with a fierce look. “As soon as we get to Fifth.”

I nod warily.

I can tell she’s reading my expression, my body language, weighing my words, double checking that my promise is sincere. She’s close enough that I can feel her breath on my cheek, her own face lit up from the campfire beside us.

“Don’t go back on your word, Auren,” she murmurs to me, a dangerous fire in her voice—one that I helped to spark. “If you do, I’ll make a better deal with someone else.”

She turns and slips into the tent without another word, leaving me in the snow, stuck to sweat in the middle of her promised threat, wondering which of us will end up burned.

Chapter 18

QUEEN MALINA

The atrium is my least favorite room in the entire castle.

I liked it here once. When it was full of the plants that my mother tended, when the air was brimming with soil and flowers and life.

Now, it’s a tomb.

Hundreds of plants, all dead, all stuck inside their gilded caskets. With the open dome ceiling made entirely of glass windows, there’s no escape from the gleam as the gray, cloudy daylight filters in.

Every plant I walk by is a memory.

My mother’s fingernails lined with soil, her smile when she placed shears in my hand. The way she hummed as she walked, aisle by aisle, watering every rosebush and sprout.

I loved it then. Now, it makes my skin crawl.

Of course, as the ruling queen,