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The King touched his mustache in irritation. “You should have reported this to me immediately!”

“You’re out of line! Queen Lucienne reports to no one, and definitely not to your lot,” Kian said coldly. “She’s still your benefactor. The coats you and your guards are wearing are from the queen’s pockets. Don’t provoke her or she will dethrone you.”

The king’s lips thinned. He avoided looking at Kian. “I meant that my subjects—the Furys should have reported to me immediately.”

Clement and Peder told the king in trembling voices that Queen Lucienne’s men found their son half buried in the snow at the feet of the mountains.

“Ashburn the Extra, where is the gods’ magic box you stole?” Prince Felix demanded.

Lucienne watched how Ashburn responded. She knew if he was convicted of stealing the box, the entire Fury family would be executed.

Ashburn answered with his hands shoved into his pocket, “Your Royal Highness has mistaken me as a thief and a criminal, but I’m neither. I’ve never taken anything that’s not mine.”

“If you didn’t steal the magic box, then where did the gods’ light go?” the prince asked.

“Good question, Your Highness,” Ashburn said, his dark brows creasing. “But I do not have the answer you’re seeking. By the way, what does the gods’ magic box look like?”

“You tell me!” the prince shouted.

“Sorry, Your Highness,” Ashburn said. “I’ve never seen one. How can I tell you? It is said only the royal family has seen it.”

“He’s tricking us, Father.” Prince Felix gritted his teeth. “This peasant is playing us!”

“I have no love for games, Your Highness,” Ashburn said.

“You’re the biggest liar I’ve ever known!” Prince Felix pulled out a long leather whip from his belt.

The prince’s whip is as inferior as its owner,Lucienne thought. She sent Kian a look telling him not to interfere. She wouldn’t miss an opportunity to keep testing Ashburn. She needed to know his limits.

Ashburn looked coolly at the whip.

Clement threw herself before Ashburn, crying. “Don’t punish my son, Your Highness. Whip me, please. It’s all my fault.”

Peder knelt. “Don’t hurt my wife and my son, Your Majesty, Your Highness. Please whipmyback. I deserve it.”

Ashburn herded his parents behind him. “Let me handle this. If they dare lay a finger on you—” The veins on his temples jumped. Lucienne noticed black flames forming at Ashburn’s fingertips, the same black lightning emitted by the Eye of Time when it burned her lab during a test.

“The more the merrier.” With a sneer, Prince Felix raised his whip.

Before Ashburn could act, Lucienne cut between the Furys and the prince. In a heartbeat, her steel whip was out. It slashed in an arc, slitting the prince’s whip and leaving only the handle in his hand.

Prince Felix opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. “My whip!”

“Manners, prince,” Lucienne said. Her anger was fueled even more, seeing the image in the malicious brat’s mind. Ashburn’s back was crisscrossedwith whipping scars from previous encounters with the prince.

Her whip pitched in the air with a hiss, yanking a dagger from a guard standing behind the king. Lucienne shook the whip loose and the dagger flapped in midair. Flailing wildly, it could drop on and stab just about anyone in the room.

The king and queen ducked under the table and screamed for their son to follow suit. The guards staggered back toward the door. Lucienne’s warriors remained unmoved.

Prince Felix darted toward the table, but Lucienne tripped him with a leg. Falling backwards on the floor, the prince’s green eyes stared at the dagger plummeting toward his face in absolute terror. He screamed.

The queen joined the screaming.

The king shouted, “My son!” and darted out from under the table. He pushed a guard toward the falling dagger as a human shield, but the guard was too heavy to be thrown on top of the prince.

Peder and Clement looked petrified. Ashburn watched Lucienne with an unreadable expression. When the blade was a mere two feet from the prince’s face, the whip caught it and lifted it sharply. The whip flung the dagger toward a side wall. Its tip pierced the wood frame of a window, its blade shuddering.

Pride and admiration displayed on the face of each and every one of Lucienne’s warriors.