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A soft chuckle rumbled out of Keventin. “I knew you wanted me, but a little punishment first for trying to steal my wife away, huh?” He groaned softly, tracing his fingers over the scales on her left thigh. “You’re just like the other one. So soft, pliant. Exactly how you should be.”

That was it.

Mer threw herself to the right with all her strength, reversing their positions. She spun onto her knees.

Make every blow count.

She knelt and slammed her knee between his legs. Keventin doubled forward, and she headbutted him, knocking him back into the bed. Mer breathed hard, her pulse hammering in her ears.

A knock sounded at her door. “My lady?” Mazie called, her voice sleepy.

Mer sucked in a full breath ready to scream when Duke Keventin rasped.

“I’ll kill her if you call for help.”

She paused, staring down at the monster in her bed cupping himself, face red. “Who?”

“You know who,” he wheezed. “I didn’t miss the way you looked at that half breed. Her death will be on your hands if you ever speak of this. You will kill Phia.”

“Don’t you dare say her name.” She bared her teeth at him. “If I scream, you will be stripped of your title and hung. Phia and Sienna will be rid of you.”

“My lady?” Mazie’s voice grew louder.

Mer grabbed Keventin by the throat. “Tell me where Phia is.”

“She’s somewhere you’ll never find her.” He smiled at her through his pain. “Do you really think her torment will be over if I die? She’ll cry for death and beg for the pain to stop, but it will never end.”

It wasn’t a choice.

“I’m fine,” she choked out to Mazie. “Just nightmares.”

“I can fetch some warm milk,” the warrior offered through the door.

“I am okay. Go back to bed.” She trembled.

“Okay. Good night, my queen.”

“Good night,” Mer replied, her voice raspy. All she had to do was get this man out of her room and then get to the king. They would find Phia and destroy Keventin.

The duke whispered, “I know what you’re thinking. That perhaps you can get the king to turn against me, but it won’t happen. I’ve heard the stories about you, my queen. The woman who hates the king so much, she tried to kill him on first acquaintance. The woman who wears revealing clothing andflirts with the entire court. The shameless slut who got jealous when a duke showed his wife affection.”

She stared down at the snake who’d slithered his way into her bed, her shaking increasing with each insidious lie. “You know nothing.”

“You might hold a title, but you are nothing. No one would believe a murderous foreigner over a respected member of the gentry.”

She could see how this fight would play out. The king held no love for her, and he needed Keventin. Her gaze darted over his face as the horrid truth dawned. There was nothing she could do.

“Now, get off me.”

Every part of her wanted to kill him.

Think of Phia.

Mer leaned into his face, her wrists chafing from the rough rope. “Mark my words, I’ll kill you one day.”

He grinned, his teeth bloody. “Not before I have you.”

Over my dead body.