Page 116 of A Monarch's Fall

“Percy?” she said, but I didn’t respond.

Her thumbs wiped the tears rolling down my cheeks away.

“Percy, pet, look at me,” she commanded, and I shook my head in refusal. “Percy, do as I say, now,” she instructed, her voice still forgiving, but the softness gone.

I opened my eyes, and she smiled reassuringly.

“I know you are so very scared,” she said, and I noticed her nostrils flare ever so slightly as she scented the air. “I do not know what you have experienced, but you are safe with me, I promise.”

“Like I was safe in Ardens?” I asked, and I wanted to cut out my own tongue for being the cause of the shame that flashed across her face.

“Percy,” she pleaded.

“I want to go home. I don’t want to be here with you anymore,” I said, finding my voice.

I hated myself. I hated everything I was. I was nothing but death and pain. Death magic, death to everyone around me. Even with my birth, I had killed my own mother. I didn’t deserve to be loved or cared for. I didn’t deserve Selene. The King was right; I had taken everything from her.

“You don’t mean that,” Selene said, her tone strong but still forgiving, like she was talking to a toddler during a tantrum.

“I do mean it. I can’t be with you anymore,” I said.

“Enough of that, Percy. You don’t know what you’re saying,” she warned.

“I’m not a child. I can make my own choices. I don’t want to be with you,” I said defiantly. The collar of my top was damp and sticking to my neck, with all my tears, and it felt like I was being strangled, even my clothing disapproving of what I was speaking.

“Percy,” Selene growled, a mixture of frustration and desperation.

“Selene, I know it is hard to hear, but perhaps you should listen to the girl,” the King said.

Selene’s face twisted in anger, and she snapped her head in the direction of her father. He held his hands up, it felt almost mockingly.

“I’m only suggesting that you hear her out, think about what is best for everyone. What place does she have here amongst us? What are you risking by insisting upon keeping her, against her will, no less? Vladimir recently approached me with a marriage offer from House Obscurum: his younger brother, Yaroslav. Such a union would further cement House Borealis and Obscurum’s ties of friendship and marriage and help to strengthen our position and your image within the northern Houses,” the King suggested.

Selene hissed.

Her lips pulled back over her teeth, fangs descended, and she hissed so fiercely that I was shocked, frozen with fear.

I had never seen Selene behave in such a way before, not even with Rylan when her protective instincts had taken hold after my novel ability had first shown itself.

The King stepped back, and this time his raised hands did not seem mocking.

“Selene, I remind you that I am your father and King,” he said sternly, his voice even.

Selene’s hiss changed to a low, infuriated growl that I could feel in my bones.

“Mine.” She took hold of my wrist and dragged me off balance and into her side. “She stays with me. Always. No one will ever take her again!” She ground out, in a voice that barely sounded like herself, each word growled out instead of spoken.

“I am not trying to take her from you. I was merely suggesting that you consider your options. The girl herself has asked to go home,” he insisted.

Suddenly, I was under the scrutiny of glowing silver, and her hold on my wrist became painfully tight.

“You will stay with me,” she instructed and turned swiftly back to the King. “I will not marry Yaroslav, regardless of what promises you may have made on my behalf. You woulddo well in future to find better partners to conspire with than a womanising, pompous, narcissistic fool, such as Vladimir of Obscurum,” she said, her tone derisive and angry, and I knew I was missing some key piece of knowledge with the way the King looked at Selene before his eyes narrowed.

“You will do as I tell you to do. You are not Queen yet. You are my daughter, and you will start acting like it,” he replied, his own anger rumbling in his chest.

Selene pulled me behind her.

“Or what? You’re hardly a king anymore. A frail, weak-minded, naïve old man, but no king.”