Page 142 of Blackheart

Lord Regby let out a deep chuckle.

For once, Lady Jocelynn did not intervene. She sat with her arms crossed, as if she’d already warned someone this was a terrible idea. I was their punishment, and she had no intention of stopping me.

Riven’s shoulders were stiff, and his eyes dark. “You sent me to watch her for three years, with orders to bring her if Clarke were to fall, or if told otherwise. It made no sense to send Lord Ansel. His show of being a Witchlord was unnecessary and now confusing for the princess.”

Ansel chuckled darkly. “Oh, you did more than watch her, Oathkeeper.”

My face flared with heat.

“He escorted me across the Sea of Blades!” I shouted. “Don’t insult him.”

His light blue eyes twinkled. “If I’d have known that escorting you included orgasms, maybe I would’ve followed through with bringing you myself.”

“Your claims are outrageous!” I exclaimed, embarrassed and enraged. How would he know about us? Surely Riven hadn’t told anyone.

Ansel held his hand up. My orb snapped out of my grip, flying through the air and into his palm. “I didn’t take you for a shameful liar, Blackheart. I made this orb. I can see through it, anywhere, at any time.”

“Enough,” Xavian warned, dagger in hand.

Lady Jocelynn scoffed. “Oh please, Ansel. We all know what you’ve been doing lately. Don’t act so sentimental about your betrothal now.”

Avan grinned. “Yeahhhh, sleeping with the queen is brutal work, man.”

“You’ve been fucking Delaina?” I hissed.

The man I was intended to marry had his dick tainted by the wretched queen?

“For Fate’s sake,” Riven said under his breath.

Arthur Pos was equally revolted as he was alarmed.

Xavian, at his wits' end, lit a smoke.

“It was an inside job,” Ansel said, leaning back in his chair.

“Well, rumor has it, you went thoroughly inside.” Avan nodded in cheers.

Ansel waved away a pipe Avan offered. “I needed to know her plans. I attempted unraveling Princess Clayvarie’s dream as well during my time in Lyonsreach, but she’s deeply entwined in the Blackheart nightmare. We’ll have to retrieve her at some point to continue my work here. Just don’t sendthat oneto do it,” Ansel said, gesturing to Riven snidely.

Riven was lethally quiet.

“What are the queen’s plans, then?” Lord Draven asked, adjusting the cuff on his velvet button up.

Everyone quieted. Whatever her plans were, they surely included the worst possible outcome for Blackhearts. There would be no mercy for even the innocent if they shared the same Nature as the man who had poisoned Princess Clayvarie.

Ansel pulled out a scroll and unrolled it onto the table. It was a map of Drakington.

“Cutting off Castivian taxes from her vaults has left her in need of money. She made a fool’s deal with Saffron. At the end of spring, she’s set to sell the Dark Natured of the Southern Waywards to the Sapphires. They’re preparing ‘camps’ in Lestivia as we speak.”

Delaina was a sick bitch. I had known whatever she was planning would be horrible, but selling innocent people, including children, to bloodthirsty thieves was disgraceful.

“And she thinks Saffron will leave her be after this?” Xavian asked, shaking his head.

“She’s convinced they can be business partners,” Ansel replied.

Poison dripped from my gloved palm onto the table. Those were people, not livestock.

“Saffron will not stop,” I said, balling my fists in my lap to try to contain the poison. “His son said so himself. He will not be satisfied until he’s king of the three kingdoms, or dead.”