Page 46 of Cruelest Kiss and Fairest Blood (Tales So Wicked #2)

“I must see my father.” I move around him, slipping through the doorway and into the throne room beyond.

The room is bathed in shadows. Only a quarter of the usual candelabras and sconces have been lit.

My father sits atop his throne, hand in hand with one of the most strikingly beautiful women I’ve ever seen.

Her hair is the color of pure gold. It ripples across her shoulder in long silky ringlets.

Her face is as pale as milk. Delicate features give her an unusually youthful appearance but her posture and aura scream of age and experience.

How old can she be? The softest of sky blues fills her sparkling, cat-like eyes.

She wears a long white gown constructed entirely of lace.

Was that her wedding dress? My freshly mended stomach churns when I spy my mother’s jeweled crown atop her golden head.

Who is this radiant woman and where has she come from? I’ve never seen someone so fair. Even my mother, known to be the fairest in all the lands, pales in comparison to the ethereal star of a woman now sitting the throne. No wonder my father was enraptured with her loveliness.

That still doesn’t explain why he would marry her so quickly after my mother’s death. Especially when she’s a complete stranger.

“Father.” I bow. “I’m so sorry to cause you worry.”

My father sits statuesque. His eyes are glazed over, and a paleness, like a dusting of webs, coats his strong features. His posture is sunken. His beard is unkempt. “Please meet my wife, Catreena.”

My gaze passes between them, landing back on my father. That’s all he has to say? I’ve been missing for four days and he can’t bring himself to ask about my wellbeing before introducing his new bride?

“Aren’t you wondering what happened to me? Or where I’ve been?”

My father grunts before repeating, “Please meet my wife, Catreena.”

What has happened to him? He’s a ghostly shell of his former self. “Father?”

“How happy we are that you have returned safely home. The king was sick with worry. It’s taken quite a toll on him.

” The new queen’s voice is much deeper than I was expecting with a smoky, sultry edge to it.

The voice does not match her youthful appearance, and what is her accent?

She isn’t from around here, that’s for sure.

“What is going on? I need to speak with my father, alone.”

Catreena smiles, but it does not reach her feline eyes. “Later, my dear. Guards!” Several of the guards move away from the wall and into the center of the room. “Please escort the princess to her room so she may rest.”

A guard whose face I’m unfamiliar with wraps a hand around my upper arm.

“You will unhand me! I am the princess.”

He moves away from the throne, dragging me with him. He ignores my protests, barking out a quick, “Walk,” when I stumble.

My eyes lock with Cassius’s weary gaze as I’m hauled past. He steps in front of us. “She needs medical attention. I am happy to escort the princess to the healer.” He extends his arm.

I’m jerked back before I can accept his hand.

A second guard removes his sword from its sheath and points it at Cassius. “You will not interfere with the queen’s orders.”

His eyes darken. “I must insist.”

“Cassius,” Catreena’s sensual voice calls out as she peers out the doorway. “Do return with haste. The king and I are in great need of your company.”

“I was just escorting the princess.”

Catreena waves a hand dismissively. “My guards have her well in hand. Return to me. By the king’s orders.” She reaches out to him. The lust dripping from her bright blue eyes can’t be missed.

Fucking hussy. It’s bad enough she married my father immediately following my mother’s death. Now she has the audacity to throw herself at Cassius. She isn’t even trying to hide it. She extends her palm, beckoning him.

Cassius tosses a grimace my way before accepting her hand. The two of them disappear into the Great Hall.

“Walk,” the guard commands when I’ve lingered too long.

Disbelief has the gossip-lined halls passing in slow motion. I know what I saw and heard, but my brain is finding it impossible to accept the current situation as the truth.

I was lost in the woods for four days and no one came to find me.

Correction, I was lost in the woods and my father would not allow anyone to come and find me.

I could have died out there alone. I did die.

Four days of my body putting itself back together and healing after what must have been severe internal damage and blood loss.

All that time and he wasn’t worried? Not just that, he was courting, celebrating, and marrying a goddamned stranger.

My mother’s body has barely grown cold and he’s already placed another woman on her throne.

What the fuck is going on?

Where are the outraged cries and questioning glares from the rest of the court? I didn’t recognize a single person on my way into the throne room. Even the servants are few and far between. Where is everyone?

I’m shoved into my room. That’s a first. The guard doesn’t say a word as he slams the door. I’ve never been treated so roughly by any of the guards. Surely Gestin wouldn’t allow them to act in such a manner. My men, not hers. That’s what he said. The queen has her own guards here in the castle.

A slender strip in the oversized emerald and cream rug that dominates my bedroom floor flattens beneath the repetitive path of my pacing. My mind hasn’t stopped spinning since I was banished to my room.

When the door swings wide, I’m greeted by one of the only faces that could lift my spirits under these circumstances.

“I knew ye weren’t dead!” Melly rushes me. She leans in for a hug but stops herself. “Lord, though, you smell like death. What’s this on your dress? Animal guts? We need to get you in the bath and burn these garments for good.”

“My father is married.” My voice comes out surprisingly quiet considering the maelstrom of frustration and outrage swimming through my veins.

“Aye, he is.” Melly looks as if she wants to say more. Her uneasy gaze shifts to the door.

“What is it?” I move in closer, taking her in my confidence so that no guards will hear our words.

“Such a strange week. First, yer mother. Then this new queen arrives.” Melly rubs her fingers across her forehead.

“Where did she come from?”

“The stable boys said a carriage arrived in the dead of night. How she got into the castle and what she did next are a mystery. None of the guards on duty that eve ’ave been seen again.” I’ve never seen Melly so rattled.

“No one knows who she is?”

“No one cares. Yer father announced their engagement the following morning. She is the Queen of Roseheart. None can question ’er now.”

“But my father, he is changed.” I can’t even put his strangeness into words.

“A sickness or some spell. The king is a ghost on the arm of the golden queen.”

Her words are like claws scraping against the sadness I’m trying to hold in. My eyes sting as I fight back tears. “I don’t know what to do.”

“We must find a way to protect ourselves from everything.” She shudders, eyes dropping to the floor.

“What have you not told me?”

Melly wrings her skirts, sighing. “The servants have been going missing. Delia, Beatrice, and Tabitha, all gone.”

“They’ve run off?” The three are slightly younger than Melly and I.

“Sienna swears she ’eard a scream from Tabitha’s room the night she disappeared. She ran to check on ’er but the room was empty.”

“Foul play?” It’s not completely unheard of for a servant girl to run off with some newfound love. Three girls in this short amount of time cannot be coincidence.

“I don’t know for sure, but there are other sounds, unnatural sounds and screams in the night from somewhere in the castle.”

A chill skitters down my spine. Her words strike fear in me. My thoughts drift to Harrow. What I wouldn’t give for him to appear now and comfort me. He would be able to get to the bottom of the frightening sounds and missing girls.

Melly helps me to bathe and dress. We remain quiet throughout the rest of our routine.

Fatigue sends me to bed while the sun is still up.

Death really takes its toll. I invite Melly to stay in my room that night.

It’s a risk to have someone else present if Harrow shows up, but then again, maybe she would believe me of his existence if he did.

And anyway, I won’t have Melly vanishing while I’m asleep.

My room is the safest in the castle. At least, it always was before.