"Tis welcome:

For know, whether I am doomed to live or die, I can do both like a prince.

What should I name't, unless a hollow bullet Filled with unquenchable wildfire?

My heart is turned to a heavy lump of lead, With which I sound my danger.

Man, like to cassia, is proved best, being bruised."

—From The Duchess of Malfi

By John Webster

HOLLY WATCHED AS JOVANA DUSANG'S hand gripped the feather quill, and was it only her imagination, or was the queen's hand trembling? Across from her at a table long enough to seat twelve people, sat Kaiden. The crown of thorns that usually sat on his reddish curls now sat on Jovana Dusang's dark hair, which had been twisted into a coronet. Was it a crown, or a shackle?

The faint groan and creak of steps alerted her to a visitor, and her hand fell to her dagger, her feet and hips shifting into a defensive stance.

Kaiden raised an eyebrow at her. She mouthed, who's there?

Had he invited someone else other than the ten councillors who had to be present for any treaty to be signed? She frowned when he shook his head and shrugged, two clear indications that they knew the same things about who could be heading up the stairs to the tower room. The council room that sat at the top of a tower was sparsely decorated as always, but it felt full. Too full. Too many variables, too many possibilities for danger to occur and attacks to happen.

The door creaked open before slamming shut behind Nadia Thorne, the hem of a high-necked green gown swirling around her booted feet. Why she was wearing such warm clothes for the unseasonably scorching climate, Holly had her suspicions. The way she eyed Jovana Dusang and her presence at the table confirmed those silent allegations.

Carlyle Lambert or Alastair Durand or whatever his name was, put a hand on his queen's shoulder, the look they shared filled with too many secrets to comprehend.

"Hello, son," she said as she sidestepped Holly like she did not exist, making the younger woman stiffen. "Did you forget to consult me before you made such reckless, foolhardy decisions?"

Kaiden, to his credit, neither paled nor looked surprised at his mother's appearance. "Mother. Please, have a seat."

The number of seats was limited. Kaiden's cousin, Victor, quickly vacated his chair and swept a hand to indicate that Nadia Thorne was welcome to it. She shook her head. "I won't be staying long."

"What did you come for, then?" Kaiden asked. "You have interrupted the signing of a very important treaty--"

Nadia marched toward her son's seat and snatched the parchment from his hands, reading the lines of text before rending it in two with a shredding noise. One or two council members gasped; others clapped.

"A treaty that would relegate you from king to mere governor," said Nadia Thorne, her green eyes fixed intently on her son's. "A treaty that would give that woman far more power than any ruler should have!"

"Why, did you dream of having it first?" Kaiden snapped, attempting to take the shredded pieces from his mother's hands. She responded by crumpling them up and throwing them out of the gaps between the pillars of the tower room.

A strong wind blustered through the circular room, billowing curtains and ruffling clothing and hair.

"You know nothing of my plans," Nadia said, having recollected herself. Her hands were folded primly in front of her, half-buried in her skirts, her chin level as she stood head-to-head with her son.

"I have an idea," he spat back. "Why else would you be visiting the Lord Regent of Mordania?"

"I was going there to implore Ilyas to talk some sense into her!" Nadia said, pointing a gold-ringed finger at Jovana Dusang. Well, it explained the attire.

"You call the Lord Regent by his first name?" Kaiden asked. "That seems awfully suspicious to me."

"All you have is mere suspicion, my son." Nadia's red lips curved into a cruel smile. "You can do nothing to me on mere suspicion."

"I am still the king," he said. "Thanks to this treaty that you have just ripped to shreds. And I will do with you, the subject of my realm, as you wish."

Kaiden snapped his fingers. "I want my mother confined to her chambers until I say otherwise. No one enters or leaves the palace without my permission. Is that clear?"

The councillors saluted and affirmed this, though she thought she saw a great deal of reluctance in more than a few pairs of eyes at this motion.

No one liked to betray their old rulers, their old masters, for a new and untried king. She would have to watch Kaiden's back even more intensely than she already did. Her jaw threatened to unhinge from a yawn that already spoke of too many sleepless nights as she watched the councillors clear out of the tower room until it was empty of everyone except Kaiden, Jovana, and Alastair.

Jovana Dusang shoved her chair back from the table, the legs screeching against the stone floor. Her cheeks were flushed as she spoke. "You told me that the council had agreed, Kaiden."

The informality of this scene struck her as both absurd and unprofessional. What is it normal to be so chummy with one's enemies? Especially when one's enemies were on the verge of taking over one's country?

"No, you're mistaken," he said. "I said the council was stunned into silence, not into an agreement."

As she watched the scene, she understood the reason that Kaiden had wanted Jovana to be the queen of Atla, Holly really did. She knew that he had wanted who would need him. A ruler who would be ill-versed in the ways of the Atlan court and someone whose support from the people would be tenuous at best. That way, he could still wield some modicum of power from behind the scenes, while abdicating the throne for them to marry at the same time.

But she had to question how it would end. In flames, with them traipsing too close to the fire? Or with all of them drowned in a pool of blood, dead from tempting too many important and dangerous people, his mother included?

"If you don't want to be king, why does it seem like you are fighting so hard to keep me from being queen?" Jovana demanded, folding her arms across her chest. Next to her, her guard was scanning the room, silent and stoic with his hand on the pommel of his sword.

"Perhaps you have been... excluded from the realm of ruling for the past decade or so," Kaiden said, fiddling with the quill in his hand, looking for all the world like a lazy, bored prince perched atop his throne, viewing the whole court as his playthings. "But in Atla, it is not so easy to become the next ruler simply by winning a fight. There are people to be won over. The common people will not so easily accept a foreign queen, nor will they accept one who does not have a drop of Atlan magic."

The blood drained from Jovana Dusang's face. "Excuse me?"

"I saw you during the fight." Kaiden dropped the quill onto the table with a low thunk. "The two of you. He lent you his magic. Your magic isn't your own - it's your mate's."

Mates? Holly kept her mouth from dropping open at the word. They had no mates in Atla. The poor married whomever they wanted. The wealthy and powerful married off their children for more wealth and power. There was nothing so barbaric or primitive as mates here.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Kaiden, but I would advise you to stop talking about it." Alastair twirled a dagger in one hand, his blue eyes ice-cold.

"Oh, I think you know exactly what I mean," Kaiden said.

"The lot of you, stop fighting." Her ears pricked as she heard heavy footsteps on the steps. "Someone is coming."

All of them put their hands on their weapons. Kaiden stood not in front of her or behind her, but as if to cement that they were equals, he stood at her side.

The four of them watched as the door was flung open and Ilyas Durand, Lord Regent of Mordania, stood on the doorstep.

"Well?" His words were directed toward Jovana. "Aren't you going to welcome me to your new court?"