The Traitor Queen

Chapter Thirty-Four

Even though it had only been minutes since Sabre had entered the Sephirans' cottage, it felt like hours. Each moment that she spent in her parent's home had fear surging through my veins. My eyes kept darting between Mace and the cottage, checking to make sure he wasn't evilly grinning at the potential trap he had left for her. Though, every time his face came into my vision, I could only find unease and suspense lurking there.

The next thing my mind landed on to worry about was the fact that the Sephirans might have been in the cottage. If they had sold her and she saw them now, would they even be kind to her? There were so many questions I had for them, as I assumed Sabre did too, but I also wanted to banish them to the Tower for ever thinking of selling her in the first place.

"Are you sure it's just Sabre who can enter?" Auron questioned, the same panic that ran laps through me was present in him too.

"I'm almost certain, though I won't stop you from trying. It would be great entertainment to see you walk into an invisible wall while we wait." Mace smirked as he spun his dagger around his finger, his eyes never leaving the entrance of the cottage.

The weaponsmith frowned and Lorella looked as if she might jump off her horse and try for the sake of proving him wrong. It was strange yet sweet how defensive she was getting over people she had known for only a mere few days.

"Say, prince," Mace began, finally tearing his eyes away from where Sabre had ventured. "Does she know what you've done to us?"

My brows furrowed. "Excuse me?"

A laugh left his lips. "You see, Sabre kept defending you, she kept jumping to your aid to say you've done nothing wrong when I mentioned the fae had done terrible things to Icrodeia. So, naturally, I had to do my research and make sure she was telling the truth."

"What are you trying to get at? Besides a few wandering merchants and you, I haven't even had any interactions with Icrodeians." This had to be a plan of his to weave a seed of distrust amongst my friends. Everything that left his mouth had to be nothing more than lies.

"If you'd let me finish, you'd find out." He scowled. "I dug deep into my kingdom's past and guess what I discovered? You've left quite your mark on us, a large stain of death that can't be erased so easily. Honestly, you're lucky the royal family keeps all their private matters a secret. Otherwise, war would have rained down upon Racaea long ago."

"Stop avoiding the point you're trying to make," Auron demanded. "If you weren't lying, you would have said what Kayne has done already. None of us believe you."

"How do you know all these things anyway?" Lorella questioned, nudging her horse towards Mace. "Who exactly are you to Icrodeia — besides a nuisance of a spy — if you can order the army around and get all of this information as soon as you please?"

Mace raised a singular brow. "So none of you have cared to do your own research on me? No wonder your kingdom is in shambles." He shook his head in dismay. "You need better rulers than the fae."

The contents of my stomach churned as the realisation hit me. We had been so distracted by finding the object that Icrodeia wanted that we hadn't even thought to look into the man threatening us. We were fools.

"You still haven't answered her question," Auron pushed.

The miscreant hummed and turned his eyes to the sky, as if debating what his answer should be. "Let's say I'm an acting lord of Icrodeia. Does that answer you well enough?"

An acting lord? What was that supposed to mean? It was clear he didn't want to give us a straight answer, which was even more concerning.

"What in the forest's name did you mean by what you said about me? That I've left a stain of death in Icrodeia?" I changed the topic. He had to be making it up as I had never even been to Icrodeia before. I couldn't be one of the reasons that they were angry at our kingdom. If I was... No, I wasn't.

"Don't play dumb, princeling. Sabre won't be happy when she finds out, I can almost guarantee you that." His ever-growing smile made me want to claw it off his face.

"And what do you know about Sabre? You don't know her like we do," I retorted, my voice louder than I would have liked it to be.

Mace merely shrugged. "Only time will tell if I'm correct."

It took all my effort to not climb down off my horse and head over to him. He was toying with me, that was all. The rogue was trying to get me worked up so that he could have a source of entertainment. Nothing more. At least, that was what I told myself.

Auron opened his mouth to speak, but stopped when Sabre stepped out of the cottage. Her hair covered part of her face, hiding her features from us. Mace walked as far as he could up to the border, grinning from ear to ear, because in her shaking hands sat a box.

She had the shard.