[2] WEEPING MONK║you're not what I was looking for

67| The Eve of War - 𝐈𝐈

Last time that they had met, she had needed his army. But not any more. She sat straight in Dusty's saddle yet still relaxed, unperturbed. These were to be rightfully her lands in which he stood on.

"You have one minute of my time, Uther," Ari declared, "before I decide to kill you where you sit." His guards moved to grip their sword hilts. "Do not think about it," Ari bit at them. She was not in the mood for playing games tonight.

"Your king came to me," she said, levelling Uther's eye as many hands reluctantly retreated to their reins. "Speak."

Uther reared his head and squared his shoulders, another meek effort for authority.

"You did not respond to the letter which I sent for you when we last met," he said, voice like honey. Ari didn't trust it one bit.

"Did that hurt your feelings?" Her lips met in a tiny pout.

Henry snickered from atop his horse a few lengths over.

Uther's mouth curved despite her condescension, but Ari could see the vexation in his eyes. Like a child who'd been told 'no'. She wanted to get under his skin, to crawl there like spiders and make him itch.

With no barriers to deflect the breeze, the cold air stung Ari's skin on her cheeks. It was clear that Uther had a reason for being here, she suspected without any Paladin's knowledge, and she was going to get it or leave. With or without his head.

"You aligned with the wrong side, Uther," she said. Cutting to the point. "What do you want?"

"The Red Paladins are out of control," he answered a terse moment later.

"You started this war," Ari reminded him. "You allowed them to scourge the kingdom."

"And nothing good has come of it!" Uther barked. "People are starving. Crop fields are destroyed."

A scoff flew passed Ari's lips. When had he ever cared for the people in this kingdom before now?

"Your land is in ruins and you allowed it," she said sternly.

"Carden was a bastard who worked his way into my ear." Uther rolled his eyes, the action spitting fire into Ari's blood. "I was young and naive and I regret ever allowing him to do so." Though his remorse was unconvincing. The human king had backed himself into a corner and he knew it.

Nervous whinnies broke out and rippled through from the farthest rank of Uther's men. Hooves started to pat upon the ground. Uther's own horse even began to dance.

"What is happening?" he looked wide-eyed all around him.

Ari's lips tugged at the slight quiver in Uther's voice, unabashed in letting her smugness show as Nyra crept out of the hazy shadows behind his men. Her hulking body stalked towards his guard and Ari knew the moment Uther noted the creature. His fists turned white around his reins, the same ghostliness which his face drained to be.

The queen's riders watched on with the same amusement as his horses skittered, fighting their riders to stay still. Nyra rumbled a low warning sound.

"Your greed has torn this land apart," Ari said to Uther's profile. The muscles in his jaw worrying. His face flashed back to her though his horse refused to comply. Teetering, ready to bolt. "So either you fight with us against the Red Paladins," she added, "or you die fighting me. It is your choice."

"That is why I am accepting your offer."

Ari reared her head above her shoulders. When they'd met, she'd offered him an alliance so that they might fight the Red Paladins as one and be done with them. Uther had already been at war with the church— all her plans had been bet on his acceptance. Yet he had refused.