She stopped a few feet in front of me, flashing me a smile that made my blood run even colder.
“Are you going to freeze me to death, Moria?” I asked. “Is that your plan—show everyone that the king no longer has any power?”
She blinked fluttering her long eyelashes. Under her hood, her crown glinted like ice in the dull light.
“Oh, no, my dear, you’re not going to freeze. That’s what you did to my sister before you buried her in the temple. Freezing is too good for you. I want you to die terrified, screaming, and completely out of control. I want you to die gripped by real horror. ”
I know she wanted me to ask her what she was going to do, to beg for my life, but I wasn’t about to, because she would never grant it.
She gestured at the crowds filling up the stands. “They’re here to witness what I will do to a demon lover. They’ll see the lengths to which I’m willing to go to protect the kingdom from those who would starve them.”
Wrath stole my breath. This was why she’d let the kingdom grow colder. It was much easier to get away with tyranny when your kingdom was at war. All she had to do was blame it on the traitors.
“You won’t last as queen,” I said. “They will see that you’re forcing people to suffer. They will find a new queen, one who will give them the spring they need.”
She stepped closer to me, her wine-colored lips by my cheek as she whispered, “But Torin, this is all your fault. I’ve helped them to understand that.”
“Why are you doing this, Moria?” Violence laced my tone.
She leaned back, her smile fading. “You may no longer call me that. The correct term is Your Majesty.”
Something gleamed at her hip under her cloak, and anger heated my chest at the sight of the Sword of Whispers. She was already a tyrant, but that sword would turn her into a completely unhinged monster.
“Why am I doing this?” she hissed. “Because you took the only thing I loved from me. My father raised me to punish my enemies. He raised me to be strong like King Caerleon and the powerful kings of old. ”
“Caerleon wasn’t strong. He was a paranoid, bloodthirsty sadist, and that is exactly where you are headed.”
“His court was respected.” She glanced back over her shoulder. “I have a new friend, though, Modron. She was very lonely, you know. It was just her and the river for centuries. And now she has me.” She turned back to me with a coy smile. “She can control the river, you know? The Avon. She can make it swell.”
Ah. She planned to drown me. Less creativity than I’d anticipated.
When Moria smiled this time, she let her fangs out and licked one of them. “In the old days, the Dearg Due drank blood. But that’s considered vulgar these days, isn’t it? Our society has become so soft.” Her brow furrowed. “I was meant for this moment. This is written in the stars. This is why I went through hell as a child. This is why the gods cursed me with the agony of losing the only person I loved. It was all for this moment. This is fate, Torin. All of this has made me strong.”
No, it’s made you demented.
She turned away, climbing the stairs once more.
While I tugged on my chains, she gave a speech that echoed over the stones of the arena. One full of propaganda, all about how I loved the demons and how I’d been conspiring to destroy my own kingdom. Apparently, I’d been seduced by a wicked minx, one with horns, half animal.
As she spoke, workers were sealing up the tunnel entrances to the arena.
My thoughts slipped back to Ava. No matter what happened here, at least she was safe. With that knowledge, I could die happily enough. Orla, too, had a chance to survive. Aeron would look after her. That was the best I could hope for, wasn’t it, to die with the hope that the people I loved were safe?
I closed my eyes, thinking of Ava sleeping soundly in a warm bed. When she’d slept next to me in the Court of Sorrows, she’d snored ever so slightly. I could picture her chest rising and falling. The image made my chest ache.
A great crack of stone pulled me from my vision, and I sucked in a sharp breath as frigid geysers burst from the stones around me and river water flooded the arena. Streams erupted around me. Murky water poured in from every part of the amphitheater, freezing my feet.
Modron chanted with a strange, ecstatic look on her features. Wisps of dark magic curled from her body and into the charcoal skies.
Cold water gnawed at my skin until my toes went completely numb. Overhead, the dragon swooped beneath the stormy sky, and murmurs of fear ran through the crowd.