Page 46 of Obsidian Throne
“I think we both know the only manipulative one here is you,” I interrupted her.
She opened her mouth to respond, but all I could hear was her taunting Evander. My heartbeat thundered in my veins, my fists clenching with the kind of rage I only seemed to know when it came to this single despicable woman.
I cut her off again.
“All this time,” I said quietly, “you’ve been so worried about my family in Lochlann. But they’re on the other side of the mountain.” I met her eyes solidly. “And I’m here.”
Uncertainty flashed in her gaze.
“You know that clan wives are untouchable,” she said.
“Are they?” I shrugged, a cold smile creeping across my lips. “I’m so new here, I’m always forgetting custom.”
“You’d be killed,” she spat. “Or worse.”
I took a step closer to her, my voice filled with the kind of lethal quiet I usually only heard from Evander. “But you would be just as dead.”
She clenched her jaw, but I saw fear running trembling through her as well. She was used to dealing with Evander, who had grown up surrounded by clan wife laws and had to worry about protecting his entire clan.
But here, I only had to worry about Evander.
I let her see every bit of truth in my eyes, in the fact that I would find a way to kill her one day.
She adjusted her skirts with false bravado. “All I have to do is open my mouth to have every soldier in this estate come running.”
“I was trained by my father,Mairi.You wouldn’t even last until they got here.” I took another step forward, and this time, she took a step back. “Remember that, the next time you even think aboutmyhusband. Don’t look at him. Don’t speak to him. As far as you’re concerned, from this point forward, Evander doesn’t exist.”
Maybe it was stupid to threaten her, but I didn’t think so. At her core, Ava was a coward. She wasn’t a fighter, not physically or otherwise.
But I was.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
EVANDER
“You insult the men by allowing her to spar with them,” my father said the second Rowan stepped away.
Samu must have gone tattling. Fortunately, lying to my father or twisting the truth to stay his hand was as easy as breathing these days.
I gave a long-suffering sigh. “There are only a handful of ways to keep her mouth shut, Father, and fewer still that are appropriate for public places. The men will get over it if the heir to their Dukedom decrees it.”
A misdirect on Rowan, and a play at his pride. My stomach twisted at the necessary lie, but I would rather him think I hold no respect for my wife than that she poses a threat to him.
He gave a dark chuckle, just as I knew he would. “Very well. I’ll tell Samu it’s with my approval. Have you made any headway?”
He meant on my plan to destroy the Lochlannians from the inside out.
A plan that began and ended with Rowan, as far as he was concerned.
I made up a few things until his mind trailed off again, which fortunately, didn’t take long. Then I left him in his semi-lucid state, celebrating with a glass of chilled vodka as he congratulated himself on the success of his son.
A bitter taste filled my mouth as I headed out to the hall where Kirill was standing. His usually easy expression was pinched in concern.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, and he tilted his head toward the intersecting hall.
Before I could take another step, Ava’s gray-headed figure angrily rounded the corner, giving both of us a wide berth.
For once, she didn’t stop to make some scathing remark or a threat that she could no longer substantiate. I groaned internally, already suspecting what might have accounted for my stepmother’s mood and her unusual silence.