Page 190 of Onyx Cage: Volume II

“You killed the rightful duke,” he said, his voice full of accusation. “You have no right to call yourself the heir, and if you are not the heir, then she is nothing.”

Nothing.

The word echoed in my head, stoking the flames of my anger again and again. She was far fromnothing.

She waseverything.

I cracked my neck to loosen some of the rage inside me, knowing that I had to maintain some semblance of calm if I wanted to keep my lemmikki safe. In my periphery, I watched as Samu’s words settled over the men, registered the handful that took his words to heart, and the majority who took nearly as much offense as I had.

It was clear now that Samu and Ava had wanted to turn the men against me, but they had underestimated my feral princess entirely.

While they were busy hating her and plotting her demise, they had missed the respect Rowan had earned from the soldiers, and their protectiveness of her.

It wasn’t just the small group of men I trusted most, either. It was the men she had proven herself to in the sparring ring, the ones she’d begun to joke with and tease just like she did Kirill, Yuriy, and Henrick. It was the soldiers who were scandalized by her presence there before they were awed by it. By her.

Several of them reached for their weapons but I held up a hand to stop them.

“No one moves while my wife is in danger,” I warned them, not bothering to take my eyes off of Ava when I spoke next. “And we both know I am not the one who killed the duke.”

It had taken me longer than I would have preferred to understand that. Somewhere between Iiro’s schemes and the violent urge I had to protect my wife, the looming war and our tenuous relationship with our allies, I had missed the signs.

I considered my time at the palace all over again. The way Iiro had allowed Mairi’s real name to slip past his lips. Their quiet scheming. The show of support in the throne room. All of it came together like jagged pieces of a puzzle.

I allowed that truth to hang in the air, to settle over the soldiers and fuel their anger while I contemplated a way to get my wife out of Orik’s hands.

Pavel was the best shot, but Samu’s men were watching him closely. He wouldn’t be able to nock an arrow before Orik marred more of my lemmikki’s perfect skin.

I had a small throwing dagger in my sleeve, but was faced with the same problem, especially with Samu watching me so closely.

For now, until I could guarantee her safety, I wouldn’t be able to fight my way out of this. And the smug look on Ava’s face told me that was exactly what she had planned.

“What is it that you want, Stepmother?” I asked.

“It’s not about what I want so much as what the king wants,” she said, her tone indifferent and a far cry from the grievingwidow she played at the palace. “But I won’t deny that this brings me joy.”

Of course, I had known on some level that she was working with Iiro, but her admission now was enough to ignite my wrath all over again.

“And what is it that our illustrious king wants?” I bit out each word of the question.

A knowing grin tugged at the corner of her thin mouth. “For you to pay for the sins of your crime, of course.”

Mycrime…

My crimes were many. My soul stained red with the blood of the lives I had taken. But when I faced whatever judgment came for me between this life and the next one, this was one transgression I was not guilty of.

My mind raced through our final moments at the Obsidian Palace. Ava’s scream. Her blood-soaked hands and gown. Iiro’s assured expression when he thought he’d trapped us. Had he wanted my father out of the way to get to me? To frame me for his death? To prove a point to the other dukes about how much power he held?

Or was it that he was afraid of the power I wielded instead? I hadn’t made it a secret that I disagreed with his demands, but did he know that I was actively working against him? Removing my father would certainly make it easier to get to me.

But why would Ava help? Why, when being a Clan Wife was the one thing that kept her safe?

“And what do you get out of this?” I finally asked.

“Besides justice, you mean?” she scoffed. “Protection, since you and your whore of a wife have both threatened me. A Clan Wife.”

She placed a hand on her chest dramatically, and my fists clenched around the hilts of my sabers.

The memory of her leaving my father’s study after he destroyed it, the escalation of his decline. She knew she only had so much time left. So instead of waiting for him to die and taking her chances with me as the duke, she chose to remove all three of us in one blow.