The solar was a smaller, more intimate room than the grand hall, but the tension suffocating the air made it feel like a gilded cage.
Sunlight poured through the tall, arched windows, illuminating the dust motes dancing around Duke Cedric.
He stood by the mahogany table, his posture rigid with an anger he was desperately trying to mask behind a charming smile.
I walked in with smooth, unbothered strides, the heavy fabric of my crimson riding habit sweeping against the stone floor.
Behind me, Kaelen moved like a silent, lethal shadow, his hand never straying far from the hilt of his blade.
“Evangeline,” Cedric said, his voice dropping into a low, familiar register that made my stomach turn.
He intentionally left off my title, trying to re-establish the casual intimacy the old queen had allowed him.
“Yesterday was quite the theatrical performance.
But we both know you need me.
You can’t run this treasury without my backing.”
I didn’t answer right away.
Instead, I glided over to the plush velvet chair behind the desk, taking my seat with a slow, deliberate grace.
“Sir Kaelen,” I murmured, keeping my eyes fixed on the Duke.
“Your Majesty,” Kaelen’s deep baritone echoed from the doorway.
“Please secure the latch on the window behind me.
There’s a bit of a chill.”
“At once.”
As Kaelen stepped up to the window, his massive, armored frame brushed past my shoulder.
I chose that exact moment to lean back, tilting my head slightly.
My shoulder pressed firmly against his forearm for a lingering, deliberate second.
I inhaled deeply, catching the intoxicating scent of cedar wood and cold steel that seemed to follow him everywhere.
Kaelen froze.
His entire arm went rigid as iron beneath his leather armor.
From the corner of my eye, I saw his jaw clench, his silver eyes flashing down at me with a sudden, sharp intensity.
“Oh, I apologize, Kaelen,” I said softly, my voice dripping with an innocent, breathless warmth.
“Did I startle you?”
“No, Your Majesty,” he replied, his voice a fraction rougher than usual.
He quickly latched the window and stepped back into the shadows, but I could feel the heat radiating off him.
He was losing his mind trying to figure out if I had done that on purpose.
One point to me, I thought, a secret spark of amusement lighting up my chest.
“Are you quite finished flirting with the help?” Cedric snapped, his facade completely cracking.
He slammed a heavy leather portfolio onto my desk.
“If you think stripping me of my public title changes anything, you’re mistaken.
Have you forgotten about Lord Alistair?”
I paused, digging through the messy memories of the previous queen’s brain.
Alistair.
He was a powerful, righteous noble from the western territories who had openly opposed the queen’s corruption.
The old Evangeline had locked him away in the deepest dark of the royal dungeons under a fabricated charge of treason, intending to let him rot.
“What about him?” I asked, keeping my voice deadpan.
“He has been in the lower cells for a year,” Cedric sneered, leaning over the desk, his eyes gleaming with malicious triumph.
“The western lords are growing restless.
If I drop a single hint to them that Alistair is still alive and being tortured, they will march on this palace with an army before the winter ends.
You signed the secret execution order, Evangeline.
If you don’t reinstate my treasury privileges, I will expose your signature to the entire realm.”
It was a textbook blackmail attempt.
The old queen would have panicked and given into his demands to save her skin.
But I wasn’t her.
I was a modern woman who had survived corporate boardrooms and toxic management.
Threatening me with a paper trail was an amateur move.
I let out a soft, melodic laugh that caught Cedric entirely off guard.
“You think a piece of paper frightens me, Cedric?” I stood up, leaning over the desk so our faces were only inches apart.
My ruby eyes locked onto his, completely cold and unyielding.
“You want to use Lord Alistair as leverage?
Fine.
Let’s look at the contract.”
I opened the portfolio, pulled out the old execution warrant, and looked directly at Kaelen.
“Sir Kaelen, fetch the master keys to the lower dungeons,” I commanded, my voice booming with absolute authority.
“And send a message to the royal guards.
Lord Alistair is to be released from his cell immediately.
Wash him, dress him in the finest linens, and bring him to the royal dining hall.
He is my guest of honor tonight.”
Cedric stumbled backward, his face turning an exquisite shade of ghostly white.
“What?!
You’re releasing him?
He will ruin you!
He hates you!”
“He hated the woman who locked him away,” I countered, a wicked, triumphant smile spreading across my lips.
“Let’s see how he feels about the queen who just handed him his freedom and restored his lands.
By the time the western lords find out, they won’t be marching to attack me—they’ll be sending me tributes.”
Cedric opened his mouth to scream another threat, but the sheer, ruthless strategy of my move had completely paralyzed him.
He realized, with a sickening certainty, that his leverage had just been utterly incinerated.
“We are done here, Duke Cedric,” I said, waving my hand dismissively as if he were nothing but dust.
“Get out of my solar before I decide to put you in the cell Alistair just vacated.”
Cedric didn’t say another word.
He grabbed his empty portfolio, turned on his heel, and practically slammed the door down as he fled the room.
The heavy silence returned to the solar.
I let out a long breath, sliding back into my chair, the adrenaline slowly leaving my system.
“That was…
unexpected, Your Majesty.”
I looked up.
Kaelen had stepped out of the shadows, standing right in front of my desk.
His silver eyes were burning with a fierce, blinding intensity.
The deep suspicion was still there, but beneath it was a raw, unadulterated fascination.
He was looking at me as if he were seeing a completely different person.
“Did you think I was going to let that rat dictate my kingdom, Kaelen?” I asked, tilting my head, letting my gaze drift shamelessly down the broad width of his chest before rising back to his lips.
Kaelen swallowed hard, his chest heaving slightly beneath his armor.
He stepped closer, leaning his palms flat against the mahogany desk, invading my space just like he had the night before.
“I think you are playing a game far more dangerous than Cedric can comprehend,” Kaelen whispered, his voice dark, velvety, and thick with an unspoken tension.
He was so close I could see the silver rings in his irises.
“And I think you are doing things to me…
intentionally.”
I rose from my seat slowly, minimizing the distance between us until only the edge of the wood separated our bodies.
I reached out, my fingers lightly catching a long strand of his gorgeous white hair, curling it around my finger before letting it drop.
“And what if I am, Sir Kaelen?” I breathed, my ruby eyes locking onto his with absolute, shameless confidence.
“Are you going to arrest your Queen for bad behavior?”
A heavy, electric current of pure, suffocating lust snapped between us.
Kaelen’s breath hitched, his silver eyes darkening to the color of a stormy sea.
His hand twitched on the desk, his knuckles turning white as he fought the overwhelming urge to reach across and pull me into his arms.
The stoic, disciplined knight was teetering right on the edge of a precipice, and we both knew it.
With a tight, strained breath, Kaelen forced himself to straighten up, his military posture returning like a shield, though his eyes remained wild.
“I will fetch the dungeon keys, Your Majesty,” he muttered, his voice rough and utterly wrecked, before turning and marching out of the solar.
I sank back into my chair, a breathless, victorious laugh escaping my lips as I touched my racing heart.
The political cleanup had officially begun, and my gorgeous, dangerous guard was already halfway in the trap.