The Broken Ones (The Malediction Trilogy 0.6)(9)
I couldn’t breathe. Magic clogged my mouth and nose, and I struggled, trying to extract myself from his grip, but he was too strong, my body and magic pinioned. He’d warned me what would happen if I allowed my secret to be exposed, but my fear of punishment had waned over the passing weeks. I’d been a fool to allow it to do so.
“Was it not enough that you ruined your sister’s chances of becoming Queen,” he asked softly. “You had to try to turn the prince against her as well?”
I struggled harder, my fingers clawing ineffectually at the sleeves of his coat. Then, over his shoulder, I saw my grandmother appear at the entrance to the parlor, and relief flooded my heart. She was the only person my father listened to, and I knew she wouldn’t let him hurt me. Not physically. My eyes latched onto hers, pleading silently for help even as my lungs began to burn.
But she did nothing.
Blackness crept over my vision, but not quickly enough to keep me from seeing her take hold of the pair of doors and slowly shut me away.
“You destroyed my plans, Pénélope,” my father whispered into my ear, his voice sounding distant. “Did you not realize there would be a cost?”
My knees buckled, but just before I lost consciousness, the magic cleared from my mouth and nose. I sucked in one desperate breath.
But only one, then the gag returned.
“Even if she couldn’t be Queen, Ana?s was favored by the heir to the throne,” he said. “There is power in such a friendship, but either you were too stupid to realize it or your actions were a malicious attack against this family’s future.”
Another breath. Tears dripped down my face.
“I know what you did.” His fingers dug into my arms hard enough to leave bruises that would last for weeks. “I know you insulted that little Montigny whelp to his face, all but ensuring your expulsion from that little circle of ingrates. Possibly your sister as well.”
My maid. Ana?s and I took pains to keep our servants from eavesdropping, but the girl wouldn’t have needed to hear anything to know what was going on. She must have reported what she’d seen back to him.
“You are a liability,” he hissed. “You are a weak and flawed creature. You are worth nothing in our world.”
I’d been hearing those words all my life, but at least before I’d been protected by the fact that no one outside our family knew my worthlessness. He could dangle me before potential suitors vying for connections to our house and to the girl favored to become Queen, no matter that he never intended to allow me to bond any of them. Now, instead of tempting fruit, I was the poisoned apple everyone was desperate to avoid.
He allowed me no more breaths. Nor would he. What a cruel twist of fate that not an hour after realizing that I might have a chance at a life worth living, my future would be stolen away. Regrets beyond number washed across my mind, and anger chased away the fear in my rapidly beating heart. Lifting up one leg, I slammed the pointed heel of my shoe down against the insole of his foot.
My heel wedged in his shield of magic, but the motion shoved him off balance and he let me go. Except the magic blocking my mouth and nose stayed firmly in place. I tried to tear it off with my hands; tried to wedge my own power underneath it, but doing so only made the bones of my face scream under the pressure. The ground rushed up to meet my knees, then my palms pressed against the carpet. I couldn’t see. Couldn’t hear. Couldn’t feel.
“Let her go!”
The magic tore away from my face. Sucking in breath after breath of precious air, I lifted my head from the carpet to see a pair of slender legs clad in snug trousers and boots. Ana?s.
Using the edge of a table to pull myself back onto my feet, I turned to see my father hanging in the air, his arms pinned to his sides. The surprise on his face turned swiftly to anger, and I screamed a warning as a wave of heat surged across the room.
To shatter against a force much greater.
Ana?s gave an exasperated sigh. “Well, I suppose that’s another secret out of the bag. It won’t be long until we have very few left.” Strolling across the room, she drew the sword belted at her waist. From the glittering edge, I knew it wasn’t one of the practice blades she and Tristan used. “If you hurt my sister again, I will kill you.”
The look he shot her was pure derision. “Even now, you protect her. Pénélope ruined everything for you. What is being a duchesse to being a princess? To being a queen? How much warmth will remain in your heart for your sister when Thibault chooses your replacement?”
“It will remain unaffected.”
“Oh?” He laughed, and listed off a string of names, all girls our age set to inherit titles. “Which one of them do you think it will be? And how well do you suppose she’ll tolerate your continued presence? How long until you find yourself completely shut out of Tristan’s life?”
“Which is why we must do everything in our power to keep that from happening,” a voice said.
Ana?s and I both turned to see our grandmother enter the room.
“Wipe that pathetic frightened look off your face, Pénélope,” my grandmother snapped. “You are alive, and your sister seems inclined to keep you that way. A fact you might keep in mind the next time you feel possessed to act out in the presence of royalty. And Ana?s, put your father down. You’ve made your point.”