The Shadow Queen

fiddle with the items on the dresser. “What will her court say about relocating to Terreille?”
    Jaenelle hesitated. “She doesn’t have a court at the moment. That’s why I think she would be willing to do this.”
    He looked at her exotically beautiful face, which only hinted at the wonderful and terrifying Self that lived beneath the human skin. She was capable of cruelty, but the cruelty was always entwined with justice.
    What had she seen in her tangled web?
    And why was the arm that had been covered by sapphire silk now bare?
    “What happened to her court?” His stomach tightened again as the edge of his temper sharpened.
    “Instead of renewing their contracts, her entire First Circle resigned, and that broke the court.”
    “Why?” he asked too softly. There were very few reasons why all the males would walk away from a Queen, and none of those reasons would help Theran or Dena Nehele.
    “You won’t like the answer.”
    He already didn’t like any of this. “Tell me.”
    Jaenelle sighed. “She wears a Rose Jewel, which makes her a minor Queen in a Territory like Dharo; she doesn’t come from an aristo family; and”—she winced—“she’s not pretty.”
    Fury rose in him, a molten ice. “That’s it? That’s all? ”
    “She can’t offer flash and glitter. It’s not in her. But she’s a good, solid Queen, and she’s got the tenacity to dig in and work.”
    Daemon blew out a breath and rolled his shoulders to try to shake off some of the tension. Tried to shake off that terrible blend of hope and despair that was making it so hard to think clearly. But he’d done what he could, hadn’t he? Even now he was doing what he could. “Well, Jared will have to give up some of what he wants in order to get the rest, but—”
    “Jared?” Jaenelle asked.
    Her voice sounded oddly sharp, and that pricked his temper, honed it to a lethal edge. But he was so tired tonight. So desperately tired. Still had to play the game, though. Dorothea couldn’t prove he’d helped the Shalador Warlord, but lately the women she’d chosen to use him as a pleasure slave were an added barb of cruelty.
    “Why are we talking about Jared?”
    He turned toward the bed. “Because—”
    He slammed back against the dresser hard enough to make everything rattle. His heart hammered against his chest, and his body was suddenly—and painfully—aroused.
    There was a filthy bitch sprawled on his bed.
    She lay on her side, her head propped up on one hand, one leg forward and bent at the knee to help her balance. Nothing blatantly provocative about the position, which meant only that she was smarter than the bitches who had tried before her. She was wearing sheer white stockings that came up to midthigh. No need for a garter belt when Craft could hold the stockings in place. Above that, she was wearing a simple white shift that ended just above the stockings and was sheer enough that it didn’t hide the body beneath.
    It also didn’t hide the fact that she wasn’t wearing anything else.
    His cock strained against his trousers, wanting to be sheathed inside her and flood her with come.
    Bitch. Filthy bitch.
    “Daemon?”
    She’d succeeded. Where all the others had failed, this one had succeeded. She made him want, made him need. And when the little bitch informed Dorothea that he could be aroused, the slavery he now endured would be nothing compared with what would be done to him to breed him with Dorothea’s select bitches.
    “Daemon? What’s wrong?”
    And the one untouched thing he had left to offer, the one clean thing he had given to no one else, would be taken from him. Like everything else had been taken from him.
    Because of the little bitch now stinking up his bed.
    She sat up. Shifted closer to the edge of the bed. His bed. “I think I should leave.”
    Leave? No, no, no. Not until he’d purged himself of some of this anger, some of this hatred, some of this need.
    He raised his right hand. The Black Jewel in his ring flashed. And he saw her tense as Black locks and shields surrounded the room, trapping her inside. With him.
    This was his room, the one bit of peace and privacy he could claim. That was his bed, a place he shared with no one. And her body was his to do with as he pleased.
    He took a step toward the bed, delighted by the way she shivered. Not with anticipation. The little bitch had finally figured out what she found in his bed wasn’t going to be pleasure.
    He took another step.
    She tried to bolt, tried to launch herself off the bed.
    Snarling