House of Daggers

ly had time to calm my breathing before they took me off. My gown snagged on the floor, tangled around my ankles, but those men in uniforms displayed no mercy

assembled onlookers, her face taut with anger. She leaned in close enough to hiss my name, but a guard shoved her aside without thinking. Her cry of protest made my heart lur

sbelief and a raw tide of indignation at having been subdued in my own palace. I tried to shake free, but the soldi

g pace. My vision was obscured by a swell of contradictory emotions - anger, betrayal and an out-of-place flicker of f

ologies. They gazed at me with a weird combination of pity and fear, as if my fate could be th

ges glimmered in the meagre torchlight. I knew them at once: the entrance to the Concubines' Quarters. A shiv

ck to me, but the soldiers would not let her past them. My captors urged me toward those

erfoot and scalloped statuettes tooled of gold atop marble pedestals. The silence was suffocating - it felt like every cushion and curtain swallowed the cries for mercy. Two s

uby silk. A pale green gown clung to her slim figure, flowing from her legs. Her face glowed with a polished beauty framed by loose ebony curls that grazed her shoulders

king smile on her lips. "It seems you've

terness rising in my th

I've shown mine, and here we are." She pointed to the corridor wi

n my chest. "I

ind out your choice doesn't matter. Steve's decided you

ely for women who once intrigued the king. A wave of humiliation battled with icy an

Do not presume that

e." She tilted her head as I explained, examining me. "And if you behave, maybe you'll get a little

between the two of us. She did a quick curtsy, then pulled in closer to whisper in my ear. "They sa

tory dancing in her expressive features. And that I had been ceremonially

ubines' Quarters. My nerves, raw from the day's disturbances, would let me find no pleasure between the velvet cushions and

murmur low, urgent words outside the archway. I was wit

an all, eliminated," one guard sai

 no name, only a silhouette with a sword. Once that's done, 

had upended my authority. It didn't seem all that far-fetched - hire a killer to ensure that nobody would dare rise a

myself as I crept back toward the main hall, each step becoming lighter than the previous one. A knot of dread twisted in my stomach. It w

to a narrow balcony. Tempted by the promise of fresh air, I went out. Moonlight silvered the courtyard below, into which

rea near the fountain, steps calculated and soundless. My blood ran cold when I caught a glimpse of a curved blade glinti

could be my last. I stood there, mind racing, wavering between debilitating terror and steely determination. Survival required more than quiet acceptance o