𝚂𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚍 ✔

Chapter Thirty-Six

"You may leave, Miss de Marre." The queen motioned with her ring clad hand. "I have no more questions for you."

"As you wish, Your Highness." Sheera stood, flashing me an apologetic smile, then curtsied before she slowly made her way out of the room.

The sound of the doors shutting behind her echoed through the vast space, sending a chill down my spine.

"What more could she want from me?" I wondered, wishing she had just let me go as well.

"I have chosen you, Miss Beckett." The Queen watched me as if this had been another one of her tests.

"To be sent home, Your Highness?" I mocked.

"No." Her gaze grew harsher, "To wed my son."

I stared back at her, as my skin prickled and heart thumped, doing everything I could to pretend I was not shocked.

"You tease me, My Queen." I tried to laugh, but nothing came out, so instead I forced a smile.

"Let us not play this game of masks, child." She sounded bored, "You know I am being sincere, so do not drag this out more than it needs be."

Her personality had once again shifted in a matter of seconds, nearly giving me whiplash. In the twenty or so minutes since we had arrived, she had been several different versions of herself, making it to where I honestly could not figure out which was truly hers.

"Had her wicked display been nothing more than a show for Sheera?" I rubbed the fabric of my dress between my thumb and pointer finger, "It felt too real to have been nothing more than a façade."

I waited for a moment, sizing up the situation. I did not want to believe her after everything she had just put me through, but the honesty in her voice confused me.

What I had not been confused about was the newly forged dislike I had for the woman and her awful games.

"Why me?" I finally asked.

"Because you have nothing." She stared back, "You have no one whispering in your ear, controlling you from the shadows. You are just a broken little girl who longs for love and nothing more, and my Thomas needs someone who will not betray him. Someone who will put his wants before that of their family's needs and aspirations."

My skin crawled at her motherly tone and her insulting evaluation of me only angered me further. "So, all you need from me is to love your son?" I asked then mentally added, "To obey him."

It sounded too good to have been true.

"There is more to it than love." She shook her head, "But those needs are for later. For now, your job is to win The Courting, and my son's heart. And with how often he visits you in the garden, it should not be that hard of a feat."

My eyes grew at her relaxed tone as she dropped such an unnerving bit of information that she shouldn't have been privy to. "Have you been watching all of us?" I bit my tongue wishing I had not said it aloud.

"Watching you?" She met my fixed gaze, "No. But the eyes of the castle see all, especially in such a public place."

"I see." I fought the embarrassment that wanted to make itself known on my cheeks. But the thought of more than just one person having seen the two of us intertwined in the garden was hard to push past.

"You must not fail me." She snapped me back to reality.

"And if I fail?" I held firm, keeping the real questions I wanted to ask to myself.

"If you go against my wishes and purposefully lose or do anything to make a fool out of me or my son, then there will be worse things than your mother waiting for you." Those words, I believed them without a second thought. There was this look in her deep blue eyes that seared me to the bone, and I did not even dare question her further despite being filled to the brim with them.