Though Jalyn wouldn’t admit it out loud, he appreciated that Priestess Bayena waited for servants to leave before she spoke. Even if they likely didn’t miss the black fire burning in her eyes, at least they would not witness the confrontation… or rather, the humiliation that he was about to suffer.
“I believe I deserve an explanation, my prince.” The last two words sounded like mockery in her mouth, as if a mere male child of the queen was worth less respect than the elevated servant of the Four. “To allow some overambitious noble insult us in front of everyone and then you punish me with a maid’s task…”
Jalyn endured her glare—it was nothing in comparison to the way his own mother looked at him when he disappointed her. Bayena, a woman in her late twenties, who cared for her grooming a
