“Even if you cut off my head, even if you burn me until I’m nothing but ash, as I did Halia, the crown still isn’t yours. The South and the North will not follow you because they already have a queen.”
“The princess?” Sirrush inquired, almost mockingly.
I looked up at him, a smug smile spreading across my face, and nodded.
“Yes. Laelia. They will follow her.”
“She can’t touch us. We’ll make the people bow to us and show them she’s not their ruler. She’s nothing but a small princess.”
“You don’t know her like I do,” I replied. “She’s as fierce as the northern wind. She won’t bow, and neither will her people.”
The third person, still hidden behind my brothers, shifted uneasily at the mention of Laelia. I wondered who he was.
“She’s just one woman. She won’t stand in our way.”
“We’ll
