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Kiria
Kiria reeled, sitting bolt upright in bed. She couldn’t catch her breath. She would have let out an angry scream if her serving girls wouldn’t come running.
How could he? How could he?
His last betrayal—betrayals—had been bad enough, but this was beyond enduring. He dared to threaten her city to blackmail her into being with him? It seemed impossible, even for him. Before, he had been paranoid about threats to his crown—something she didn’t agree with, but to some extent understood. She felt similar stresses in her own reign: the desire for control, the inability or unwillingness to give up her own interests… But this!
Time seemed to slow, every movement suddenly comprised of creaking bones and flexing muscles and the wisp of air past her skin. She felt every place her nightd
