Deadly Lovers (The Prussia Series) by Karisha Prescott Page A

specifically, but will allow an opportunity for others of our court to return with me,”
     
    “To collect and to allow,” I said, looking down at the corner of my desk, the beautiful wood highly polished and sealed with a high gloss finish. I let my finger trace patters along the sharp edges of the desk in the blood that still ran wet and red, “I think we’re well past simple niceties,”
     
    “Prussia,” the Queen repeated my name but while her face said for me to stop, something in her look said she didn’t at all mind. And so I didn’t.
     
    “Yes, well, times of war calls for bluntness,” said Robert, straightening up and looking at the Queen but still avoiding eye contact, “these are times of action and decision making. I hope that we can come to some common understandings, making decisions that will preserve our people while facilitating these games,”
     
    “Action, decisions, and games,” I smiled, still tracing along the edges of the desk but glancing up several times as I spoke to look at the Queen. I must have started to feel too good. The pain had abated completely, only the occasional dull throb as I moved, and the more Robert spoke the more he brought a smile to my face. I couldn’t help but find the humor.
     
    “Is she okay?” Robert asked, looking with concern to the Queen and back at me with his eyes bewildered and his face snarled up in revulsion.
     
    “I’m fine,” I yelled, slamming my fist down on the corner of my desk as I leaned forward towards him, “I’m the image of good health,”
     
    My fist left a bloody red splat on the corner. I wouldn’t have noticed but Robert’s eyes remained fixed on the splatter of blood as I continued to stare at his face, filled with shock.
     
    “I - I -” he stammered.
     
    “Spit it out,” I snapped at him.
     
    I snapped my fingers in his face and watched as his entire body leaned back several inches in an attempt to avoid any bodily contact with me.
     
    “I demand you produce the Duke at once,” said Robert, turning to the Queen.
     
    I continued to wear my smile and push the splatter of blood I had made into little designs on the desk surface with my index finger. No one had a chance to fill them in on the happenings in the dungeon.
     
    “Ask me who I’m wearing,” I instructed the Queen, suddenly excited, “Just like a red carpet show, ask me who I’m wearing!”
     
    The Queen hesitated, the pause on her face telling me that clearly I might really have gone over the edge more than she had expected. But she regained her composure and her face became a blank slate as she asked, as instructed, who I was wearing.
     
    “This evening, Princess Prussia has been outfitted in the best of tastes, the most popular and sought after, Duke Rutlidge !” I rattled off as if introducing myself for a red carpet event.
     
    Robert blinked blankly at me and I smiled as I watched the blank slate of Queen Victoria’s facade result in a crack, a tiny uncontrollable smile, before reverting back to her slate-like-state.
     
    “I demand the meaning of this,” said Robert, pointing his index finger violently towards the plush carpet and stomping his foot down with no effect whatsoever, “I demand the safe collection and return of all assets,”
     
    “Don’t wag that tongue too quickly,” I murmured to Robert with a sidelong look, “They’re rather pliable and soft when it gets right down to it. Easily damaged, just ask the Duke,”
     
    “The members of the court are waiting,” said the Queen, “They want answers as much as I do, Prussia,”
     
    “I have all the answers I need,” I said, “And something a little bit better. A confirmed list,”
     
    How foolish had I been? How foolish, indeed. I tried my best not to think of how madly in love with Robert I had thought I was. I had forgotten all the traits about him I had loved. I don’t know if he ever had any. Perhaps I had bestowed them on him each night I had sat up waiting