CHAPTER 9: THE QUEEN'S ACCUSATION

~~MIA'S POV~~

"Rotten little thing picked out of the trash," the Queen said. "You deceived your way into this palace, and now you're carrying a bastard child, hoping to force my son into accepting you."

The words hung in the air like smoke.

I stood frozen beside the bed. I couldn't find an answer, and I wasn't sure one existed. The Queen stood before me with her chin raised, her eyes moving over me as though my presence alone was an insult to the room.

I lowered my gaze.

"Look at me when I'm speaking to you."

My head lifted at once.

Her expression didn't soften. "What is your name?"

"Lucy, Your Majesty."

"Lucy what?"

"Hartwell."

She repeated it slowly, tasting it, and her lip curled. "Hartwell. And where exactly does that family come from?"

I hesitated. "I grew up outside the kingdom, Your Majesty."

"Outside the kingdom." She sounded almost amused. "How convenient. A girl from nowhere, with no royal blood, no respectable family, and no place among people of our standing."

My fingers tightened in the fabric of my dress.

She took a slow step closer. Her perfume reached me first, heavy and cold, like flowers left too long in a sealed room.

"Tell me, what did your mother do?"

I looked down. "Your Majesty?"

"Your mother. What did she do for a living?"

I swallowed. "She worked when she could."

The Queen laughed, short and unpleasant. "How vague. I suppose there isn't much to say."

Heat crawled up my neck and into my cheeks. I wanted the floor to open and take me.

"Was she a respectable woman?" The Queen's voice dropped, almost gentle, which was worse. "Or did you inherit your habits from her?"

I said nothing.

My heartbeat had started to pound in my ears. Every question was a small, precise cut, and every one said the same thing: *you don't belong here.*

The Queen studied me a moment longer, then shook her head slowly. "Draven brings a girl like you into this palace, and I am expected to accept her as a member of the royal family?"

I kept my eyes on the carpet. "I never asked for—"

The words escaped before I could stop them. I clamped my mouth shut, too late.

Her eyes narrowed. "You never asked for what?"

My throat closed around the rest of the sentence. "Nothing, Your Majesty."

"That," she said, "is what I thought."

She turned away and drifted through the room, running her gaze over the tall windows, the heavy drapes, the bed behind me, as if inventorying everything I had no right to be standing near. When she faced me again, her voice was quiet.

"Do you understand what it means to carry the heir of the Dragon Kingdom?"

I couldn't answer.

"Of course you don't. You have no concept of the responsibilities that come with that position. You probably believe that because the Moon Goddess allowed you to cross a bridge, you can walk into this palace and claim whatever you please."

My stomach twisted.

The bridge.

I could still feel it: the darkness yawning beneath my feet, the strange light that had bloomed around me when I was certain I was going to die, the white-hot pain of Evelisse's attack. Then the sky splitting open, and Draven's enormous black dragon descending through it.

It had all happened so fast. I still didn't know why I had been chosen.

But the Queen was certain I had no right to be here, and standing in front of her, I almost believed her.

"Being chosen by the Moon Goddess does not make you worthy of becoming my son's wife," she said coldly. "And it certainly does not make you worthy of becoming queen."

I bowed my head lower. "Your Majesty, I—"

"Do not interrupt me."

My lips pressed shut.

She crossed to the window and stood with her hands clasped behind her back, a silhouette against the pale light.

"I have spent years preparing my son for his position. He has duties, obligations, and a kingdom to protect. He cannot afford foolish decisions over some girl he barely knows."

I stood very still.

"Do you honestly believe the Goddess would choose someone like you to stand beside the future king?"

I didn't know what to say. I didn't know if there was anything to say.

She turned around. Her gaze dragged over me, from my shaking hands to my pale face.

"Look at you. You can barely hold a conversation without trembling. And now you carry a child you cannot even prove belongs to my son."

My eyes began to burn. I blinked hard and fast, refusing to let the tears fall. If I cried, she would only have won.

"Whatever you imagine you have gained by coming here, understand this." She spoke each word with care, like laying stones. "I will never willingly accept you into this family."

The door opened.

I turned on instinct, and the breath I'd been holding slipped out of me.

Draven walked in.

His dark hair was slightly disordered, as though he had come in a hurry, but his face gave away nothing. It never did. His golden eyes slid from his mother to me, lingered for half a heartbeat, and returned to her.

"What is happening here?"

The Queen turned to him with a thin smile. "How convenient. I was just wondering when you would decide to show your face."

"Mother."

"Don't 'Mother' me, Draven. I want an explanation."

He glanced at me, brief and unreadable, then back to her. "About what?"

"About this girl. Why is she still occupying your private chambers?"

"Because I allowed her to stay."

"And why would you do that?"

"She's my mate."

The Queen released a laugh with no humour in it. "Your mate. Is that what we're calling her now?"

His eyes narrowed. "Watch your words."

"Or what?" She stepped toward him. "Will you threaten your own mother because I refuse to pretend this situation is acceptable?"

He said nothing. The silence was heavier than any answer.

"You have a kingdom to think about," she pressed. "You cannot let a decision made in the heat of the moment decide the future of this family."

"It wasn't made in the heat of the moment."

"Then what was it? You barely know her."

"That doesn't change what she is to me."

I stayed where I was, barely breathing. He still hadn't looked at me again, but the tension between them was a living thing, stretched tight as a bowstring. I felt it against my skin.

The Queen's gaze slid toward me, and her voice turned silky. "And what do you intend to do with her? Keep her hidden in your chambers until everyone forgets she has no place here?"

"She stays," Draven said.

The Queen's head snapped back to him. "Have you forgotten who rules this palace?"

His golden eyes hardened to something close to metal.

"No, Mother. But perhaps you have forgotten who I am."

For a long moment neither of them spoke. The air in the room seemed to thin.

Then the Queen smiled, small and deliberate, and a cold finger traced down my spine.

"Since you want to play by the rules," she said, "then so be it."

Draven's face didn't change. "What are you talking about?"

She tilted her head, savouring it. "Lady Evelisse Thornwood also passed the test. And you know what that means."

My breath caught.

*Evelisse.*

I knew that name. I would never forget it.

She was the woman who had stood on the Moon Bridge before me, smiling as though she had already won. The woman who had looked at me with open disgust the moment I stepped onto the stone. She had spoken of my virginity in front of everyone, making it clear she knew I wasn't a virgin. I still didn't know how she had found out. Before I could even absorb the humiliation, a force I couldn't see had struck me and sent me crashing to the ground.

I remembered falling. I remembered the pain, and the terror when I realised I couldn't get back up.

And then I remembered Draven's roar, shaking the sky itself.

*WHO DARES TO TOUCH MY MATE?*

My fingers began to tremble.

That woman had tried to hurt me. She had looked at me as though she wanted me erased. And now the Queen was speaking her name in this room as if it were a gift.

I slowly lifted my eyes to Draven.

He hadn't said a word.

The Queen watched him closely, pleased with the effect of her own words.

"She passed the same test," she went on, softly now. "And unlike this girl, Lady Evelisse comes from a family that understands what it means to stand beside royalty."

My stomach clenched. I looked from the Queen to Draven and back again. I didn't understand what she was suggesting.

But I knew one thing for certain. Lady Evelisse Thornwood was the last person on earth I wanted anywhere near me.

And from the look on the Queen's face, she knew exactly what she was doing.

The woman who had once tried to kill me was no longer just a name from the past.

She was about to become part of my life again.