Rosalind’s POV
I had been wrong about what I said about them becoming less vicious.
It was almost as though she had gotten more angry at the fact that I thought to dismiss the noble ladies.
I had only done so because I didn’t want them watching her and Aunt Celia fighting themselves and throwing underhanded comments at each other.
What again had she said?
That women like me were unworthy to become Killian’s mate, that the only thing we were suited for would be warming his bed.
Anger filled me up from the inside. Maybe because even now, the only thing that Killian and I shared was a physical relationship.
Something he had done out of his way to enforce this morning.
I had been the one to put down the rule the first time we were together but now it rubbed me wrong.
I would forever love Cillian but I wondered if his softening in my heart meant something else other than what I had seen it as before.
I blinked away the tears that sprung into my eyes.
“Women like me.”
When she said that, did she mean poor women or just whores in general because I was beginning to see that to nobles, they meant pretty much the same thing.
I looked between Aunt Lilly and a blank-faced Aunt Celia. Or did she mean women who weren’t like them?
“You mean women who were born into poverty instead of wealth.”
I met Aunt Lilly’s gaze and held it as a small smile reached my lips.
“You are right, women like me don’t mate with princes. In fact, warming their beds would be a reach for us.”
A reach.
Just like meeting Cillian that day had been a reach. My life would have panned out more differently with a smaller and more competitive neighbourhood after the way Ronnie tossed me out and ruined my image.
The disparity between my last life and this one was so different that it made me dizzy.
Aunt Lilly seemed unimpressed looking around before lifting her eyebrow imperiously.
“At least you know your place.” She scoffed.
My place? Know my place. Just bang her bit to do what place would that be? As in the districts or here on the inside?
I let my pain at being treated unfairly because I doubted she would have treated Adeline the same way, fuel me.
“All of that ended with me. I won the Princess Trials because the goddess saw fit to give me this position.”
And by the Goddess, I would keep this position.
I saw the spark of annoyance in Aunt Lilly’s gaze even as she remained calm.
I continued.
“I was always curious to meet Killian’s aunt.”
I had wanted to see who raised him and ask how he was the way he was but one look at Aunt Lilly and I already knew how he had grown up to be so different from Cillian.
This morning I had been so nervous to come out here but more than that, I had been excited. Really excited that I felt exceedingly stupid in hindsight.
“I wanted to meet the woman who raised him like a son. I even imagined us being friends at least but I see now that will never happen. So instead, I remind you of my place. I am the future queen of the Southern Paw.”
Both she and Aunt Celia went still and I might have found how they reacted similarly under a different circumstance. But for now, there was nothing funny in my tone as I spoke.
It was a thinly veiled threat because no matter the influence they had, it would fall short of the one I would acquire as Queen. Unworthy or not.
Aunt Celia broke the silence first with a little airy laugh.
“Seems like you are a match for Killian after all.”
Aunt Lilly stood up to leave, her expression thunderous.
She paused by my chair and I tilted my head back to look at her.
Her voice was a harsh whisper that I doubted Aunt Celia could hear.
“I have a reminder for you as well,” Her eyes darkened dangerously. “Queens fall.”
Then she swept out of the room with malice blooming in her wake.
Not bad at all. I seemed to be making enemies as quickly as possible.
I saw a shadow fall over me and I looked up to see Aunt Celia standing in front of me with a pleasant smile on her face and her hand outstretched.
“I’m Celia. I wish you all the best here.”
I shook her hand. Okay, maybe I had not alienated everyone.
“Thank you.”
With my meeting or whatever had happened in the drawing room done with, I found myself walking towards the petition hall where I knew he would be at this hour.
I wasn’t wrong because the moment I opened the door, he was there seated behind his desk on his side.
He raised his head at the sound of the door opening and when he saw me, his gaze softened. “Rosalind.”
I smiled at him walking towards him.
“Did I interrupt anything?”
He shook his head standing up from his table to close the distance between us.
“No. Never.”
Then he took me into his arms, spinning me once and making me giggle before pulling me into a kiss that unwound me with every touch of his tongue to my lips.
Then he pulled back slightly, his face still close to mine. “Nothing is as important as you are.”
My heart warmed and I clung to him shamelessly, my head firmly tucked into his chest. He was the complete opposite of his brother who had not been shy to tell me that it would only be physical between us.
Maybe it was the difference between them for being raised separately. Or maybe this was who they were naturally and the conditions in which they were raised just exacerbated the situation.
I wondered if he knew that Aunt Celia was in the palace.
“I met your aunts earlier on.”
Cillian paused, his arms around me telling then he pulled back enough that he could meet my gaze, his eyes wide with surprise.
“Aunt Celia is here?”
Curiouser and curiouser. Neither of them had bothered to tell the princes they were coming to the palace but they had come straight to see me?
Even Aunt Celia who was technically not even directly related to me had come to see me without telling Cillian. How strange.
What was the idea behind this?
Had they come to see me to see what sort of person Killian’s new bride who was an omega was?
What kind of person had they deduced me to be after our argument?
I noticed Cillian was still looking at me curiously. Right. He had asked me a question.
“Yes, she’s around.”
Cillian’s brows furrowed in what I might have termed confusion, his tone full of bafflement.
“I haven’t seen her in months. What did she come here for?”
Even though I wasn’t sure what the answer to that was so I shrugged.
“You might have to ask her that yourself.”
Cillian opened his mouth to speak but before he could say anything the sound of the door opening stopped him and made us spring apart.
Even though we were together now, to the world, I was still engaged to Killian.
Being seen holding each other intimately would not go well for either of us.
We shouldn’t have bothered though because it was Killian who sauntered into the room, his usual cocky expression on his face.
He looked between us, his gaze slightly mocking before his eyes settled on his brother, fierce and not remotely friendly.
“Cillian.”
Cillian matched his tone easily.
“Killian.”
Great. This was my fault as well. When I had come into this palace, at least the differences between them hadn’t been so much but it seemed like I was causing even more to come up simply by existing.
Killian’s confrontational tone didn’t ease as he spoke.
“Aunt Celia wants to speak with you.”
Cillian looked surprised. I was surprised as well. Killian would never relegate himself to a messenger position. Unless… he wanted privacy to talk to me with Cillian present.
Cillian must have thought the same because he hesitated unmoving for a couple of seconds until I took his hand shaking my head.
“You should go. It must be something urgent.”
Cillian relented. He must have really been missing his aunt for him to back down so easily without making a fuss.
He kissed my cheek and gave me a look that I easily interpreted as one word and he would come running back to me.
There would be no need for that even if I could practically feel the jealousy from Killian’s faze searing down on me.
Then Cillian left the both of us together alone in the hall.
Killian was silent staring down at me with the most peculiar expression on his face that I couldn’t read.
I sighed deeply.
“What do you want, Killian?”
A smirk curved up that impossibly handsome face as he tilted his head to the side.
“Can I not wish to see my fiancee or are you too busy fucking my brother to talk to me?”
Gone was the man who had been worried about his aunt wanting to see me.
The person in front of me looked like he could barely tolerate my presence.
I didn’t understand Killian. Hot one moment, cold the other. What had changed from an hour ago till now?
“Why are you being so touchy? You’ve been acting weird since that day, having a problem sharing.”
Since the day that I returned from Cillian’s room reeking of him and Killian had taken me so harshly as though to punish me for that, it felt like our dynamic was shifting and I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or a bad one.
It was like he had become more volatile than he had been which was strange because I had always been upfront with him.
He knew that I loved Cillian, and knew that we spent any spare time we had with each other. So what had he expected, for us not to have sex?
His gaze shuttered and his lips tightened as he looked at me.
“I’m not being touchy. You are the one hiding secrets.”
My heart skipped a beat and I thought of all the secrets I had kept from him. Treasonous magical secrets.
No. There was no way that he could know about it. I had not practised magic in the palace. I had no other secrets.
I feigned ignorance.
“What do you mean?”
Killian’s anger intensified and his voice deepened into a growl.
“Why are you researching magic?”
Fuck.