Now it was I who surely looked flummoxed as Veses bowed her head and started to turn.

“Veses,” Kolis called out, waiting for her to face him again. His fingers tapped once more. “I do believe you are forgetting something.”

She frowned, the crown she wore seeming duller now.

“You did fail me,” he reminded her. “That will not go unpunished.”

Veses stilled.

“Kyn?” the false King summoned.

There was a moment as the Primal of Peace and Vengeance disentangled himself from whoever had been in his lap and approached the dais when Veses and I realized what was about to occur at the very same second.

I knew because of what Kolis had offered to Kyn before. Her knowledge possibly stemmed from past experience. My heart started thumping as Kyn climbed the steps. The scent of liquor and sex wafted off him.

He held his chalice. “Your Majesty?”

“Veses will serve as this evening’s entertainment,” Kolis announced. “I assume you will ensure that occurs?”

Oh, gods.

Kyn turned to a silent Veses, eyeing her as he took a drink. “This will be fun.”

My stomach churned as Kyn slid an arm around the Primal goddess’s waist, his lips glossy from his drink.

Tossing his arm off, Veses sneered. “You and I have vastly different ideas of fun.”

Kyn laughed as he took hold of her arm. “You and I have exactly the same idea of fun, darling.”

I had to be wrong.

I kept telling myself that as he escorted her off the dais. That what I thought would happen, wouldn’t. Veses wrenched her arm free of his hold, but she took the chalice when Kyn offered it to her. She drank greedily of whatever was in the cup. Holding his stare, she dropped the empty chalice onto the tray of a servant who rushed from the shadows and then scurried away again. Veses said something to Kyn that garnered another loud laugh somewhere between cruel and amused.

This wasn’t happening.

Kyn looked at the dais, at Kolis, and whatever he saw brought a tight, harsh smile to his face. He stepped closer to her. Heads angled toward them. Bodies turned to watch. Veses didn’t retreat as Kyn reached up and grabbed her crown. It snagged in her hair, causing her head to jerk. Thin, golden strands hung from the stone and gold.

The Primal tossed the jade tree headpiece to the floor.

My mouth dropped open as it skidded across the golden tile, ending up near the still-sleeping Naberius.

I didn’t know much about Primal etiquette, but even I could see the utter disrespect in that.

Oh, gods, this was happening, and I wasn’t sure why I was so surprised. I’d heard what Kolis did to his favorites after he grew tired of them. He basically tossed them to the vultures. He’d offered me to Kyn in the event that he wasn’t convinced of who I was. But yet again, knowing what he was capable of was different from seeing it.

I hated Veses with every fiber of my being for what she had forced Ash into and for hurting Reaver. I would love nothing more than for my hand to replace the one around her throat so I could choke the life from her. She was a twisted, sick being who hurt others. In no way did I think Ash’s soul was the only one she’d darkened. Veses deserved what came to her.

But this?

My wild gaze shot around the Council Hall. Not everyone was watching. Some had turned their backs. Most of Kolis’s guards watched. Elias didn’t. Dyses was gone, and Callum looked on with a curl of distaste on his lips.

Kyn circled Veses. A low-backed chair slid across the floor as if tethered to the Primal by an invisible string. He shoved Veses toward it. She bent over it, her face shielded by all those golden curls.

Kyn approached her, planting a hand on the center of her back and drawing it down. Someone hooted. Another catcalled. This time, it was I who flinched with every sound that came from those watching.

No one deserved this.

Kyn gripped the sides of her gown—

“Stop!” I shot to my feet, breaking Kolis’s hold. Everything stopped. The sounds. The jeers. Kyn’s hands. “Stop this now—”

“You,” Veses spat, having moved faster than I could track. Standing upright now and facing the dais, she pointed her finger at me as if she were about to curse me with misfortune. The flesh of her beautiful face had thinned, exposing a dull gleam of red similar to her crown. “You will not interfere on my behalf. It is not needed.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “This—”

“Nor wanted.” Veses’ eyes burned with the same silver fire that flared inside me.

“So’lis,” Kolis spoke quietly as onlookers shifted their attention to the newest drama unfolding. “Exactly what are you doing?”

Chest thrumming, I turned to him. “This isn’t right.”

Kolis stared back at me, his features impassive.

 My hands shook. “Please stop this.”

His fingers had ceased their tapping. “And if I don’t?”

The embers pulsed more intensely inside me, pressing against my skin. “You will.”

His chest stopped moving.

“Because this is wrong.” I took a deep breath. “Because stopping it is the right thing to do.”

A long, tense moment passed, and then Kolis rose, drawing the attention of his guards and Callum. He didn’t speak until he reached my side. “It’s time to return to your quarters.”

“Stop this first—”

“Silence,” he hissed, his fingers curling around my jaw as his will snapped out, wrapping around me and sinking deep, seizing control. “We will return to your quarters, and do so in silence.”

A silent scream of fury thundered in my head as I glared at him. I started to push against the compulsion, fueled by rage and ancient instinct—

Golden swirls erupted across his chest as a faint mist seeped out from somewhere under him. “Do not even think it.”

The embers continued to swell, goading me to do more than just think it. They wanted me to act upon the rage and power building inside me.

“Your Majesty?” Phanos interrupted.

“What?” Kolis bit out, his gaze never leaving mine.

“I assume Court has ended for the evening,” he said as, from the sides of my vision, I saw others peeling away from the shadows of the alcoves, some in states of disarray, their clothing wrinkled and hair tangled as they crowded around Veses and Kyn. “But I need to speak with you.”

The mist faded around Kolis. “I have something I must take care of first. Then, I will return.”

“Of course,” Phanos remarked, his tone indecipherable. “I’ll be waiting.”

Chest rising and falling rapidly, I seethed as Kolis released my chin and took my hand. He guided me toward the doors we’d entered through, Kyn’s laugh echoing in the Hall.

“What did I tell you?”

Kolis towered over me as we stood in the cage, his nostrils flared. I couldn’t answer. His compulsion still had me in its grip.

But I didn’t think he wanted an answer.

“I warned you not to question me, and within the hour, you not only did so again, but also in a very public manner.” Golden swirls raced across his face at dizzying speed. “I warned you not to use the essence, and you did so twice in the same span of time.”

Damn it.

He had felt it.

“I can see it even now.” He grasped the sides of my face, tilting my head back. “The essence that does not belong to you, fueling your stubbornness. Your temper. I deserve neither of those things from you.”

I would’ve laughed if I could have.

“I defended you against Veses’ insults, and you proceeded to interfere with her punishment,” he said, angling his body to the side. Beyond him, I saw Callum. He paced silently. “And this is how you repay me? With disobedience and ungratefulness?”

My gods, he was…he was demented.

“You repay me by siding with the woman who would have my cock in her mouth in five seconds if I allowed it?” His eyes were wide. “Have you no honor?”