KINGMAKERS PART 5.4

Of all the places I expected to find her, a small white-shuttered shack on the edge of an even smaller village at the end of the world was not even on my list.

I'd envisioned her in a castle. Heading up a keep of bloodthirsty assassins. Living beneath the sea with the fabled water mages or even flying with the birds.

But not here. In poverty. Eating scraps of scrawny beasts off chipping plates and drinking stagnant water from rusted cups of iron.

She laid on the floor, still. A bump bulged from where I struck her, a bruise already forming around it.

"When will she wake up?"

I turned to the boy sitting beside me and was again struck by his similarity to Julien. But unlike the king who sent me to kill him, Rueben was innocent.

"Should be any moment now," I muttered.

"If you're mamere's friend," he said, "why have I never seen you?"

I sighed, unused to the impertinence of children. "Because it was a time before you were born."

The boy was silent for a while, his mouth twisted in thought.

"Are you my papa then?"

I stiffened at the hopeful gleam in his youthful gaze. "No, boy. I am not."

The hope in his eyes sputtered, going out like a candle in the wind.

But I couldn't be bothered to comfort him as Amelie took a sharp inhale.

She didn't come to slowly as if from a dream. No, she shot up like a bat from Hell and grabbed the first weapon-like object she could reach—a chair.

I will admit: I was afraid as she swung the chair toward me.

Yet I did not pull my blade, which was perhaps what saved me. Amelie dropped the chair to the floor with a clatter just before the heavy wooden thing could collide with my skull. She swept up her son and pulled him away from me.

Amelie set the boy on the ground, one eye on me and one on her son. "Are you hurt, my Rue?"

The boy shook his head. "We were waiting for you to get up. He says you are old friends, mamere. Can he stay for dinner?"

Amelie pressed her son's face to her chest, hugging him tight. But her eyes were on me. And full of loathing.

"Mamere," said Rueben, his voice muffled in the fabric of her dress. "I'm hungry."

Amelie shoved her son toward the room where I first found him. "Wash your hands again, boy. I need to speak with my old friend."

The moment the door clicked closed behind the child, she rounded on me.

"I have come to make a deal," I said quickly.

Amelie stopped a few inches away. Her face was more wrinkled than it'd been before, but it was just as fine as I recalled. I clenched my fist to keep from reaching out for her.

"What do you want?" She asked with a sigh.

I motioned for her to sit. She did not. "I spared your boy's life. But now you must help me. Help me with Julien."

"No."

I lifted a brow. "Are you afraid?"

"Solene still writes to me. They tell me what he's done. What strange magic he claims to possess."

"Which is why he must not be allowed to rule much longer."

Amelie narrowed her eyes. "Yet you are here on his commands."

"I am here for myself and myself alone," I said. "When you left ten years ago, I told you I loved you. That has not changed. I would not hurt your child because I know it would hurt you."

Amelie settled a calculating stare on me. She took everything in, from head to toe. She scoured my face before her gaze shifted to my hands.

Reading my bodily movements, if I knew her at all.

"You aren't lying," she said at last.

"I told you once I would never lie to you. That hasn't changed either."

"And I suppose," she said, moving to retrieve her gun, "that you want the throne for yourself?"

I set my jaw. "Unless you can think of someone better?"

A strange expression passed over her face, one I wasn't familiar with. It made me feel uneasy.

But only for a moment.

"None better than you," she said, and she dropped to a knee. "My King."

I couldn't stifle the smile that broke over my lips, seeing her bow before me as she once bowed before him. Pulling her to her feet, I kissed her. And though it was not the first time, it was the first I'd kissed her and felt she was mine.

"You'll hide Rueben somewhere safe while I gather the others? Closer to danger, furthest from harm and all that."

I pulled away. "The others? No, it should only be me and you."

"We can't do it alone, Quen."

Ah, but we could. I knew Julien's secret. I'd learned how to kill him despite his claims that he could not die. But Amelie had that stubborn look in the jut of her chin. The one that said she would not be swayed.

"As you wish," I said. And despite my earlier promise, it was a lie.

There was a banging at the front door. We both froze.

"Amelie!" Called a feminine voice, followed by another knock. "Rueben!"

"Who is she?" I whispered to Amelie.

"A friend." Her shoulders dropped and she hung her head. "A friend who knows too much."

"I will do it." I moved to unsheathe my sword but Amelie put her hand on mine.

"It must be me," she said softly.

I tilted my head and asked again, "Who is she?"

Amelie turned toward the door, her dark eyes already full of regret. "Leverage," she said, and threw the door wide to reveal a bent old woman, her wrinkled face on the verge of a smile.