Mark of the Empress | The Empire Saga #2

Chapter Two

Treyan sprinted into the foyer the moment he heard the mug hit the floor but was as dumbstruck as Alex the moment he saw who stood behind the wrought-iron bars of the outer door. Covered in a cloak from head to toe and much the worse for wear, he'd always remember the face of the woman who had stabbed him in the back.

Literally.

Bria stood before them. The Mistress looked as though she had been through Hell and back, with her dark hair akin to a rat's nest, her eyes sunken and dim, and her traveling clothes torn and dirty as though she hadn't bathed in months. Her gaze remained downcast and her arms protectively wrapped around herself, holding shut the black cape with what appeared to be only a satchel slung across her chest to call her own.

"What are you doing here?" Treyan asked in Lelriera, the language of their Empire, through clenched teeth. It was easier for him to convey how he felt in his native tongue, and he knew that Alex could at least understand the overall message. It was one of the determining characteristics of being the true Queen Empress of the Prophecy, after all.

The dialect brought Bria's attention to him, and the red eyes given to those who betrayed the Empire pierced into his. Both he and Alex recoiled in surprise, and Treyan barely missed the whispered "please" that escaped her lips before Alex launched into a tirade.

"I knew it! You filthy, disgusting whore! This is all your fault! You betrayed me! You betrayed your prince! You betrayed your Empire, and all for that fucking bastard!" Alex lunged for the door, but Treyan, with the reflexes of the trained prince—no, king, that he was, caught her in an embrace before she hurt herself. Or worse, before she ruined the only connection they currently had to their former home.

Bria's eyes were wide as Alex continued to bombard her with slurs and insults. "Empress, I—" she began. Treyan quickly turned to the former mistress and motioned for her to be quiet as he wrangled Alex and tried to instill some sense of reason into her stubborn brain.

After moving his wife back into the kitchen, she immediately started pacing, as though looking for something else she could break in place of the face of their unexpected visitor.

"Alex."

She whipped around to face him, utter astonishment on her face. "Treyan, what is she doing here?"

"I don't know, and we're not going to be able to find out if she remains on the front doorstep."

"You want to invite her in? With our daughter sleeping in the next room?"

Treyan sighed. "So you suggest we send her away?"

"Other than slitting her throat, yes."

Treyan's eyes widened with astonishment at her outburst. "Alex."

"She deserves nothing from us other than the sweetest death, and even that would be too kind."

"Alex," he repeated, his tone tinged with subtle warning.

"Perhaps we should have her assaulted, take away her newborn child, and mortally wound her beloved just to see how she feels then."

"Alexstrayna!"

Treyan rarely used the Empress's full given name, so hearing it quickly stopped Alex in her tracks. He knew she was upset, and with every reason, but he would not tolerate any thought process akin to his brother's.

Stricken, she sat down at the small kitchen table, her face in her hands as the weight of it all seemed to crash upon her at once. Treyan sat across from her, knowing he now had her undivided attention.

"Alex, listen to me," he began with a glance over his shoulder at the half-closed door that blocked Bria from their view. "Right now, we have standing outside our door the only other person in the world who knows what we've been through, and somehow—some way—she is here. And since she is here, perhaps there is a now a way for us to get back."