I could feel my blood boiling as I paced the length of the interrogation chamber. The royal food inspector cowered before me, his face pale with fear. Good. He should be afraid.
"Your Majesty," he stammered, "I swear I knew nothing about—"
"Silence!" I slammed my fist against the stone wall, taking grim satisfaction in his flinch. "My wife—your Queen—was being poisoned right under your nose!"
I hadn't felt this kind of rage since my early days as king, when I still carried the battlefield with me everywhere I went. I thought I'd left that part of myself behind, but now it surged back with terrifying clarity.
"Four years," I hissed, leaning close enough to see the sweat beading on his brow. "Four years of disappointment. Four years of watching Seraphina blame herself for our lack of an heir. Four years of whispers at court. And all this time, someone was deliberately sabotaging us."
"Your Majesty, please—"
