The dim, suffocating illumination inside Julian's bedchamber seemed to shrink, coiling like a shadow around the tall, velvet-covered mirror. Igor's dark reflection hovered within the depths of the glass, his reptilian eyes gleaming with a poisonous delight.
"Think about it, Your Majesty," Igor purred, his voice dropping into a whisper that slipped past Julian's fragile defenses. "If the Queen... the Crimson Witch whom the common folk already fear and despise... is exposed for engaging in a sordid, shameful affair with a mere court jester... what do you think will happen to her precious reign?"
Julian narrowed his eyes, his chest heaving as the humiliating echoes of Silver's poetic insults still burned in his blood. "The nobles would demand her head. The council would dissolve her bloodline instantly."
