Gleam: The dark fantasy romance TikTok sensation that’s sold over a million copies (Plated Prisoner Book 3)

There’s a suffocation of noise and a pause in the air when Queen Kaila stops before us. Lu bends her waist into a stiff bow, and I drop into a hurried curtsy, my pulse racing. “Queen Kaila, forgive us. We didn’t know you were outside. I hope we didn’t interrupt anything.”

“Oh, you didn’t,” she replies, her umber gaze skipping across us like stones.

Anxiety churns in my gut as we stand there awkwardly. Every breath I take clings to my lungs, the frigid humidity coating my mouth and pressing dingy exhales across my skin like I’m clogged in a cloud.

The thick fog suddenly feels like an enemy, rather than a boon that kept Lu and me better hidden on the trek back to my room. It’s the air closing in on us, an opaque mist shoved down from the sky as if the gods want to trap us.

The gray-blue of Queen Kaila’s gown shimmers beneath her thick cloak, the hood drawn up over her straight black hair. There are three guards escorting her, the one to her right holding a torch in his hand. Their armor is worn down silver with the sigil of Third Kingdom molded to their chests, a proud insignia denoting their coasts with the rising fin of a predatory shark stalking beneath a line of ocean water.

Kaila pushes back her hood, and though no crown sits on her head today, she looks no less queenly than before. “What luck, that the two of us should run into each other like this.”

I only smile politely in response, but despite my calm exterior, my heartbeat is sprinting. The only luck this is, is the bad kind. Uneasiness has quickly drenched my spirits, my mind racing with what the implications might be of her seeing me. I don’t know Kaila’s character, barely know the main facts about her.

I tried to put all things Third Kingdom out of my mind a long time ago, but I wish I hadn’t. I wish I’d studied up on this woman, because right now, every instinct is telling me that Kaila is dangerous. I overlooked her at the dinner, her entertaining brother taking up more of my attention, plus Midas’s demanding presence and a certain brooding king.

Kaila is here on Midas’s invitation, but I have no idea why he specifically invited her. But maybe the more important question is, why did she agree to come?

“Interesting that you should be out at this hour,” Kaila muses. “I would think that King Midas prefers you safe inside the castle.”

Quickly scrambling, I say, “I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to take a walk outside. Ranhold’s night air is dense tonight.”

“Indeed. I too wanted to take a walk. I find it mentally stimulating. You can hear so many interesting things at night.”

My shoulders go stiff, and I feel Lu’s attention sharpen on the queen. Kaila must feel it too, because her gaze flicks over for a second before she once again settles her attention on me. “Walk with me?”

I blink in surprise, my hands fisting into my skirts. The last thing I want to do is walk with her, but there’s absolutely no way I can deny her, because we both know it wasn’t really a request to begin with.

“Of course, Your Majesty.”

When we both step aside for Kaila to lead the way, she cuts Lu a saccharine look. “You’re dismissed.”

Lu opens her mouth like she’s going to argue, but I subtly shake my head. I don’t want her to get herself in trouble or hurt. Queen Kaila is making my nerves strum with a steady chord of alarm, and I don’t want Lu anywhere near her. She may be a warrior and the perfect spy, but I’ve dealt with my fair share of royals over the years.noveldrama

With a loaded look at me, Lu nods tersely before she turns on her heel and strides away. Her steps are silent, dark silhouette disappearing into the fog like a forgotten ghost fading into the ether.

Now alone with Kaila and her guards, the queen begins to walk, and I dutifully match her steps, my palms sweating nervously beneath my gloves.

“Strange,” Queen Kaila hums.

Goddess, I don’t want to rise to her loaded bait, but I can’t not. Verbal trapping is a royal’s favorite pastime. Instead of learning to wage war on a battlefield, they’ve learned to do it in court.

“What’s strange, Your Majesty?” I ask, trying to keep my tone light, despite the way my throat tightens.

“That you should be accompanied by a soldier from Fourth Kingdom, instead of your king’s guards.”

My ears ring with the dangerous pitch of her words, temples pulsing with the underlying threat I can sense in their inflection.

Yep, I should’ve paid more attention to her.

Along my spine, my ribbons stiffen, the satiny lengths bracing against my skin like an animal backed into a corner, hackles raised and poised for the strike.

“My other guards are waiting for me,” I lie. “Actually, I should probably get back to them before they come searching…”

Kaila gives me a look that lets me know she sees right through my pathetic attempt at leaving. “Come now, Auren. I can keep a secret. I keep lots of them, in fact.”

Well, that makes me feel not at all better.

I worry my lip as we continue to walk past the castle, the heavy blue skirts of her dress swishing against the ground, collecting little bits of snowfall like white pebbles sewn to the hem.

Her guards hang a few feet behind us, but their presence is an oppressive wall at my back, like at any moment, they could come down on me and pin me in place.

How the hell did Lu not hear them and distract them from our presence?

I try to keep my anxiousness squelched, while the air does its best to blanket us in its dour mood, but Kaila seems oblivious to both. Or perhaps she likes the weighted presence that clings to us.

“Secrets are important, wouldn’t you agree?”

It takes every ounce of willpower for me not to allow my expression to crack. I don’t want her to see the flash of fearful trepidation drumming beneath my skull.

“I suppose so, Queen Kaila.”

“You suppose?” she repeats, her throaty laugh adding husk to the syrupy atmosphere. “Whispers are my greatest resource. You do remember my power?”

I swallow hard, trying to keep the nervous tremble from my hands. “Your magic controls voices.”

“That’s right,” she says, nodding with a smile. “I can send whispers across the room. I can make people hear voices that aren’t there. I can steal someone’s ability to talk for as long as I like, leaving them mute. But one of my favorite things to do is pull words toward me—murmurs of forbidden knowledge not for outside ears. Those are my greatest wealth.”

My stomach tilts, a tremble radiating up my spine.

She heard. She heard Lu and me talking. I desperately try to recall exactly what I’d said, but there’s no need.

Kaila stops and turns toward me with the stone of the castle at her back, her tawny skin glowing from the socked-in torchlight. I watch as she purses her full lips and then blows out a stream of smoky vapor.

The prickling presence of magic blows out with it, and then I hear something that lifts every hair on the back of my neck.

“Thanks for sneaking me in and out. It was nice to spend time with Rip.”

“I’m sure. Better company than the golden prick, huh?”

“Much better.”

My voice along with Lu’s echoes slightly as it replays. The disembodied words play along the fog in an invisible wisp of an unnatural breeze that imbeds itself upon my rising fear.

The whispers replay over and over, making my teeth lock, a cringe trying to overtake my expression. All the while, Queen Kaila watches me, a pleased look painted on her face. I have to suppress the urge to shove my hands over my ears, but luckily, she raises a hand in the air, and the voices disintegrate, fading into silence.

“You snuck out of the castle to spend time with Fourth’s army commander.”

I feel all the blood drain from my face. “I—”

She cuts me off. “Don’t try to deny it.”

Regret shoots up in stems from my gut, threatening to branch out and hang me.

Presumably happy with my silence, Kaila turns and starts to walk again. “This way.”

I follow her numbly, feet leaden with bricks of dismay.

“So, Auren, do you have a family name? A family?”

The change of subject has me flicking her a wary gaze. “No, Your Majesty. I’m an orphan.”

She makes a humming noise, taking us around the corner of the castle and past the courtyard filled with ice sculptures. The moon might be only half lit and hidden behind clouds, but it’s still reflecting off the moisture in the air, casting everything in an eerie haze.

“A shame. Family is important.”

“It is. You and your brother seem to be quite close,” I reply, trying to steer the conversation toward her instead.

The queen’s lips bend into a wistful smile. “Manu is my closest advisor and friend. He’s quite fond of you.”

Well, that’s good. Right?

“Of course, Manu likes most people,” she goes on, cutting across my hope and the castle grounds. We head to a part I haven’t been to before, passing by a short wall made of stacked rocks. “He’s a sweet soul who wouldn’t dream of using information against others. But then, that’s why the goddesses didn’t bestow a power on him, isn’t it? I’m a better fit to rule Third Kingdom, because I will do whatever it takes to ensure I keep my throne.” She nods at her own affirmation, as if she’s had this conversation with herself many times before.

The sick feeling in my stomach only grows as she veers off the stone path and begins to walk through the thick snow. The guard carrying the torch hurries in front to cut an easier path across the grounds for his queen, the burning eye of his fire glaring at me through the haze.

My dread builds and builds until it teeters over into distress, and the silence frays the ends of my nerves until I finally ask, “Where are we going, Your Majesty?”

“Just a bit farther.”

I keep darting a look over my shoulder, but it’s not like I can make a run for it. Based on the way her guards are eyeing me, I wouldn’t get far unless I used my ribbons, and I don’t want the queen to know about them if I can help it. She doesn’t need any more of my secrets.

Finally, we approach a huge stone building that looks five stories tall if not more, its true height gripped by the fog. At the front, there’s a stone archway salted with frost, wide enough for twenty men to walk through it shoulder-to-shoulder.

Four Ranhold soldiers outside bow to the queen as we pass through the archway, and her three personal guards stay with them. As soon as I’m inside the building, I look around in surprise. The distinct smell of animal fills my nose in layers of hay, dusty musk, and something almost woodsy. “This is…”

“The timberwings perch,” Kaila finishes for me, stopping in the middle of the huge open room. Beams crisscross the tall ceiling of the cylindrical space like toothpicks caught in the teeth of the stone walls.

There are dozens of the animals inside, feathers and talons as far up as I can see. Some are huddled together in their tree branch nests built on the beams, some are scratching at the hay on the ground, others are nosing at the trough where raw meat has been dumped.

Kaila walks over to one of them on our left, the feathered beast dozing with its head nestled beneath a tucked in wing.

“Riawk,” she murmurs.

The timberwing immediately responds to her voice, muddy brown eyes snapping open as its head whips up. It opens its mouth, and I flinch at its sharp, brutal teeth, but the creature only lets out a loping tongue to lick against the queen’s hand in greeting.

Kaila looks over her shoulder at me. “Have you ever been close to a timberwing?”

Hell no. These things freak me out.

“No,” I reply simply with a shake of my head.

Kaila strokes his feathers of brindled bark, and the animal lets out a purr. “Riawk won’t bite.”

Riawk looks like he wants to maul my whole face off, but sure.

I jump in alarm as a timberwing behind me suddenly flaps its huge wings, kicking up hay and dirt and other things I probably don’t want to think about, before it runs through the open archway and takes off into the night.

While I attempt to dust off my dress and coat, Kaila continues to scratch Riawk unscathed. “Auren, let’s talk woman-to-woman, shall we?”

Hesitantly, I say, “Alright.”

She looks me steadily in the eye. “I came here because Fifth Kingdom has untapped resources—resources I want. But the late King Fulke was a shortsighted swine, and his son is a snot-nosed prig.”

I have no clue why she’s telling me this, but I feel it building up. With each word, she’s shoving me up a craggy mountain of her own making.

“King Midas’s presence in Fifth Kingdom and his extended invitation turned out quite fortuitous for me.”

“Oh?” I ask cautiously, being dragged up another foot.

“Yes. After all, aligning with the Golden King has its very own advantages, doesn’t it?” she asks, dragging her eyes over my gilded form. “Luckily, King Midas and I came to a mutual agreement,” she says matter-of-factly, though her eyes bore through mine, her timberwing staring at me just as intently. “Marriage.”

For a moment, I think I’ve heard her wrong, and my brows pull together in a confused frown. “Umm…but he’s already married.”

She tilts her head. “Oh, he hasn’t told you? Queen Malina was killed.”

I’m pushed right off the peak.

Utter disbelief has me shaking my head. My mind spins in circles with this news, but I can’t even fathom it.

Malina…dead?

How can that be possible? The woman hated me from the start, but she’s a queen I knew how to deal with. Became a fixture in the background of my static life. To hear she’s suddenly dead…

“How? When?” I ask, bewilderment sticking to the roof of my mouth, my tongue a rasp of sandpaper scraping off the words.

A pleased gleam enters Kaila’s eyes. She enjoys catching me off guard. I wonder if this is something she used her magic to learn or if Midas actually told her.

“There were riots in Sixth Kingdom because she was trying to commit treason against King Midas. The people rebelled against her, of course. She wasn’t able to subdue them, and they stormed the castle and killed her. The king sent forces, but it was too late.”

I rear back in shock. I can no sooner imagine riots happening in Highbell than I can Malina being murdered by them. How the hell did this happen?

Suddenly, I remember the coded letter that Slade intercepted.

The cold weather has gone from Highbell. Clear skies ahead.

Comprehension is a landing of wreckage overhead, trapping me beneath convoluted rubble.

The Cold Queen. That’s what the letter was talking about. It was a confirmation that Malina is gone.

“I can see this is quite a shock to you,” Kaila remarks, though her pitying tone doesn’t fool me.

My eyes blur with erratic thoughts as I plunge down and down.

I stare at the timberwings, but I’m not really seeing them. Instead, I’m seeing Malina, always looking down her nose at me. Formidable. Cold. Utterly unflappable.

And then there’s Highbell itself. I may have been a self-inflicted prisoner there, but it was the place I called home for a long, long time. I literally poured myself into that castle to make it what it was. I gave so much of me without ever considering the effect it would have on the people who had to look at it every day.

Kaila is still speaking, and I have to forcibly jerk my thoughts from my inner spiral to focus on what she’s saying. “He’s gotten it well in hand. The late queen obviously did not know how to quell such things, but King Midas is a competent monarch who knows how to rule a kingdom. Which is good, because my first husband was a fool.”

Completely at a loss and too unsteady to care, I ask, “Why are you telling me all of this?”

Her finger traces over the shell necklace that droops below her cloak. “This is the woman-to-woman part of the talk, Auren. I need to know, are you going to be a problem?”

So far, this conversation has been the equivalent of a kick to the gut, the shove off the cliffside, and now, I’m just falling.

“A problem?” My eyes skip over to the timberwing as it starts to nuzzle her arm.

Kaila’s thick black brows arch up ever so slightly. “I’m not a fool, and I’ve been married before. I know the ways of kings and their saddles, but you’re so much more than that, aren’t you? The gold-touched favored one.” She drags her gaze from my head to my toes. “I’m not sure if he loves you or if he simply fucks you every once in a while and keeps you as his garnished prize.”

My lips part in shock, and I shoot a look over my shoulder to see if the guards are listening in, but Kaila says, “Don’t worry. I’ve been controlling our voices since we walked in this perch. No one can hear us.”

“Not even if I scream?”

A slow—and quite frankly, scary—smile spreads her lips. “Not even then. I can tug every whisper to my ears, push any voice from its box. I can grab conversations and pitch them across the room. I’m a master at voices, Auren, but it’s yours I want to hear. Are you going to be a problem?”

How is someone so young so damn terrifying?

“No.”

She regards me like she’s taken my voice and is studying it behind the lenses of her magic. “That’s very good to hear. And the other saddles, are any of them going to be a problem?”

I swallow. “No.”

“It isn’t a good idea to lie to me, Auren,” she chastises, her dark eyes gone barbed. “But it’s alright. I already know about the pregnant one. Mist. I can’t have my betrothed having bastards, so she won’t be an issue for much longer.”

Chills flee down the length of my spine, and my heart drops down into my stomach.

Won’t be an issue. What a generic way to talk about having someone killed. Adrenaline rushes me, like my body is begging me to turn and run, to find Mist and warn her, but my knees are locked in place.

“This is a business proposition and nothing more,” she goes on. “Still, I need the public to accept me. I won’t make the same mistakes as Malina did. I won’t be shoved aside for the favored or give the people a reason to rebel against me at the first chance they have.”

My ribbons tense like fisted fingers.

“I will have the people celebrate this union, Auren. It’s the only way they’re going to accept us joining our kingdoms. I want you gone. Which is why I’m so glad I overheard you tonight. In fact, that’s the only reason we’re talking, rather than me taking care of the issue of you as well,” she says pointedly.

Killed. She was going to have me killed.

Goddess, who is this woman?

She considers me for a moment, her onyx hair pulled back tight, enhancing her cheekbones. “Oh, don’t look so shocked. I can’t have anything threatening my reign. Certainly not an orphan girl—I don’t care if your hair is made of strands of pure gold. So I’m going to make you a deal, and I don’t do this often, so I’d take it if I were you.”

I have to suppress a wince at the underlying threat that prods up through her voice. Maybe it’s her magic, or maybe it’s just her, but either way, I feel the menace that nudges past her charming lips.

“I want you gone, but I don’t want to dirty my hands when it comes to you. So, I want you to run away with your army commander,” she says, and I gape at her in shock. “If you leave of your own volition, I won’t tell Midas that I saw you tonight.”

I have a feeling she wants me to leave so that if Midas does find out about her schemes, she won’t be responsible for killing me.

Kaila’s eyes are sharp, grating against my face. “If you don’t leave, I’ll tell him all about your little liaison with the spiked soldier, and I don’t think he’d take that very well, do you?”

My plummet ends in a violent crash against an unsteady ground, body left to sprawl amongst the threat. Kaila smiles at me, the beauty of her young face indisputable. I have to admit, blackmail becomes her.

The fact that I already planned to run away with Slade works in my favor, especially if she’s telling the truth about not alerting Midas about tonight. But I’m terrified that she holds this information that she can use on a whim. And what will she do once she sees that Midas won’t give me up?

I’m not sure what Kaila sees on my face, but whatever it is makes her grin. “I see you understand. I’m glad we had this little chat, aren’t you?”

My stomach twists with my placating lips. “I am, Your Majesty.”

“Good,” she nods before turning to scratch her timberwing’s chin. “The king and I will be making our announcement at the celebration ball. With the rebellions in Sixth and things tentative here with a prince not yet old enough to hold a throne, it’s imperative that we bring stability to Orea.”

The only thing this union will bring to Orea is two very power-hungry monarchs having access to even more power.

“Would you like to pet Riawk?” Kaila asks suddenly.

This woman must really enjoy catching me off guard.

“Oh, no, thank you.”

“Give him a pet,” she insists. “He’s very sweet.”

About as sweet as she is, would be my guess.

With a pinched smile, I turn to the animal and lift a hand. As soon as I do, it whips its head with narrowed eyes and snaps at me. I jerk my hand back with a yelp, barely missing the bite of its teeth.

Queen Kaila tips her head back and laughs before tapping the timberwing on its nose. “Naughty, Riawk,” she croons, though she’s still smiling. “Males are always biting at the hand that strokes them.”

I know that all too well.

“I’m glad I could talk to you, Auren. We women understand things between each other, don’t we?”

“I understand perfectly.”

“Good,” she replies with a nod. “You may go.”

Adequately dismissed, I waste no time turning and fleeing the building, the growled chirps of the animals following in my wake. When I exit through the stone archway, my ears pop, like I just passed through her magical sound bubble.

As I rush back to the castle, my head is in chaos, panic gripping me at Queen Kaila’s conversation—at her terrifying power.

Midas just might have met his match with her.

I need to tell Slade and the others what happened, but I don’t dare try to sneak out without Lu, and I don’t know where the messenger hawks are being kept. I really wish we’d come up with a way to communicate with each other for instances like this, but for now, I’ll have to wait until I see Slade tomorrow night in the library.

For right now though, I have to try and save someone who loathes me. I’m not sure if that discussion is going to be any better than the one I just had.

Mist might hate me, but I hope that hate will dim in the light of my warning. Because if it doesn’t…her life, and the life of her unborn babe, are in danger of being snuffed out.