I could see she why she wouldn’t like me. I had been snooping around her bedroom. And now I was her son’s mate. That was reasonable. But this? This just made me angry.
I could feel the power building inside me like a grenade about to go off. If she came at me with that knife, I wasn’t going to be able to stop whatever was inside me from kicking her ass.
Then she’d never like me. Never. Not even giving her cute grandkids would be able to save me from a life of scorn and disappointment from her.
“Mother!” Thor stood now, walked to her and ripped the knife from her hand. “I said enough. Stop this. Father needs help.” He glanced down at the prostrate man.
She shook her head and leaned into her son. “Nothing is going to help him now. Nothing.” She sobbed, her shoulders shaking like she was breaking.
A servant brought in the wand and Thor took it, dropped beside his dad and began waving the blue light over him.
“He’ll be all right,” Thor said as he worked. “I’m sure the medical team will be here any moment. We don’t even know what’s wrong. A ReGen pod will have him back here chasing you around the house in no time.”
She shook her head, spun on her heel and turned back to me. Pointed. Livid. “You did this. If you live a thousand years, I want you to know this was your doing.”
Her words were like a dagger in my gut, but I stood tall and kept my chin up. She hated me. So be it. But I wasn’t going to give up on Thor because of that.
“What are you talking about?” I asked. “I told you I wasn’t the traitor. We’ll find who’s messing with the Jax family. Set things right.”
“No.” Her hands shaking, she reached into a pocket of her gown and pulled out a small vial. “Things will never be right.” She glanced over her shoulder at Lord Jax’s unconscious body.
She opened her mouth and tipped the contents of the container onto her tongue. What the hell was she doing? I didn’t understand what I was seeing, what was happening so quickly.
Thor, who’d been checking on his father, saw her as the final drop fell.
Between one second and the next he was beside her, throwing the vial away from her to shatter against the wall across the room. “Mother! What have you done?”
He was wild with fear. With anger. With surprise.
She looked up at him, her shoulders sagging in defeat. “It was supposed to be her.” Her legs gave way, as if they could no longer hold her weight, and she slipped to her knees. Thor tried to catch her, but she’d gone boneless. Weak.
“I’m sorry, my son. It was supposed to be her, not your father.”
6
Thor
My blood ran cold. The truth was obvious now. Every gruesome bit.
“It was you,” I said, kneeling before my mother. From my position, I could also see my father, only a few feet beyond. I could no longer hear his ragged breathing, no longer see his crest rising. He was dead.
My mother had killed him.
But that death, the poison she’d drunk, wasn’t meant for her mate, my father.
It had been for Faith.
I glanced up at my mate, my body filled with horror at the shock of this. My father, dead. My mother, a traitor to the queen, to the throne, to my mate.
To me.
She’d betrayed us all in a relentless pursuit of power. And for what? Did my father not provide enough for her? All these years, all the business deals I had overseen, the wealth and properties and armies. None of it mattered to my mother. She wanted power. And recognition.
I had no doubt now, that if she could, she would have placed herself on the throne and walked around with the crown on her head.
And Faith? Goddess. What was she thinking now? I had protested my innocence, sworn to her that my family was not involved.
I’d lied to her. Been wrong. My own blood had tried to kill her, under my roof. Under my care. And my mother had very nearly succeeded.