The Hidden Princess Read Online Free Page A

how pathetically
grateful
Tippy had been as I brushed the tangles from her hair, neglected for so long. She’d given up her life to grant me the chance of freedom. All for nothing. I can’t drain the anger from my voice, even though I know speaking to my father in such a way is unwise to say the least: “Tippy was desperate. Desperate to see her family again. You kept her for three centuries hoping eventually that she’d grow up and you’d be able to use her like some kind of breeding cow.” I don’t dare mention Iris and the other victims of my father’s desire for revenge on the mortals. “You didn’t
lose
Larkspur, either – you exiled him. It was your choice.”
    He’s been watching me with an infuriating amused smile, but the second Larkspur’s name tumbles from my lips all control leaves him, replaced with sudden naked fury. He reaches out to strike me and I duck; he grabs my wrist, his touch spreading a deep cold that freezes me where I stand. We remain face to face. My heart throbs, pounding and pounding; I look up at him, expecting to be hurled halfway across the White Hall. He’s done it before. He could break every bone in my body without lifting a finger, without so much as touching me. He does not. We stare at each other, the world continuing to move around us as all the while we are still. I’ve never once seen the Swan King shed a tear, but the dark emptiness in his eyes is worse. God knows, I swear I can almost feel his despair – so deep and relentless, such endless longing. First he lost Larkspur’s mother, and then finally Larkspur himself. Now I see the truth: it’s almost too much for the Swan King to bear.
    “Don’t make me hurt you. I don’t want to.” He drops my wrist, eyes locked on mine. “Don’t speak of Larkspur again, Lissy. Please.”
    Don’t make me hurt you?
As if it’s my fault.
    “It doesn’t have to be like this.” I’m breathless and terrified, but the words spill out before I can stop them. Nothing can bring back Larkspur’s mother, but is there not still hope for my brother? “Larkspur would come if you called him. He’d be here before dawn. He’d go down on his knees for you. All you have to do is ask.”
    The Swan King smiles, bittersweet. “But you, my half-breed daughter, are the only one with the power to let him in. And yet you refuse to open the Gateway. Time and time again you have refused.”
    “Then don’t release the plague. Promise you won’t.”
    He laughs, gently releasing my wrist. “How could you trust me, Lissy? How could you be sure I wouldn’t do it? You made one bargain with me, daughter, and that should have taught you never to attempt another.”
    I shrug, choosing my words with utmost care. “It’s true you’ve outmanoeuvred me before. But what if you proved I could trust you?”
    He smiles again. I’ve amused him once more – his entertaining little toy. “And how, my own darling, my Hidden Princess, how would I earn your trust?”
    “My blood,” I reply, before I have the sense to shut up. “You took it. You used it to make the plague. Destroy the silver vial – destroy the plague – and I’ll open the Gateway. It’s all you have to do. I’ll release you and Larkspur will come. You know he will.”
    We’re standing so close I can see the steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathes, the white feathers of his cloak shivering and shifting with each soft movement. When he speaks, his voice is so sweet that I want to cry. “But who would stop me cutting your throat, darling one, the moment you opened the Gateway? Even if I destroyed the vial before your eyes, Lissy, your blood is not so very difficult to come by.”
    “Why don’t you just let it all go?” I say, quietly, not even caring what he does to me now. How long must we go on like this, deadlocked? “Why make the mortals suffer so much for a crime not one of them committed? Even the Fontevrault who killed Larkspur’s mother have been dead for