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And in the court, now and when she established her ownLady Ardelia The strong young Queen with too

"Why?" he asked quietly

For a while Lia just sipped the brew and didn’t answer Then she sighed "It’s the last ti auction, and her escorts were killed Dorothea SaDiablo was behind that attack The Gray Lady insisted that she had to go to Raej one th of a Gray-Jeweled Queen still protected Dena Nehele The hed whatever ained They politely requested that she remain within the borders of Dena Nehele--and then they pulled out every scrap of Blood Law and Protocol they could find about the rights and privileges of males in the First Circle By the time they were done, she realized their request really amounted to a command-- which they vehemently denied, of course"

"Of course," Jared said politely

She looked at him with keen suspicion

"That doesn’t explain why you’re here," Jared pointed out

She fiddled with her ain Even if the First Circle hadn’t found a way to stop her, she couldn’t go We almost lost her the last time, and if we’d lost her before--" Lia quickly sipped her brew

"Before?" Jared’s green eyes narrowed as he watched her

"Before the new Queen was fully trained to take her place"

Which meant that the majority of the Warlord Princes and other Queens in Dena Nehele had already agreed to accept the Gray Lady’s chosen successor

"Why did they send you? Why not a e of the blanket beneath her "Well, I look a lot like Gran, and I’m the only other Queen in the fa to say Couldn’t think at all "Gran?" His voice cracked and rose to a squeak "Gran? The Gray Lady is yourgrandhter had a daughter"

Jared drained his ifted Black Widow had been able to fool the eye, had been able to soers wouldn’t be able to tell it wasn’t the Gray Lady But there was nothing that could fool aany other kind of witch was a Queen--especially if he focused his attention on her

So it made sense that they would need a Queen to impersonate a Queen And maybe the family bond made it easier to create the illusion web, especially if Lia reserand to take the risk Or maybe the Gray Lady hadn’t felt she could ask someone outside of her family Or

Jared’s shoulder blades twitched He kept hoping there was another answer because, if there wasn’t, he was going to be furious all over again, and he couldn’t afford the luxury of telling her what he thought of the males in her Territory

"So," he said pleasantly while the anger started si his blood, "since you were the only other Queen in the family, and the Gray Lady’s successor, you decided to do this yourself"

She eyed hiain, the kind of inventive curses that were designed to make another man flinch, she snarled at him "Why are you so snappish about my father?"

"What kind of man would stand back and let you do this?"

"What would you have done if your Queen ordered you to let your daughter go?"

"I would have fought it!"

"He did! He lost" She winced and wrapped her left aret hoet teary about the bruises, and then he’ll yell athiently And found he now understood his father’s outbursts while still able to re end "Doesn’t see yelled at when you’ve already been through a hard time and survived it"

She shook her head and sniffed

The pats changed to soothing circles

Jared hesitated "There had to be other ways of letting Dorothea know the Gray Lady is still a foret a few more slaves really worth this risk?"