"They will exterminate every last one of your soldiers. They will hunt down your Bloodkin. They will tear your pretty little kingdom apart, crystal by crystal."
"And as for you," I said, my thumb gently stroking her throat, "I will personally, very slowly, and with great enthusiasm, break every single bone in your beautiful, elegant body before I finally grant you the mercy of a quick and painless death."
I let the threat hang in the air between us, a promise as solid and as real as the shattered marble beneath our feet.
"So, what'll it be, Your Majesty?" I purred. "A long and prosperous career under new management? Or a very short, very messy, and profoundly disappointing end?"
I loosened my grip just enough for her to speak.
She gasped for air, her chest heaving.
The defiant fire in her eyes was still there, but it was now mixed with something else.
Calculation.
She was a queen. A player. She was analyzing the board, looking for a move, any move, that wasn't a checkmate.
