Rebel Spring Read Online Free PDF Page B

thoughtless that he didn’t understand why any of this was so vile to her.
    He deserved to be punished in so many ways. He
did.
    But not for this.
    He’d told the king the truth.
    However . . . to admit
she
was the one who’d lied . . .
    Oh, Goddess Cleiona . . .
Cleo hardly ever prayed to her namesake, the Auranian deity, but she’d certainly make an exception today.
Please, please help me.
    She could let this happen without protest. It could be her secret until the day she died. No one would ever believe Aron after this punishment.
    Her fists were clenched so tight her fingernails bit painfully into her palms as she watched the dagger move toward Aron’s mouth. He let out a terror-filled screech.
    “Stop!” Cleo shouted, the word escaping her before she even realized it. She trembled from head to foot, her heart pounding so hard that it rocked her entire frame. “Don’t do this! Please, don’t! He didn’t lie. He—he was telling the truth! We were together one single time. I did give my chastity to him knowingly and without reservation!”
    The guard holding the dagger froze, the edge of the blade pressed to Aron’s pink, squirming tongue.
    “Well, now,” King Gaius said softly, but Cleo had never heard more menace in anyone’s voice. “That certainly changes things, doesn’t it?”

CHAPTER 3
    MAGNUS
    AURANOS
    P rincess Cleo’s face was pale, her body literally shaking with fear in the face of King Gaius’s wrath.
    And to think Magnus had assumed this golden kingdom would have no worthy entertainment.
    His mother sat silently next to the king, her face impassive through all this drama, as if she had no opinion on either severed tongues or lost virginity. Somewhere behind that flat expression of hers, he knew she most certainly had an opinion on what her husband chose to do and to whom he did it.
    But the queen had long since learned not to speak such thoughts aloud.
    King Gaius leaned forward to peer more closely at the tarnished princess. “Did your father know of your shameful loss of innocence before his death?”
    “No, your majesty,” she choked out.
    This was truly torture for her. For a royal princess, even one from a fallen kingdom, to openly admit that she’d been defiled before her wedding night . . .
    Well, it simply wasn’t something that happened. Or, at least, it wasn’t something anyone ever admitted to as publicly as this.
    The king shook his head slowly. “Whatever are we to do with you now?”
    Magnus noticed that Cleo’s fists were clenched at her sides. Through all this, her eyes had stayed dry, her expression haughty despite her obvious fear. She did not cry, nor did she fall to her knees and beg forgiveness.
    King Gaius loved it when people begged him for mercy. It rarely helped their cause, but he did enjoy it.
    That pride of yours will be your undoing, princess.
    “Magnus,” the king said, “what do you suppose we should do now that this information has seen the light of day? It seems I have betrothed you to a whore.”
    Magnus couldn’t help the snort of laughter that escaped him. Cleo cast a glare toward him, one made of sharp, broken glass, but he hadn’t meant the laugh to be at her expense.
    “A
whore
?” he repeated. Well, his father
had
specifically asked for his opinion, which was a rare opportunity indeed. Why waste it? “The girl admits to being with Lord Aron one time, a boy she planned to wed. Perhaps they have since realized they acted impulsively by giving in to their . . . passions. Quite honestly, I don’t see this as quite as much of a crime as you do. In case you’re unaware, I have not retained my chastity, either.”
    Speaking so plainly could have several different outcomes—negative or positive. Magnus ignored his churning gut and kept his expression as neutral as possible as he waited to find out which it would be.
    The king leaned back, regarding him coolly. “And what of her admittance to lying to me?”
    “If I were in