How to Poison Your Husband [COMPLETE! Cozy Romantasy With A Dash Of Murder]

Step 12b: ...from finding true love...

Eirifold stood in the center of the room, his eyes wild. His hands clutched the hilt of the sword.

The blade's other end was buried deep in the queen's side.

"You fool!" Ysette screamed. "You were supposed to stab her, not me!"

"Sorry, Mother." Eirifold released the sword and took a step back, positioning himself between Ivelle and the queen. "I normally don't resort to violence... but I think you've done enough damage, don't you?"

His voice was ragged, but there was nothing hesitant about the way he grasped Ivelle's hand behind his back.

"I don't know for sure which memories are real or fake anymore," he went on, with the same flippant tone Ivelle had grown to love during her months at the palace. "But I do know my feelings. And right now, they're telling me to trust Ivelle."

Ivelle's heart thudded painfully—only now it was a good kind of pain, the kind that blooms in your chest when you felt like your heart is full to bursting.

"You've spent your whole life ignoring me or finding new ways to make me your puppet," Eirifold went on, "and frankly, I've had enough. I don't know why you're so determined to bend me to your will, but this needs to stop. Family doesn't own or control each other for their own selfish interests. Family—"

His words were cut off by a gasp of pain.

Ivelle screamed.

The queen had yanked the sword from her side. Blood dribbled onto the flagstones, and the vines that criss-crossed the floor swelled with greed. Brambles encircled Eirifold's body, pinning him in place, just as they had trapped Ivelle and Ash.

"Fine," Ysette snapped. There was nothing beautiful about her features now. "You want to do things your own way? I'll show you just how cruel I can be. You'll get to watch each of your friends die as I kill them with my own hands, starting with the wretch you trust more than your mother."

She strode forward, dragging the sword across the floor, and came to a stop before Ivelle. "How shall I kill you?" she purred. "A sword seems too easy. Thorns, perhaps? Or spiders? Or maybe I should summon a man-eating scorpion?"

The vines surrounding Ivelle's body tightened, their spines driving deeper into her flesh.

"Thorns it is!" the queen said happily. Magic swirled in her hands, and Ivelle screamed.

She could feel the brambles lengthening, twisting and burrowing into her skin. She thought she heard Eirifold cry out with horror, but the sound was drowned out by the rushing in her ears as pain flooded her senses. Through a haze of tears, she saw Ysette smile with vicious delight.

"Step away from my daughter, you bitch!"

The pain lessened abruptly. Ivelle blinked, dazed and shaking.

Ascoria stood in the doorway, fury blazing in her eyes. Behind her huddled Lillian and Mariel, looking considerably less furious and more wary.

"Coria." For the first time, Ysette hesitated. "Your daughter told me her dog-husband killed you."

"Well, what do you know? I'm back from the dead!" Ascoria sneered. "Seems to be a theme these days. You seem to be doing quite well for yourself here. But why the theatrics? Couldn't you just slink back to the little fae kingdom you crawled out of?"

"You two... know each other?" Ivelle rasped.

Ascoria huffed a laugh. "Of course I know the woman who murdered my sister and sent me on the run for the last twenty years!"