My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 171

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Mina

The smell of my mother’s death never really left my nose, but the smell in this room was trying its best to replace it.

It was the copper sting of fresh blood, the sharp, medicinal burn of the healer’s salves, and the heavy, musky scent of Fenris’s possessive rage still hanging in the rafters. I stood by the door of the Queen’s quarters, my hands tucked into the folds of my wool skirt so no one would see the way they were vibrating. I felt like a wire pulled so tight that a single sneeze would snap me in two.

The healer finished his work, packed his blood-stained linens, and bowed his way out. He didn’t look at me. No one really looks at the Omega when there’s a mutilated Queen in the chair and an Alpha breathing fire in the corner.

Fenris walked over to Sera. He didn't say anything, he just touched her shoulder—a heavy, grounding weight. He looked at me, his grey eyes flat and unreadable.

"Stick around until she’s done," he told me.

I just nodded. I couldn't find my voice. It was buried somewhere under the mental image of Kark’s knife sinking into the Queen’s side. Fenris kissed Sera—a deep, lingering thing that felt like he was trying to swallow her soul—and then he walked out.

Now it was just us. Me, Sera, and the ruin in the chair that used to be a Queen.

Sera didn't look at me. She looked at her mother. She looked at the blood on the floor. She looked at the recording crystal she’d forced me to fetch—the one that had just played back the sound of her mother’s degradation for everyone to hear.

"Mina," Sera said. Her voice was small. Too small for the woman who had just orchestrated a psychological execution.

I didn't answer. I couldn't even blink. I was staring at the recording crystal. I was the one who went to the trunk. I was the one who handed it to her. I was the accomplice. I thought we were playing a game to keep the South at bay. I didn't realize we were building an abattoir.

Later when we were done with the Queen, Sera had sighed, a long, shaky sound. "Mina, please. I have to prepare for the chamber meeting. The elders are waiting. I... I have no idea what to wear. I don't know how to present myself after this."