by K. A. Linde
Her eyes were wet as she looked up at her father. “Thank you … Father.”
He smiled, letting her know that using that word was present enough.
Audria broke the moment by standing and clapping her hands. “While this has been wonderful, Lord Argon…”
“Call me Kivrin, Audria.”
She nodded her head in acknowledgment. “We do have to get back to Rosemont for the party tonight, and Kerrigan and I have much to do to get ready.”
“It was a pleasure having you all here. Regrettably, I won’t be able to make the party, but happy Geivhrea, and send the king and queen my regards.”
Kerrigan tucked the brooch into her pocket and then pulled her father into a final good-bye. “Will I see you in the city again?”
“Yes, I’ll return with the snow melt. You can’t keep me away.”
She smiled. “Good. Perhaps we can do more of this.”
“I’d like that.”
He released her, and she hastened up to her room to change into her riding outfit. Mereda had already directed for her bag to be packed and taken to Tieran. When she arrived, Tieran, Netta, and Evien were clustered together, as if gossiping. Fordham stood stoic next to Netta while Audria chatted endlessly with March. As soon as he saw Kerrigan though, he broke off with Audria and came to her side.
“I rode here with Audria, but I would prefer to return with my betrothed,” he said with a wide smile. He truly was incredibly handsome. More so than she ever remembered. As if Bryonica suited him more than anywhere else in the world.
“How do you find dragon riding?”
He wrinkled his nose. “It wouldn’t be my first method of travel. I’ll always prefer a horse, but I can’t deny how fast it is.”
“Certainly,” she said.
Her eyes found Fordham’s in the distance. He waited for her to break off the engagement, but she couldn’t do it here. Then, she’d have to ride all the way back with him in their party. She’d do it after.
“Of course you can ride with me.”
Having March at her back for the entirety of the flight felt like a violation. It wasn’t that he’d ever done anything precisely wrong to her in the present. It was her memories of him that stabbed at her mind. It was unfair to assume he was the same person when he’d shown no such inclinations, but she loved Fordham, and having March’s hands at her waist made her feel slimy.
They landed in Belcourt Palace before lunch. March looked a little green in the face when he clumsily dismounted from Tieran’s back. Tieran huffed in irritation and then flew away with Netta and Evien.
“That was bracing,” March said. “I don’t know how you do that all the time.”
“It’s my favorite thing in the entire world.”
“Well, probably because you grew up with those people.”
She blinked. “What people?”
“Oh, you know, in the House of Dragons rather than nobility.”
She visibly bristled at his choice of words. “Why would that matter?”
“I mean that you had more time for dragon riding and less time for things that really matter.”
She opened her mouth to demand to know what the hell he was talking about. But he must have realized he’d put his foot in his mouth because he bowed deeply and then drew her in close. “My lady, I have missed you deeply and hope that I might escort you to the ball tonight.”
“I have to make my appearance with the rest of the Society members.”
“Surely not.”
She smiled innocently. “It’s tradition. I’ll save you a dance.”
“All of the dances, my dear,” he said, circling the ring that she’d put back on her finger for his appearance. He kissed her hand and then disappeared into the palace.
Audria rushed to her side as soon as he was gone. “I am so sorry. I never wanted to bring him. He’d asked me when you would be back and said that he’d written your father and never heard back. But then something happened last night. I don’t know what, but in the middle of the night, he banged on my door and demanded that I fly him to Corsica.”
Kerrigan’s face paled. “In the middle of the night?”
She nodded. “I have no idea what happened last night that made him change his mind about it all.”
Kerrigan gulped. She knew precisely what had happened last night. But the real question was, did March know she’d been with Fordham? And if so, how?
44
The Winter Party
A knock sounded at her door. She was behind schedule. She should have already been at the party, but she couldn’t shake the horrible feeling about March. If he knew about her and Fordham, that would be horrible. Maybe one of the worst things she had ever considered. And if he did, was it the curse working against them? She hated considering it, but she couldn’t stop thinking about it.
If what had happened with Dacia was any indication, then whatever was coming for them would be coming quickly. She needed to get ahead of Ashby March, but she had no idea how.
“Come in,” she said, expecting Audria.
Instead, Darby stepped through the door, looking resplendent in a full white gown, threaded through with diamonds that glittered like starlight. It made her onyx skin stand out rich and luminous. Her black hair was up in an intricate design with a hint of shimmer along her lids and lips.
“Oh my gods,” Kerrigan gushed, throwing her arms around her friend. “Darbs, you look like a dream.”
“Me? Look at you!” Darby said.
Kerrigan laughed. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you already be at the ball?”
“Probably. Sonali isn’t going to be pleased, but a grand entrance never hurt anyone. I haven’t seen you in months. It’s been far too long.”
Kerrigan pulled Darby over to the divan. “Much too long. Tell me everything. Is someone courting you?”
She glanced down, picking at her nails. “Not officially, no. I thought this would be easier.”
“Did you? Why would you think that?”
“I trained for this,” she explained. “I thought I was meant to do this. But I really don’t like men.”
Kerrigan snorted. “I could have told you that.”
“Why are they all so boorish? None of them are…”
“Clover,” Kerrigan offered.
Darby sighed. “They’re really not. But no one else is like Clover.”
“That’s a fact.”
“How is she? I never see her anymore.”
“Do you blame her?”
“Of course not. I was the one who ended it,” she whispered sadly. “I just haven’t seen her or Hadrian much for that matter. I heard what happened at the protest but not even from their mouths that they were there. I had to hear it from you.”
“I’m sorry. I wish it could all be how it had been when we were still in the House of Dragons.”
Darby sighed. “Me too. It was much easier then.”
“Shockingly, yes.”
“And what about you? March?”
Kerrigan wrinkled her nose. “I’m breaking it off tonight.”
“Really? Because of Fordham?”
A small smile came to her face at that question. She didn’t even know how to hide her affection for him any longer. And after tonight, she would no longer have to. “He asked to court me properly after I end things tonight.”
“Oh my gods, Kerrigan!” Darby squealed. “Wait… can you do anything proper?”
She nudged Darby. “Hey!”
Darby giggled. “Gods, I have missed you so much.”
Kerrigan couldn’t even describe how much she had missed Darby. They’d been roommates in the mountain since they were little. That bond didn’t just evaporate overnight. She could sit in this room with her all day and giggle like schoolgirls and have more fun than at the party. But that wasn’t their life anymore. Darby was a Bryonican noble. Kerrigan was very nearly a member of the Society. Their absence would be noted.
“Come on. We can’t
stay here forever,” Darby said, coming to the same conclusion.
Kerrigan rose to her feet and followed her friend to the door. “Oh wait, one more thing!” Kerrigan dashed back to the table and retrieved the brooch her father had given her this morning. “Would you help me attach this?”
Darby’s eyes rounded into saucers. “Wherever did you get this?”
She took the ornament in her hand and gently affixed it to Kerrigan’s Parris original gown. The diamonds glittered like star beams, somehow bringing the whole look together.
“My father gave it to me. It’s the House of Cruse livery.”
Darby clasped her hand. “Oh, Kerrigan. I know how much this means to you.”
Kerrigan swallowed and nodded. They didn’t have to say anything else. Years together meant that everything had already been said.
“Together?” Kerrigan asked.
Darby smiled. “Together.”
They stepped out of Kerrigan’s room and headed toward the ballroom as a unit. Music and laughter and chatter filled the hallways as they approached. Audria, Fordham, Roake, and Noda were waiting for Kerrigan near the entrance.
“Took you long enough,” Audria said with a laugh. “I mean, I would want to make an entrance if I had that dress too.”
Kerrigan turned in a circle. “Right?”
Darby squeezed her hand. “I’ll go first. See you in there.”
“Good luck.”
Darby was announced behind them as Fordham stepped forward. He held his hand out to her. “My lady.”
She swallowed, meeting his gaze. They were the foggiest of gray today. His face all sharp edges, but those eyes… those eyes were only for her. Something had shifted between them, and she never wanted to get it back. She put her hand in his and turned to face the ballroom.
A gasp came from the room as they were announced. Kerrigan could understand why. They matched in every sense of the word. Parris had designed her dress in the House of Shadows black and silver. The plunging neckline reached nearly to her navel with a shimmer mesh over the décolletage. A matching exposure was visible in the back as well. The same mesh covered her arms and tied off tight at the wrist and waist. The skirts were lush and full with hints of the silver shimmer throughout, as if he’d imbued the very material with his artist’s magic so that they glimmered all on their own. And with Fordham in a black-and-silver suit, complete with a black cravat, they were a vision together. As if they had always been meant to be.
Their titles were called before the court, and all eyes turned their way. In the crowd, nearest the throne, Kerrigan could see Ashby March narrow his eyes.
Her heart skipped as the enormity of what she was about to do came over her. She had to break off this engagement. And she had to do it with a man who had demanded a dragon rider take him into the mountains without explanation… and actually accomplished it. Somehow, he’d known that she and Fordham were together. Which meant he must have had spies at Waisley. That thought turned her stomach. How much did he know? And how much more difficult would it make this if he did?
March left the queen’s side, bidding his great-aunt adieu, and then walked right to her. “Lady Kerrigan, may I have this dance?”
She had steeled herself for this moment and nodded. She forced herself not to look at Fordham as March whisked her away. One dance, and then she’d end things. She didn’t need to be here any longer than was necessary.
“You look lovely,” March said as they fell into step with the waltz.
“Thank you. You’re as handsome as ever,” Kerrigan said.
It wasn’t a lie as much as she wished it were. March was more stunning every day. It was a sin that he could be this attractive and not be the person that she wanted.
“Seeing the House of Cruse on you again brings me much joy.”
She flushed at the words. “I never thought that I’d see it again.”
“Why did your father get rid of you in the first place?” he asked calmly. As if it wasn’t a loaded question.
“I’ve only heard the story he’s told the rest of the court.”
“He buried you, Kerrigan. Yet you were safe in the mountain all along,” he said, holding her tighter. “Why would he do that?”
“He just wanted to keep me safe.” With the shift in her relationship with Kivrin, she couldn’t help defending him. Even though she had wondered the same thing for years.
“Why didn’t you come back? Why did you let us all think you were gone?” He drew her off the dance floor and into a private alcove. She glanced behind her, looking for the safety of the crowd. “Why did you let me think you were gone? You could have sent a letter… anything.”
Kerrigan bit her ruby-red lip and didn’t answer him. There was no reason for what she’d done. She could have reached out and let someone know. But she’d been so young and so afraid. She hadn’t been wanted. It was enough to keep her in one place.
“Answer me,” he snapped. Kerrigan balked at the tone. He hadn’t used that tone with her in years.
“Don’t speak to me like that.” He grasped her arm and pulled her even farther away from the safety of the party. “March, stop!”
“I want answers, Kerrigan. I’m tired of tiptoeing around the situation. Give me what I desire.”
“I don’t have answers. I was abandoned as a child. I didn’t know what was going on, and by the time I did, I’d been buried. What child thinks that they’re wanted after that? I buried my life that day.”
“You didn’t bury your betrothal contract as easily,” he growled at her.
She stepped back, but he still had her arm. “Release me.”
“No.”
“You’re hurting me,” she said, trying to wrench her arm back.
“You’re a Society member. You’ve been through worse.”
“What is wrong with you?”
“How long have you been fucking him?”
Kerrigan startled at the brutality of the question and the careless use of the vile word. It said so much and so little about what had actually happened last night. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Everyone knows it. Don’t try to play dumb.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” she repeated.
March narrowed his eyes. He still hadn’t released her arm. There would be bruises. She shouldn’t have been afraid. She was much more powerful than he was. She had four other Society members here with her. She could stop this. And yet she felt ensnared. As she had all those years ago as a child when she caught him skinning the squirrel. The ruthlessness of the act and complete lack of remorse. She’d thought he might be different. That he might have changed in those years apart, but no, he’d just gotten better at hiding it. And she was frozen in place as time shifted around them… and fear took the place of her confidence.
“You went to the hot springs last night. You returned to his rooms,” March snapped. “How long?”
“How do you know that?” she gasped. “Have you been spying on me?”
March searched her expression carefully, as if looking for guile. When he found none, he actually laughed. He laughed at her. “You know nothing about your own lands, do you?”
“What does that mean?”
March dropped her arm, and she stumbled back two steps. “Your father was in disgrace before you were born. He cut a deal with the House of Medallion and then disappeared for five years. We protected the lands and people with the understanding that we were allies. And allies repay their debts. That means, as soon as you were born and named heir to the House, you were tied to my house, to me. The House of Cruse owed the House of Medallion a marriage betrothal for everything that we’d done for you. To this day, your father has next to no standing army, and we have been securing your lands even after your supposed death.”
Kerrigan blinked at those words. Realization dawned on her. That meant that the soldiers she’d seen in Lillington hadn’t been for the House of Cruse at all. They weren’t her father’s men. They’d
been March’s lackeys all along. They were the ones to see her and Fordham head off into the woods. They reported what had happened to him. They had likely been doing it all week.
“Yes,” he said, a cruel smile twisting his features. “You understand now.”
She had never considered why she’d been betrothed to March. Her father had never mentioned any consequences to her breaking the agreement. Or what it might mean for the lands or the people if she withdrew.
“So, it’s over,” March demanded. “Whatever is happening with Prince Fordham is over and done with.”
“You don’t get to decide that for me.”
“You’re wrong about that. We’re engaged. I could try you before a court for being a slut.”
Kerrigan gasped at the word. “How dare you.”
“Or I could just withdraw my troops, declare war, and slaughter all of your people. Maybe we only need three royal houses in Bryonica anymore.”
Kerrigan’s stomach dropped. She stared at him in shocked silence. He meant it. He meant every word of it. He’d really do it.
“Why?” she managed to get out. “Why do you even care? You don’t even know me.”
“I don’t need to know you, but I know what you’re worth. The lost princess, a Society member, first of her House. The king is on his last leg. My aunt will become a dowager, and there will be infighting if there isn’t a clear winner.” He arched an eyebrow. “Frankly, I don’t give a fuck about you, but you’ll make me king.”
“You’ll never get away with it. I’m part of the Society. I’ll tell them…”
“What are they going to do? They don’t interfere in intertribal wars. You’d be violating their law, and they aren’t going to come to your rescue. From what I hear, you’re on thin ice with them as it is.”
Kerrigan stared Ashby March down. She was just one girl. She had power but not against this. Not against these machinations. He’d had years to figure out how to make this work if she ever came back. He’d never believed her father’s lies, and he’d do anything to become king. Even use her to his advantage.