“Say it,” Alaric insisted, but it wasn’t a command.
“Just…” Kol shook his head, brows pulling like he searched for the right word. “We protected you. I know we’re the same hatch year, but you were always more innocent than the rest of us, I guess.” Kol looked distant, as if he were reliving a memory, but one that didn’t quite feel right.
“I know I was. Arkyn wanted it that way.”
“How does he feel about you doing this by yourself?” Kol asked.
“Someone had to go pick up our brides, and he certainly wasn’t going to do it. He won’t leave the capital while there is any danger in the kingdoms. Besides, he barely takes a break from fucking, how would he have time?”
Kol barked a laugh. “He’s still up to all that, even with a bride on her way?”
“You know Arkyn, his pleasure comes before all things.”
“It should never come before you,” Kol challenged.
“I’m the spare, remember? I do anything he decrees, and I keep my opinions to myself. If I’m not behind him, then I’mdeemed a challenger to his claim to the crown, and we know what happens to challengers.”
Kol closed his eyes in understanding. I, too, was beginning to understand that the heir was more of a dick than I had even assumed. He used his brother to do anything he couldn’t be bothered to do himself, including putting his life on the line by traveling the kingdoms in his stead. And if Alaric had anything to say about it, he’d be dealt with as a challenger to the throne? Lovely.
Kol’s eyes darkened. “You have to stop letting him rule your life.”
“He’s my future king, and I’m sworn to serve him. What else can I do?”
“You’re allowed to have your own life too.” Kol stepped closer.
“Am I?” Alaric asked, dragging his gaze down Kol’s naked chest. He probably wasn’t as comfortable with nudity as we dragons were, but he seemed okay with Kol’s.
Interesting.
I was a little surprised they were having this conversation in front of me, but I didn’t dare move and remind them of my presence. It was fascinating to watch them rekindling what I could only assume had once been a close bond, and I didn’t want them to take the conversation elsewhere and miss anything.
I listened to them catching up until the early hours of the morning when my relief came to take over the steering of the ship. They didn’t discuss anything heavy and stayed mostly on reminiscences and light subjects, but they had made progress, and it warmed me to see. I didn’t want to break it up, but we were nearing shore.
“You two should prepare, as I’m sure we’ll be met with a welcoming party before long.”
SIX
CALYTRIX
Over the last few days, I had been plucked and painted and primped like a goose on her way to slaughter. By the end of the beauty treatments, I didn’t recognize myself in the mirror. My long black locks were curled, and my face was coated in bronze and shimmer. Kohl lined my eyes, and gold paint covered my eyelids. Even my lips were stained a deep red, but none of that was the worst of it. The worst were my golden nails. They were almost weapons in their own right. Elongated, using some mixture of powdered dragon scale and ground Pegasus hoof, which was artfully sculpted to create these artificial dragon-like talons that were the current fashion among the females of the upper classes. But they were my worst nightmare. I was rendered virtually incapable of doing any of what I love with my hands like this. I couldn’t feed my horse or put his saddle on. I couldn’t clean his hooves, or any of the other care I spent my days doing to pass the time in this gilded cage I lived within. And even if I left all those tasks to servants and only wanted to take pleasure in riding my best friend, I couldn’t even do that with these damned things.
The nails felt more like shackles than the guards posted outside my doors. I was sure it was by design. Father probablyordered them done to keep me compliant, so that I had to face the future my ancestors had mapped out for me.And they couldn’t even be removed without a special solution, which neutralized the magic between the ingredients! I was hobbled like a mare ready for breeding.
I turned away from the mirror as a call alerted from the watchtowers and quickly caught on throughout the battlements and then inside the castle. I knew what it was about before I could make out the words. The ship bearing the envoy had been spotted off the coast.
They’d be here before sunrise.
I didn’t sleep a wink as the ship grew on the horizon. After nearly fist-fighting one of the castle guards, I was allowed out on my balcony to watch the ship come in. Just before dawn in the still hours, my eyes were getting heavy as the ship anchored offshore. She was a massive vessel but not decked out in full royal regalia. Which wasn’t how I expected the future King to arrive.
I had expected fanfare and flags flying. I also expected excess since the King was known for his excess, and his heir, by all accounts, took that proclivity to new levels. But this just looked like a merchant ship. Perhaps they had misidentified it, and I still had some time? Unless the King had ordered the party to travel in secret. Surely not? The entire Light Castle had been preparing for this visit for weeks.There were banquets prepared, and Father had gone all out on posturing to ensure the princes knew what prizes they were getting in their brides. He had spent wealth he barely had to create the right impression, and the princes would just show up here in a merchant vessel?
What if it was a reflection of the crown’s current financial status? If they couldn’t afford to even pretend to have wealth, what did our future look like? I was not particularly interested in the trappings of wealth, but I needed to know my sister wouldbe taken care of. She was the softer of the two of us, and she was sacrificing enough. I couldn’t let her sacrifice her comfort, too.
Invisible hands closed around my heart and squeezed. The cage we had to walk into kept getting tighter and tighter. I was being suffocated in plain sight. I had a gut feeling all of this was a trap, and it got worse with every detail. I knew my father wouldn’t believe me if I pleaded with him to stop this bargain. He’d call it paranoia. He really believed he knew what he was selling Nova and I to, and his ability to pretend the Twelve Kingdom’s peace would continue if he did this was beyond me. I wished I could be so delusional.
As if marriage to a debauchee prince could do anything to secure peace between kingdoms who had clashed for millennia. The only thing that had ever unified us was the external threat of the Vivi Mortui from centuries ago, and since that war was won, the unity had been in name only. Light had long shunned the over-governance of the First Kingdom, and tensions brewed constantly in defiance of the crown. Yet my sister and I were supposed to give ourselves willingly, all primped and preened, to the disreputable progeny of a King we’ve never respected.
It was all such an absurd concept, but I was a mere female, incapable of understanding the whims of the males in charge.
