Unbidden, the Crow’s words from the carriage roared back to the forefront of her mind:“I just mean that you seemed to be enjoying it.”
Inwardly, she groaned. She wanted nothing more than to melt into the floor. Or to disappear into her room with a cup of hot tea and some chocolate imported from Lothmeer and never be heard from again.
Why was he staring at her? What was he thinking?
But more importantly, what had truly happened back there in the cathedral? With the voice from her vision and the strange cold? What did it all mean?
Father Perero. She needed to speak with the Shepherd. Surely he would know.
As the last guest stepped forward and offered up their well-wishes and present, one of the court heralds slammed his stave against the floor to call the crowd within the throne room to order. “It is now time for the royal gift exchange!”
A dry smile quirked her lips at that announcement. There was no telling what Aldric had procured for her for this portion of their marital production.
Probably a dead animal.
Maybe even the severed head of one of her enemies.
When Duchess Edith leaned forward and slid a small, narrow box into her hands, Seraphina had to fight hard to keep her smile from turning wicked. Her own present for him was positively perfect.
“Your Highness,” she sweetly murmured, extending the box his way.
He studied it warily, as if it might contain a deadly Elmorian harlequin viper. Finally taking it in hand, he wasted no time flipping open the lid to reveal the golden sun pendant lying within—a pendant that was a direct match for her own.
Confusion etched itself into her Crow’s scarred visage until he flipped the pendant over and spied the inscription etched into the back:You, Aldric Hargrave, are in desperate need of the Lord.
He snorted and snapped the box back closed. “How considerate.”
Passing the pendant off to Master Fitzjesmaine, he exchanged it for something small and slender wrapped in a length of black cloth. The moment he settled it into her outstretched hand, she knew it for what it was.
A knife.
The moment she unwrapped it, though, she realized it wasn’t just any knife. It was her bodice dagger. The very one that had been embedded in her Crow’s thigh a mere week ago.
A scrap of parchment resting atop the blade read in a cramped, masculine hand:Just in case you felt like stabbing me again, kirei.
Surprised laughter escaped past her lips before she could stop it—a giggle no doubt borne of sleep deprivation and nerves. A smattering of uncertain applause soon followed. Though their wedding guests weren’t privy to the joke, they knew the role they were meant to play today.
Just as she knew hers. “A very thoughtful present,” she graciously decreed, passing the dagger and note off to her godmother just as the musicians seated in the corner of the throne room started up with a stately tune.
It was time for their first dance as husband and wife.
Seraphina’s chest tightened. This was it: the final piece of their public performance. She should be glad that it was almost over. That soon she could drift away from his side, find Olivia wherever she was in the crowd, and merely distract herself until enough time had passed for her to retire for the evening.
But she wasn’t.
What if the moment she touched him, the voice returned? What if the cold swept over her again? What if she were pitched into the throes of a vision here before her entire court?
No one knew about her visions. No one beyond her innermost circle—her family and Father Perero. No onecouldknow.Ever. Only Oracles and the occasional Shepherd received visions from the Lord.
Anyone else who claimed such things was simply mad.
The music continued. Her courtiers looked on—watching, waiting.
Pinning a smile to her lips, she pushed herself to her feet and turned toward Aldric, bracing herself to receive more of his ungentlemanly teasing during their time on the dance floor together. More of his verbal abuse.
Instead, she found him still seated, frowning to himself while subtly massaging his left thigh. Her resolve wavered as she watched him. Her thoughts flitted back to her birthday celebration, to when he had claimed hecoulddance but simply did not.
Had he been lying then? Perhaps he had never learned how before his father disowned and exiled him? A strange ache twisted in her chest.
