She jerked back, slapping his hand away. "Don't. Don't comfort me. Don't tell me it's okay or that I'm confused or that I don't know what I really wanted. Iknowwhat I wanted."
"And this," Thaine interjected from where he leaned against the fountain, his tone matter-of-fact, "is why we're returning to the Forest Court at dawn. My lord may have been hasty, but his claim—"
She turned on Thaine, the rage that had been simmering for days beneath the pain and grief finally boiling over. "His claim? The one he forfeited when he threw me to the wolves? What about it?" She pushed off from the wall, her exhaustion forgotten in the face of pure fury. "I’m tired of being discussed and debated and fought over like I'm not even here! Like I don't have thoughts or feelings or wants of my own."
“No one thinks—” Sain began only to stop when Briar cut her off.
"No, Sian, everyone thinks it. I'm not a prize. I'm not property. I'm not a victim to be saved or a problem to be solved. I'm a person who made a choice and had it ripped away because I made a mistake." Her voice cracked on the last word, but it was from fury, not sorrow. "And now every single one of you stands here telling me what's going to happen next, where I'm going, what's best for me."
Briar laughed, the sound sharp and bitter. "You know what? Figure it out amongst yourselves. That's what you're going to do anyway."
She pushed past Arion, who stood frozen by her outburst. Past Thaine, who for once had no sarcastic comment. Past the guards who parted automatically.
"Briar, wait—" Arion started.
"No." She didn't turn around. "I'm done being told what to do. When you've all decided my fate, you can let me know. I'll be in my room. Or wherever you've decided I should be."
She strode toward the palace entrance, Frederick still hidden in her hair, the only one who hadn't tried to claim or save or fix her. Behind her, the courtyard remained silent, five powerful beings left standing in the wreckage, none of them sure what to do with a human woman who refused to be what any of them needed her to be.
The garden terrace existed in that strange space between wild and cultivated that the Star Court favored—roses that bloomed in impossible colors but grew however they pleased, fountains whose water sang but followed no predictable pattern. Briar stood at the stone railing, gripping it hard enough that the cold bit into her palms, trying to let the familiar-unfamiliar beauty calm the storm in her chest.
It wasn't working.
"That was quite the performance."
She didn't turn. She'd felt him arrive, that particular heaviness in the air that came with his presence. Like smoke before a fire.
"Go away, Karse."
"No." He moved closer, and she could hear the lazy satisfaction in his voice. "I particularly enjoyed the part where you told them all to figure it out themselves. The princeling looked like you'd slapped him. Which you did, technically."
"I'm not in the mood for—"
"For what? Truth?" He was beside her now, leaning against the railing with casual disregard for the drop below. "You're magnificent when you're angry. All that suppressed fury finally given voice. Much better than the cowering thing you've been doing."
She turned on him, ready to unleash that fury he claimed to admire. "Cowering? I've been—"
"Letting them shuffle you around like a chess piece." His reptilian eyes caught the moonlight, reflecting it back in golds and greens. "The Forest Lord cast you out, the princeling carried you here, the huntsman plans to drag you back. Even I claimed you as mine. And you've just... accepted it all."
"I haven't accepted anything!"
"Haven't you?" He tilted his head, studying her with that unnerving intensity. "Until five minutes ago, you were letting them debate your future without you. Like a good, obedient human."
The rage that had started to cool flared white-hot again. "Don't you dare—"
"I dare whatever I want." He pushed off the railing, moving into her space with predatory grace. "That's the difference between us. I take what I want. You wait for permission that never comes."
"I don't wait for—"
"You wanted to stay with him. The Forest Lord. You chose it. But the moment he cast you out, did you fight? Did you refuse to leave? No. You ran like frightened prey."
"He would have killed me!"
"So?" Karse stepped closer, close enough that she could feel the unnatural heat radiating from his skin. "At least it would have been on your terms. Instead, you're here, letting everyone else decide whether you go back to someone who discarded you or stay with people who see you as something to protect. Never as something with teeth of its own."
"I have teeth," she snarled.
His smile was slow, appreciative. "Then use them."
