Engagement? Wedding? January?
The Crimson Eclipse is in January.
It had always been an initiation before marriage. For over a hundred years, it had always been customary to see what magic a woman would possess once she reached the age of twenty-three. No Sacred Sea man wanted to be tied to a useless vessel for eternity.
My gaze darted to Kane, never expecting to marry him before killing him. His smug grin shuddered my entire existence, but it would never be powerful enough to deceive me or change my mind. It didn’t matter which came first in January, the wedding or the eclipse. Either way, Kane Pruitt was going to die.
Augustine cleared his throat, stealing our attention.
“You will marry Cyrus Cantini,” he finished.
My mind paused.
The room paused.
Complete shock benumbed it.
Those five words felt like branches growing from my bones and wrapping tightly around my throat. Ivy gasped from behind, and I turned back to look at her. A bone-white hand cupped her mouth under her watering eyes. Her palpable heartbreak crushed the entire room.
Cyrus turned to me, his eyes darkening by the second as he took in my reaction. “Adora,” he said, but nothing else. JustAdora. Because he knew this was going to happen, and he didn’t know what to say.
But this wasn’t the plan.
“This wasn’t the plan,” I said aloud that time, gripping my necklace tighter and trying to make sense of this. I swallowed to clear my windpipe and set my eyes on Augustine. “If your plan is to find a wife for Cyrus, then Ivy should be standing here. Not me. She already underwent initiation and has been waiting for this moment with him.”
I stood tall, disguising this outcome’s effect on me, and narrowed my eyes at Augustine, the man who held my future in the slam of a fist. Threats and demands exploded in my mind and burned in my throat. All the things I wanted to say but none that would have made a difference. In the Sacred Sea chamber, this was what was ordered of me, and my refusal wouldn’t make it go away.
I understood this, and still— “I refuse to marry Cyrus,” I said slowly, unwavering. Cyrus’s hand left mine when he hung his head and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Adora!” Dad urged me from behind. I turned to see him jump to his feet with a demand for obedience in his eyes. His cheeks beamed with embarrassment.
I grabbed Kane’s bicep. “Say something,” I begged him in a whisper.
Kane looked at me then back at his father.
His mouth opened, but nothing came out. And heshrugged.
I squinted at him with a shake of my head before facing Augustine again.
“Why can’t I marry Kane? Is it because your plan with Fallon didn’t work, and now you’re savingyour sonfor someone more powerful than me? Ivy, perhaps?” I no longer cared if I sounded desperate. And my assumptions were not all that ridiculous, considering Ivy was the firstborn and assumed to be the most powerful among us Sullivan girls.
But I couldn’t let this happen, and I couldn’t do this to my sister. I had a plan. I’d suffered through heartless sex with no reward since I was sixteen. I’d already given Kane my virginity and made him believe he owned my mind, heart, and body for him to trust me. For years, I’d prepared myself to live a life with murder on my hands.
“Your accusations are absurd, Adora.” Augustine looked at me with an expression of boredom, and Dad’s mortification radiated off my back.
“Are they? Because regardless, this is not what I want.” A forest of anxiety cultivated inside me, creaking and groaning and growing and stabbing my chest and lungs with its sharp branches. “If you force me to marry Cyrus, I will make this difficult,” I promised, knowing my words were foolish as soon as they left my lips. But even as I said them, I felt the warmth of Ivy’s last flame of hope from where I stood. I had to try for her. “You know, as the rest of the room, I am better suited for Kane.”
“Whether you want it or not, this is your future,” Augustine said, silencing my threats. “Do as you wish, but let me remind you, only you and Cyrus will feel the brunt of your animosity. May as well obey with a smile on your face.”
In that instant, all hope was lost. A coldness swept the room.
My gaze slid between Augustine and Viola when their plan became clear.
Augustine, at some point, had changed his mind and was saving Ivy for his son to keep the Pruitt family the most powerful. But also, Augustine wanted to remain in power while still giving the coven and our town peace of mind.
It was brilliant, really.
If Augustine had announced the marriage of Kane and Ivy on this day, it would bring Kane one step closer to taking the title of High Priest away from his father, and Augustine wasn’t ready to give up power.
