I miss a step. “How?”
“You have to kill him before he kills you.”
If there was any lingering doubt in my mind about fighting for myself, it disappears with those words. Now more than ever, I’m determined that no male will claim me.
* * *
“Wake up, Princess.”Jordan whispers to me from the far side of the bed. She’s already opened the skylight.
I untangle myself from the sheets as I squint at her.
I bolt upright. Today is the Heartstone Ceremony.
Before I give in to the panic rising inside me, Jordan leans forward, grinning like an elven cat. “We have a surprise for you.”
I slide out of bed, my dressing gown trailing behind me but she gestures for me to stop in the middle of the room.
“Close your eyes.”
I lift an eyebrow, but I trust her. I place both hands over my eyes. There’s a click as the door opens. I sense footsteps, light, female, at least five… no, more than ten. There’s a dragging sound too, like something being pushed across the floor.
All sounds stop. “Can I open my eyes now?”
There’s a pause. Then, “Yes.”
I open my eyes to find that all of my Storm Command has squeezed into the space around me. Some of them sit on the bed and others stand in the doorway to the bathing room to make room for all twenty to fit into my room.
I catch my breath at the object they’ve pushed in front of me. It’s a dummy like the ones from the War Room… and it’s covered in armor.
I take a step forward, running my hand over it. Fine gold-colored plates are connected together in an intricate pattern to form a chest plate that wraps around the dummy from neck to groin. Plates have also been fashioned to cover the outer thighs and shoulders. Beneath it, a full body suit of silvery-blue material shimmers from beneath the dummy’s chin down to its toes.
I spin to Jordan. “Are those Shimmer Beetle husks? And the suit under the armor—is it made from Elyria spider web?”
She hasn’t stopped grinning. “Yes and yes. It’s for you. We’ve been constructing it for the last seven years. It took that long to source enough of the web and husks.”
The suit under the outer layer is spun from the web of the Elyria spider, whose web is unbreakable even by the sharpest sword, and the plates are fashioned from the golden husks that the shimmer beetle sheds only once each year. The husks are as tough as iron but light as feathers.
I don’t even bother trying to hide my tears. They drip down my cheeks in fat rivers. “It’s not metal so it won’t interact with the storm. I can wear it even when I’ve come from the Vault.”
I’m surprised it only took them seven years to make the armor because both animals are extremely rare and only live in the highest peaks behind the…
I freeze.
“But they only live on Rath land. You can’t take anything from another House’s land unless you pay or trade for it.”
Jordan shifts uncomfortably beside me. “We didn’t have to pay. We had permission. In fact… it was an order.”
“From whom?”
“From the late Commander Rath. Baelen Rath’s father.”
So much shock slams into me that it’s like a physical force. I teeter backward to sit on the bed while the Storm Command rushes to make room for me.
“Rordan Rath ordered you to make this? Why?”
I shake my head in disbelief. Baelen Rath’s father avoided me, never spoke to me, hated me as far as I knew.
“He came here a month after you were officially announced as Princess. He stood outside your door, sort of just staring at it. I wasn’t sure what to do but he finally asked how you were. I told him the truth: that you were still recovering, that you hadn’t said much, and…”
