“Figured you’d need them since you’re back, Lady Lock. Besides, your mother is busy training the Sisters downstairs. I thought you might want to partake.”
Training?When she says the words, I hear the sounds for the first time: high-pitched grunting, growling, even yelling, and the battering of wood smacking against wood.
What in all the True are you doing, Mother?
“Well, thank you?” I’m still confused and groggy from sleep.
Lyroan takes a step forward, lifting her chin. Her eyes are dewy. Her freckles disappear in a bloom of pink and she bows her head. “I, um, was also hoping you might . . . talk to me.”
“About?” I take the swords from her and strap them onto my waist where they belong. It feels nice having my blades on me again after so long without them. They’re like old friends, my weapons of choice ever since my time in the Firehold with the Grimsons and . . .I can’t think about Lukain. Not now. That chapter of my life is over.
“How to win back my prince,” she says.
I blink. “Vallan?”
Lyroan nods diligently and sits on the side of the bed. She kicks her feet. “Rather than hating you, I think it’s a better idea to see how you do it. Yes?”
I’ll always takefewerpeople hating me over the alternative, but I’m at a loss how to help this obsessed dhampiress.She wants to stealbackone of the men I adore? Does she not see how I have a conflict of interest in the matter?
“How Ido it, Sister? I’m not sure what—”
“Well, you don’t needallthose lovely men, right? I understand you’re pretty and strong, which draws them to your flame like moths.” She taps her knees, spilling out more words in a flurry, staring at the floor the whole time. “I’m also pretty, right? Maybe you could just, you know, give him up. I love him.” She lifts her chin to stare at me, a flicker of something like frustration behind her eyes. “Don’t you see it pains me to see you with Vallan? I thought he’d forget you after you were gone so long.”
Her blunt speech makes me realize something.This girl, with her grayish skin and soft freckles, is no human. She doesn’t see things how we do. She sees nothing wrong with the questions she’s asking me, and I can’t loathe her for asking them. The grayskin Sister is curious and inexperienced in matters of love.I almost scoff, wondering whenIbecame the analyst for healthy relationships.I’ve hated most men longer than you’ve probably been alive!
My mouth opens and closes. “. . . Give him up?” The idea is the furthest thing from my mind. In fact, now that it’s nearly nighttime, I know just who I’d like to see first.
“Yes,” Lyroan says, dipping her chin in embarrassment or shame.
“No.”
Her head whips up, lips snarling suddenly. “But why?!” she cries out. “Why are you doing this to me, Lady Lock?!”
As the girl sniffles, I crouch in front of her. She looks around eighteen winters, born a dhampir half-blood who will never know what it means to be truly, wholly human.
My hand falls on her knee. “Sister Lyroan, you don’t want Vallan Stellos.”
“How do you—yes I—”
I squeeze her knee lightly through her gray robe, offering a small smile. “You want someone who sees your freckles likethey’re the stars in the night sky. Someone who smiles at the sight of your cheery face, not rolls his eyes. A man who is surly when you’re not around, due to your absence—not a man who is just surly, always. You’re right, lass, youarepretty. You can do so much better than Vallan Stellos, because you can find someone who is worthy of you and respects you. That big oak tree is neither.”
Lyroan stays silent after I’m done.Spirits and deities, where the fuck did that come from?I muse.Where were those words whenIneeded them, when interacting with someone like Master Lukain? Or any of the three cutthroats I’m now addicted to?
Her chin trembles. “That . . . sounds nice.”
I smile fondly. “It is. Once you find it, you’ll know.”
Lyroan nods to herself, brow furrowing. Then she stands abruptly with a heavy sigh and pats my head while I’m still crouching. “I suppose I’ll just have to keep hating you then. Thank you, Lady Lock.”
She leaves the room before I can reply, a retort dying on my lips. I stand and scratch the back of my neck. “That’s, uh, not the response I was hoping for,” I mumble.
At least I tried.
Downstairs, the dwelling of the Chained Sisters is in a state of upheaval. In the large room, my mother sits below her nude painting, directing traffic. Girls are lined up in rows, going through sword patterns with wooden blades. A few of the youngest ones are running around swinging wildly, earning scowls and reprimands from the older women who get their shins knocked.
My eyes widen.Less than a single day and Jinneth already has them training like militiamen? Truehearts fuck me, what have I unleashed by freeing her?
“Not likethat, Sister Tecca!” Jinneth yells across the room.
