My heart breaks a little as I watch freedom dawn on Kassandra’s face. She blooms with a joy I have never seen before. She laughs and my chest hurts, imagining telling this to my mother as a young faerie, before she married my father, even if it means never having me.
You don’t need to marry,I would say.You are enough as is.
“I’m free,” Kassandra gasps. “I’m free.”
Tears sting my eyes, my throat thickening. “You are.”
“At least until Dominik finds out. He may try to marry me off to another noble.”
My joy stumbles.Does he already know?
No, this can’t be. For all of Kassandra’s faults, I would never force a freed creature back into a cage. Something given once, then taken away, is the greatest torture. My mind spins for a solution while hers spirals into despair.
“Kassandra,” I breathe. “If you are no longer the Heart of Illusion—at least not for now—then that means you could be the heir. The head, one day.”
She blinks. “Dominik is the heir.”
“What does it say of sex in the doctrine? If second sons can be the Heart of a House, could a daughter be its head?”
Kassandra reads. “It’s more of a practice, I think. If there are no sons…they usually find the oldest one among the fae families, and the control of the House switches to a new lineage.”
“Do you have any older male cousins?”
“No, just a younger one.” She looks up. “There is no distinction of the sex in the laws.”
“So you could be heir if Dominik is not.”
“The other Illusion families could still choose Ranicus, my cousin in Fraulus. A male child is more valued than an adult female.”
“But then House Illusion would need a regent and be further destabilized.”
“Why are we talking about this?” she snaps. “Dominik is heir. He is the first male and he’s stronger than I am.”
But she has spent two centuries being beaten, insulted, and told she is nothing. How large could she loom, if allowed? Would she surpass a mountain? Perhaps she already has.
I think of Lila whispering to me the day we thought Versara would collapse.He tries every day, and every day he fails.
Of the king’s own confession.Nothing could ever convince me to marry Kassandra Morella, even if she is extremely powerful.
Of his lineage. His true lineage.About where I come from. Who I come from.
Wouldn’t a powerful wife help hide Maxian’s secrets? No, she threatens something larger and more fragile than lineage: ego.
“Kassandra, you’ve already shown yourself to wield great power.”
She glares at me. “You’re moonstruck.”
“Can they do what you did at the coronation?”
“The dagger?”
“Maxian can’t—” My mouth fills with the oath, and I groan. “The eagle tried and failed to build what the silver cat did.”
Kassandra winces. “It’s a specific technique.”
“What if it’s not?”
What if he can’t?I wish to say around the oath.What if he can’t because he’s not fully fae, and even if he were, could he compete with you? Could Dominik, for I haven’t seen him meld the hardest gemstone on earth into a weapon?
