“Gods be damned.”
“Don’t,” I admonished with a frown. “We have much bigger problems than the gods. Your father brought up my vows, and our friendship. It was a threat, Will. I was nearly denied passage over Boatman’s Bridge this morning too. Weft said I’m no longer exempt from the toll because I’m not a Sister.”
Will cursed under his breath this time. “They’re trying to keep us apart. I won’t let it happen.”
“Did you…speak to your parents last night?” I asked, hope rising in my chest.
“No,” he said shortly. “I didn’t get the chance. We were called to have supper with the Prince and his family.”
“Oh…and Helena?”
“They arrived back last night,” Will sighed, walking over to the oak tree and yanking his arrows out one by one. I helped him and we had soon freed the entire quiver, which he set on the ground beside his longbow. “She’s been away since spring, you know, finishing her fancy schooling. Before she left, I’m not sure she even knew I existed. She certainly didn’t think I was worth the dirt on her heel, but now she’s become…very interested in the idea of our marriage.”
My blood boiled and ran cold in the space of a moment. “Interested?”
“She thinks she’s in love with me, May. Something changed while she was gone, and now she won’t leave me alone. Our mothers sat us together at supper last night and I nearly had to put a fork in her hand to keep her from touching me under the damn table.” He collapsed onto the grass at the base of the tree and rubbed his face rather aggressively. I chewed on my lip before dropping onto my knees in front of him and taking his hands.
“We have to run,” I said softly.
He looked up at me, his beautiful hazel eyes framed between curtains of golden hair. “Run? Run where?”
“Anywhere!” I pulled my satchel around and opened it to show him that I’d already made up my mind, that I was ready. “Your parents are probably already at the Keep with Johar. You can go and pack what you need while I find Tuck, and then we can go. He can help us.”
“May…” said Will quietly. “We’d never make it.”
“They won’t even be able to send anyone out looking for you until the tournament is over!”
“No, I mean…we’d never make it out there…”
Something in his voice sent a sickening, slithering jolt through my stomach, and I leaned back on my heels. “How can you say that? Just yesterday,youasked me to leave the Abbey…”
“Yes, after I win a place with the Archers. And after I talk my family down from this marriage. How could we survive on our own? We’d have to leave Athenium entirely to escape my father!”
“Exactly!” I said with a small laugh. “We leave! We get to the coast, we get on a ship, and we—”
“This is insane,” Will said angrily, getting up to retrieve his quiver and hang it on his back.
If I’d been standing, my knees might have buckled beneath me, and I couldn’t help but mutter, “I knew you’d rather stay on your father’s leash than be with me…”
He whirled around. “That isnotfair. You have no idea what it means to leave your family behind!”
“Don’t I?” I cried, lunging to my feet and curling my hands into fists. “The Sisters and Tuck aremyfamily, and they treat me a damn sight better than your family treats you! Do you think I want to leave them?”
“May, please don’t do this!” Will begged, stepping toward me and reaching out. “Just…just stay here until the tournament is over. I’ll win, and I’ll have my place with the Archers, and everything will be alright.”
I backed away from him, shaking my head. “And you’ll kiss Helena.”
“Yes!” he nearly shouted. “Yes, if I must! To give us a future worth having!”
“How will you explain to a woman who is apparently now in love with you, that you accepted her kiss, but do not want to marry her? How will you explain it to your parents? To your Prince?”
“You are asking me to give upeverything, May,” he said, his voice now heavy and sad. “Not just my family, not just my dreams, but a chance to give you the kind of life you deserve. To give you everything you’ve ever wanted. The Royal Archers are well-paid, well-treated. Once all this business with Helena dies down—”
“Oh, damn you, Will! How can you be so naive? This won’t justdie down! This isn’t some local merchant’s daughter your parents are foisting on you, this is the Prince’s daughter. And now that she wants you too, they won’t let this go! Not when you’re their ticket to the throne.”
“I will make it go away!” he insisted, taking my hand. “Please, May, let me give you this.”
“I don’t want it.” I fell backwards until I was leaning on the trunk of the oak tree, tilting my head to look at the sky, even as my vision blurred with tears. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life…having everything we want while you hide me from your family like some shameful secret. I won’t do it. I can’t do it. Did you forget the words we just said to each other? ‘Naught is not nothing when I have loved you’...I would rather have you and nothing else, Will. Can you say the same?”
