Ronan chases after me while Ivee chases after Ronan, calling his name. “Kerris, please. You cannot be serious. It was an accident.”
Dropping me may have been an accident, but ignoring my wishes wasn’t.
Nia catches up, and the glare she shoots Ronan could freeze the entire lake. When she turns back to me, her eyes soften. “Are you all right, Kerris?”
“I-I’m f-fine.” Humiliated and angry and embarrassed butfine.
Ronan stomps off toward the mountain in a huff, the crowd parting in his wake as Ivee rushes to console him. Whispers fill the air, women saying how lucky I was that our prince would deign to consider a match with me. How I am a fool for turning him away.
They’re all wrong.
I will never tie myself to someone who does not take my wishes or me into consideration, no matter how handsome or wealthy he might be. That is a recipe for a terrible life, and I refuse to spend eternity without a voice.
Nolan jogs over to our forgotten picnic to whip the blanket from beneath the basket and settle the coarse wool around my shoulders.
I appreciate their concern, but their attention is only making this worse. “I’m going back to the house.”
Nia swipes her dress from the grass. “Give me a moment to change, and I’ll go with you.”
“There’s no need. I can take one of the public carriages.”
“Kerris—”
“Please. I want to be alone.”
Thankfully, my cousin knows when to quit. She gives my hand a squeeze and tells me to be safe. The driver insists I’m too wet to sit inside the carriage for fear of ruining the cushions, so I’m forced to sit beside him on the stiff wooden bench at the front. By the time we reach Rosehill, my skin and dress have gone muddy brown from the thick layer of dust kicked up by the four horses pulling the carriage.
I’m mucky, freezing, and exhausted.
Heaven help the poor woman who ends up marrying Ronan Reve.
24
Everett
“Most people believe that dreams and shadows dance in silence. But if you listen closely enough, you’ll hear their song.”
Author Unknown
My skin feels tight from my bath in the river, but at least I no longer reek of death. It is a fruitless notion for me to wish Kerris finds my scent as pleasant as I find hers, but I wish it all the same. Which is why I stooped to borrowing the soap Maddox infused with pine needles and sap. It smells much better than I thought it would. Not that I would ever give him the satisfaction of admitting it.
Moonlight falls over Kerris’s fine cottage like a beacon, calling me to her side. Maddox would not stop asking questions about her during today’s hunt. What she likes. What she hates. What makes her different from an Unseelie female.
As if I would share anything with him.
Kerris might not be mine, but she certainly will never be his. I would run him through before I let him near her.
I scale her roof with ease, the stiff thatch cracking under my weight like a quiet threat.
Before I knock on the glass, I catch a glimpse of my reflection and stifle my groan. The back of my hair is not cooperating with the front. No matter how many times I press it down, the strands keep lifting right back up. As frustrated as I am, I refuse to let this deter me from seeing Kerris.
Her room is dark, so perhaps she will not notice my unruly hair.
My knuckles meet the glass pane in a discreet knock.
I listen for sounds of life but only silence responds. Where is Kerris?
Did she forget that I promised to call? Does she not wish to see me anymore?
