Riyan was as tall as a house. He was the perfect killer and the Duke’s valiant hero. And yet, sitting before me in the garden, he looked so small and vulnerable. Against my better senses, I started to reachfor him.
My voice fluttered out softer than I expected. “Riyan, I—”
Riyan closed his eyes and laughed sharply. I drew my hand back, but he kept laughing. “You know, when the Duke’s son was all outraged when I made my selection, I thought it was just his stupid pride. He even drew his sword on me and those little palace guards had to holdhim back.”
I sucked in a breath. If I had not witnessed Derrick’s wrath earlier that day, I would not havebelieved him.
Riyan’s laughter quieted into a smirk. “He kept shouting ‘you cannot take her,’ over and over but all that did was make me want you more. My selection was the one thing the Hytons couldn’t control and I took advantageof it.”
He sighed and looked down. The smirk disappeared. “Then I saw what that little prick did to your neck and it all made sense. You two were a couple and I brokeyou up.”
My hand flew to the left side of my neck, covering up anything the satin ribbon of the choker did not. “How did you…how did you know itwas him?”
“Only a Hyton would be bold enough to mark up a girl right before Selection Night,” Riyan said with a low laugh. “You know, for someone who was so worried that I would eat her, you sure dolike biting.”
My hand dropped from my neck and crunched into a fist at my side. “Oh, so this is funnyto you?”
Riyan looked to the side and dipped his chin. “No.It’s not.”
He slumped to the ground, lying on his side on the garden path. He stared at the hooves of the bull statue in front of him and shook his head slightly. “The Hytons can’town you.”
I walked over to where he rested his head on the path and looked down at him with my arms crossed. “You do not know the law, then. If our marriage annuls, Duke Hytondoesown me. He will own all of Ravenwood when my fatherdies too.”
Riyan’s face twisted up in confusion. He was a Baron’s heir—he had not known the law because it would never apply to him or anyonehe loved.
“Who would make a law like that?” Riyan asked with a hint of disgust in his voice. “Hyton is kind of a sick bastard,isn’t he?”
My nails dug into my arms. “I hope you are referring to Duke Hyton and not his son. Derrick was going to help meandRavenwood. Once I was his Duchess, I was going to influence how Ravenwoodwas run.”
“I get it,” Riyan said quietly, keeping his glassy eyes at the hem of my skirt. “Anyone outside of the Northern provinces would run Ravenwood into the ground. Us from the North deal with a lot of magic, so we know what to do when thingsget weird.”
“That was why my marriage to Derrick was so important,” I stressed, cringing at saying “was.” My chest shook as I started to sob. “We had a secret relationship for seven years. I had everything planned out. Andthen you…”
Overcome by sadness, and maybe also by the wine, I knelt down on the cobblestones beside him as I struggled to catch my breath. No tears fell, but Riyan reached over and placed his hand on my back like a warm,heavy blanket.
“I’m sorry—for everything.” His voice was so sweet that I heard him even over the pounding in my ears. “I’m sorry I dropped you on the dance floor. I’m sorry I knocked you off the scaffold this morning. I’m sorry that…that I broke your heart. All I have ever done in my life is hurt people. I really am a monster,aren’t I?”
Riyan’s eyes swam with a mixture of drunkenness and sorrow. I caught my breath as I looked at him and my heartbeat slowed down. I did not know if I could ever forgive him for choosing me, but I could nothate him.
My chest shook. Maybe it was Fraleigh’s enchantment in my blood or maybe it was just the wine compelling me to touch him, but I reached over to brush the stray blonde hairs off Riyan’s forehead. His eyes brightened as my fingertip gently swept across his warm skin and his mouth turned up into a smile that revealedhis dimple.
“You are not a monster.” The words rolled off my tongue like a string of pearls. “A monster could not feel what you are feelingright now.”
Riyan closed his eyes and groaned. “Maybe I do want to be a monster, then. This feelslike hell.”
I took my hand from the top of his hairline and gently pressed it against the side of his head. “By the way, is your head all right? You cracked the dance floor whenyou fell.”
“Really?” He leaned his heavy head into my hand as he looked up at me. “My head is fine. I heal very fast thanks to all the magic in my blood. The stars are starting to spin, though, but I think that’s from the third barrelof wine.”
Against my better senses, I smiled. “Why did you drink threeentire barrels?”
His smile grew even bigger. “One of those crusty old Barons told me I couldn’t do it. I had to provehim wrong.”
Laughter and clanging goblets rang through the night air above us. I looked up. Duke Hyton stood on his balcony, four stories above us and the massive bull statue, with a groupof others.
“Go for it, boy!” Duke Hyton called down, leaning dangerously over the edge of the balcony’s stone rails. “We all want to seethe show!”
“Twenty marks says he does not shatter her pelvis!” cried a man inlight green.
