Julietta’s face contorted with indignation. “Excuse me?” She thrust Grigory’s letter in Annalisa’s direction. “My brother is a hero! Is that not good enough foryou brats?”
Annalisa’s initial shock smoothed into a sneer. “Your brother might be a little hero, Thornebow, butmybrother is also in Selection Night.” She glanced over to Camille and Dinah. “Why would anyone want your brother when they could be the futureDuke’s bride?”
Brietta chuckled so softly that only I could hear. My face was stone,revealing nothing.
Camille leaned toward Annalisa with her hands clasped in front of her button-nose in a plea. “You mentioned me in your last letter to your brother,right, Anna?”
“Yes, and me as well?” Dinahchimed in.
“Of course,” Annalisa purred at Camille and Dinah’s devotion. “I would do anything for my two best friends, even when I becomea princess.”
A wry smile flicked up my cheek. I could not keep silent. “How are you so sure that prince of yours is a suitorthis year?”
Annalisa whirled around to face me. “Because, Sera, all six of my elder sisters married a foreign prince. Marrying royalty is aHyton tradition!”
Julietta mumbled that being a pain in the ass was also aHyton tradition.
“One of your sisters is even an empress now, right?”Dinah asked.
“Unfortunately,” Annalisa answered with an eye-roll. “Anyway, it is only logical that the daughter of a man as powerful as my father marries a prince. Not that I expect those oflower breedingto understand,” she finished with a sniff inJulietta’s direction.
Her prince was not coming. In my secret correspondence with Derrick, he revealed that no foreign princes wanted to pay for a spot in our Selection Night. Since only three suitors were in our class, Grigory Thornebow had earned his place as thefourth suitor.
Annalisa and her two stooges were too snobby to see a cadet worthy as a suitor, but anyone who felled ten giants more than earned the honor of anAshmore bride.
Before I could defend the cadet-turned-suitor, Julietta’s eyes narrowed at Annalisa. “Lower breeding? You are the granddaughter of a murderingsorceress.No one is of lower breeding than youHyton dogs.”
The air in the room went still aside from a few quiet gasps. Even I bit my tongue at the mention of DuchessIlsa Hyton.
Even though we never spoke of her, Ilsa’s infamy was ever-present in the backs of our minds. She had conspired with her lover, the Baron of Thornebow, to murder Alastar the Wise using sorcery. Ilsa died the same night as her husband, but her punishment for her treachery was not over. Duke Hyton had ensured the entire Dukedom banished his traitorous mother into the realm of the forgotten. Outside of the frightened whispers of warning from our mothers, Ilsa’s name, her image, and even stories about her disappeared at the beginning of the Duke’s reign. Mentioning her at all was illegal, but Annalisa had finally pushed Julietta too farto care.
Annalisa leapt for Julietta with her teeth bared and her curls flying out like a lion’s mane. Dinah and Camille gripped her arms to keep her from tearing the smirkingJulietta limb-from-limb.
“You Thornebow rat!” Annalisa spat as Dinah and Camille dragged her out of the room. “You are a House of fucking traitors! Your blood is sewage! If you so much aslookat me again, I will ram my foot so farup your—!”
I reached over from Brietta’s bed and closed the dormitory door before Annalisa could finish her threat. Her irate screaming echoed through the stone hallway as Dinah and Camille pulled her back into theSenior dormitory.
The rest of the girls quickly filed out of the dormitory to escape the tension. Julietta still stood proudly in the center of the room with her brother’s letter in her hands and a satisfied smile onher lips.
“Jules,” Brietta said in a breath, “I cannot believe youdid that.”
Julietta shrugged. “What is she going to do? Execute me likemy grandfather?”
If Annalisa had inherited her swift wrath from anyone, it was her father. Duke Hyton had Baron Thornebow beheaded for high treason mere hours after his father’s lifeless body was found. The executioner’s axe was final, but the Thornebows’ grudge against the Hytons was everlasting.
The House of Thornebow believed the Hytons slaughtered the innocent. The House of Hyton believed the Thornebows plotted to overthrow the Dukedom. Sitting between Julietta and Annalisa at mealtimes and in classes never failed to liven up a normalboring day.
I lingered on Brietta’s bed and re-braided my hair while Julietta snuffed out her candle. Illuminated only by the nearly-full moon, Julietta and the other two Juniors crawled under their blankets and allwas still.
“Thank you for not wringing Annalisa’s neck,” Brietta whispered as I finished tying off my braid. “I did not have the energy to pull you offher again.”
Moonlight highlighted Brietta’s soft features on her round face. She had just turned twenty at the beginning of May and youth sparkled in her big brown eyes. She was an unusually large girl with broad shoulders, but no one could actually believe the auburn-haired beauty resembled agrotesque giant.
“Just think,” I whispered back, “two more days until you never have to listen to herbullshit again.”
“I might not, but you will since her brother willmarry you.”
My eyes darted to the silhouettes of the sleeping girls, looking for any sign they had heard Brietta. No one stirred, so I unclenchedmy jaw.
