I could.
His eyes never left mine.
If accepting me means refusing them, and that hurts you, then you should not accept me.
My Mark pulled in three directions at once.
This time, there was room for it.
I turned my head to meet Quill’s eyes.
“No.”
The word echoed.
Caspian’s hand stayed over mine.
Kieran didn’t move.
Neither did Hale.
Cosima closed her eyes for one second.
Rev smiled like she had been waiting all her life to see something as expensive as this catch fire.
Quill’s face remained calm.
Linden stood.
“A refusal has been entered,” he said.
“No,” I said.
The hall turned toward me.
Every candle seemed to lean closer.
I kept my hand under Caspian’s.
“A refusal of the question has been entered,” I said. “Not a refusal of Caspian Ashford.”
The basin water struck the rim hard enough to spill silver over our hands.
The witnesses began to write.
44
The witnesses began to write.
That was the first mercy and the first danger.
Ink made a thing harder to erase. It also gave men like Linden something to correct.
Astra’s hand stayed under mine on the rim of the basin. Silver water ran over our knuckles and down into the carved channel beneath the bowl. Her Mark burned against my palm, alive in three directions at once.
She had said no.
Then she had told them exactly what she had refused.
