There was a chance I'd reach the freedom I had been fighting for so dearly, if only I could break this one lock.
Thea enteredthrough the door the soldier was guarding, her hair a messy halo of gold, smudges under her wide eyes. "Rue!"
She fell into my arms. She was a year older than me, this delicate sister, but so much smaller. Maybe because her blood was finer. "They said…I could help you get ready."
I laughed at that, too harshly, and her arms tightened around me.
"Sorry, Thea," I got out. "I'm glad I get to see you again."
She pulled back. The shadows under her eyes were dark. She looked so frail. "I brought some things. They said…there would be a wedding. You are a baron's daughter. You should have something."
I gnawed my lip. Pillaging Thea's meager jewelry box turned my stomach, but if I did escape, far from these walls, it would be better to have something I could sell. “I will accept one thing. Something you don't like."
Her face was chiding. "Rue?—"
"Your own mother didn't control her dowry. I'm not letting you send your treasures to orcs."
She stared down at her hands, angry, blinking. "I am sending what I love most to them. I don't care about trinkets. You should have…" She was crying.
A fist rapped at the door, and she dashed her tears away, answered. "Enter."
The soldier stuck his head in. "They found a priest. The girl will need to be in the chapel in another half hour."
Thea sat rigid. "She is getting married. She should be granted time for at least a bath."
"I don't make the orders, little miss."
Her eyes were bugging out of her head as she stared at her hands, like they did when she was fighting not to cry.
I grabbed her hand. "It’s okay, Thea. He's an orc. It won't matter."
She gritted her teeth. "Then you're taking one of my dresses. You're not getting married in that. It still has blood on the hem."
I let her have this. I didn't tell her a gown with blood was far more appropriate.
She’d brought a dress in light green. It was tight across the bodice, and the sleeves and hem were inches too short, but I didn't protest. It would just make it easier to run.
She had me sit, her nimble fingers combing through thedark mess of my hair and weaving a circlet of braids that fit a girl of her station. Of what was supposed to be my station.
"There. You look like a bride now." Her face was still pinched. "If I'm to see you given away, at least?—"
"No.Absolutely not." I pulled away, turned to face her. "You are not coming to this wedding."
Her eyes brimmed. "You are my sister."
"You're not coming anywhere near them. That's why I proposed this. That's whyI did this.They're monsters. And no one is looking out for us but us." Bring perfect Thea into a room full of orcs? The moment they saw her they would know which was the noble daughter, which was thelegitimatedaughter. Or, Thea was prettier than I was, by far— what if they said they'd take us both?
She buried her face in her hands. "I promised I'd take care of you," she said, muffled, this ghost of the round-faced girl I'd met in a room like this one, with different scuffs and wounds on my arms. "Rue, Ipromised. Till your m-magic came out."
I stopped pushing her away and pulled her into my chest.
Thea smelled like lavender and rushes, and I pressed my face into her hair. "You did. Now it's my turn, okay? Let me take my turn." A breath. "I have the best chance of getting away, don’t I? Don't worry about me. I always run away."
She pulled back. "I should have brought medicine. Your wrists?—"
"I'm fine."
"They didn't hurt you?"
