Her actions change nothing. The magic is in accepting the task, not in the parchment. Softly, I remind her, “I accepted your request, Isabeau. I am bound now by magic to hunt the beast or die trying.”
“No. No ... you cannot ... This cannot be.” She looks around us as if there is some escape, but this is not a physical threat, not right now. “You cannot be in danger because of my actions.”
“I am not.” I capture her hand and squeeze. “I am in danger because I was born for this duty.”
“I withdraw my request. There must be magic to stop—”
“There isn’t. There’s nothing save death that breaks ageas.” I let her pull me into an embrace, even as I hold a sword at my side still. “If it comforts you, know that I was already hunting the Beast of Brimmond. It killed my father. I met the creature for the third time last night. Spoke to it. It stood there with a dead deer in hand; maybe it was satisfied with its prey and so didn’t bother to take me, too. But I saw it and spoke to it. Ihavebeen hunting it, and I have accepted your request, Your Grace.”
“The queen can surely absolve you of this request,” Isabeau says hurriedly, still looking ill. “I don’t know why you think you are the H—”
“Hunter. That’s my secret, Isa, the one I had to tell you.” I step out of her arms and drop my sword to the ground. “Because I trained for this the last decade, Isabeau. Because when my father passed, I whispered the words that call the Hunter’s magic, and they worked. I woke shivering in the night. My body has ... changed. The gifts that come with the title and task have come to me. I am not this fast with the sword only because of the reasons most are. I did not disarm the soldiers in the park idly. I am preternaturally fast now becauseI am the Hunter.”
Isabeau takes several stumbling steps away from me, staring at me in horror.
Her expression breaks my heart into tiny, sharp pieces. The pain of her rejection drives those pieces into my chest, making each breath hurt. But in the middle of it, I want to ease her pain. I step forward, reaching out to her, not sure what to do with the dismay in Isabeau’s gaze. “I refused your interest because I am the—”
“I absolve you.” Isabeau repeats frantically, “I absolve you.”
Her gaze falls upon the countess and Rylan where they now wait at the door to the house. “Lady Fleuriste! Your daughter thinks she’s the Hunter.”
“Sheisthe Hunter, as was her father, and his father before him. My daughters do not lie, Your Grace.” Mother’s expression is gleaming with pride that warms my chilling sorrow. “Nor do they back away from challenges. This creature will fall to her, and so will the next. So it will be until she dies as her father, and his father, and so forth have done.”
“And if she has no child to take up the task,Iwill take on this duty when she dies,” Rylan adds. “We are Fleuristes. We serve Alveus by safeguarding it with our blades and blood.”
“You arenoblewomen,” Isabeau gasps out, as if she herself is not. She looks between us as if we are all unwell, and then without a word, she pivots and storms toward the stable.
A cry slips from my lips. Tears roll unimpeded from my eyes. All my fears about loving her came true. She has rejected me.
“She’ll come around,” Mother says, giving me the same iron-spined glance that she once gave me when Rylan and I crept into the kitchen and ate all the desserts in the middle of the night. She pronounces the words like she can bend the world to her demands. I wish I still thought she could.
“Mother ...” I feel as if my heart is in my throat, choking me. I thought I was ready for Isabeau’s rejection, but I feel like my heart has been cleaved in half.Hunts before hearts.Father’s voice ripples in my memory.Hunts before health, home, and happiness.I try to convince myself that I can live that way, but the taste of heaven I have had was not enough. I want more. I want Isabeau in my life forever.
Mother continues, “And whether Maudite likes it, she’s hired you to hunt this beast. You’ll hunt. You’ll succeed. And she’ll pay.” The countess shakes her head. “Your oath is sacred. You accepted the request. There’s no way to stop now. You’re oath bound. You can’t stop—even at her request.”
“I know.” I watched my father try to resist it once. He couldn’t sleep, couldn’t stop pacing, couldn’t keep the mission from his lips or sword hand. “I felt it when I opened her letter and decided.”
“Whether or not Maudite agrees, you willhuntnow. Magic will compel you. She sent the summons, and you accepted. There are no other choices for either of you.” Mother sighs softly and glances toward the stable. “Foolish duke, invoking ageasand then thinking a person can ignore thatgeas.”
I’m not sure what to say to that. I stand there, unsure whether I ought to try to comfort Isabeau or carry on with my life. I look at my mother, who taps her cane on the ground.
In a gentle voice she says, “I cried when your father told me what he was.” Mother shakes her head. “Of course, he also offered to make me his mistress to spare our children this burden, as if they would be exempt because he had a wife before me.”
I’ve never heard this story until today. “What did you do?”
“I slapped him and told him if he so much as considered looking at another woman, I’d carve his heart out with my soup spoon.” Mother preens. “We were married soon after.”
“Father was a lucky man to be loved by you,” I whisper.
“He was.” The Countess of Fleuriste nods. “I understand your fears and hers, but perhapsyoushould speak to Her Grace abouther fears, rather than simply speak of beasts and slaying. Sometimes loving a Hunter means accepting an inevitable fate that ...” Her voice wavers. “I married the man knowing he’d die before me, knowing I was sentencing a child to die—mychild. I still would not change that decision. I would not surrender one day as his wife or your mother. This was the cost of my joy, and maybe I am selfish to have destined you to this fate, Gabrielle, but I feel no repentance for the choices I made.”
“Nor should you.”
“Tell her that. Tell her that she can love you while you live,” Mother orders.
I glance in the direction Isabeau has gone. “I cannot be other than the Hunter. I refused to agree to court her until she knew my secret. I never meant to cause her sorrow.”
“Well, of course you didn’t.” Mother gives me an indulgent smile. “Go talk to her, Gabrielle. You owe her that much. I will not say you must accept her as a spouse or a lover, but after you speak, if she can accept you? Why would younot? I know your heart. You look at her as I looked at your father.”
