Chapter Two
Valeris
Beating my uncle atchess was the most exciting part of my day—which was sad for a prince.
He eyed the tumultuous checkered board, my eyebrow twitching as I watched him play out every scenario in his head.I’d cornered him.Anywhere he moved resulted in my victory.
As always.
“I can feel you gloating,” he grumbled without taking his concentration from the pieces.“Try to not enjoy this so much.”
I smirked.“You’re the one who taught me strategy.Shouldn’t you be the one destroying me?”
His gray eyebrows furrowed into a deep frown.“Bah,” he grumbled, moving a bishop in his only possible move.
I quickly swiped it off the board with my queen.“Checkmate.”
The piece clattered to the floor, his chair legs screeching as he rose and stalked to the window.“This is why I don’t play with you anymore.It’s always a slaughter.”
“I like to give you the opportunity to practice and improve.Besides, who else would I spend my days with?”
He turned to me with a scowl.“Then you should find yourself a wife, Valeris, to occupy your time.Women are very demanding of it.”
I showed no visible anger, but my insides roiled with irritation as I leaned down to retrieve the fallen piece.“You should know better.If I marry before the Paravellian Balls, I’ll lose half of our bargaining power.”
He shrugged.“Some people don’t consider marriage to mean you’re off the table.”
My gaze darkened as my fingers clenched around the bishop, nearly snapping it.“Some, including me, Uncle Wylan, do.”
I ignored his sigh.He’d been embedded in the corruptions of court for too long to hold any kind of morals, but my morals were the only thing that kept me from barreling off the edge.That kept me from losing both myself and my sanity in this house of madness.The only things in my life I could control.
Marriage would never be anything more than a political alliance.I would chain myself to a stranger I most likely wouldn’t tolerate or even like so we could smile for the crowds while enduring the rest of our miserable lives in an unhappy arrangement—just like my parents.
My uncle lifted his chin and clasped his hands behind his back.The man had been more of a parent to me than the two of mine combined, and I knew he was preparing to dispel some thought or insight to me.I could feel it in the room like a cold draft.
“You’re twenty, Valeris.At the last Paravellian Balls you were too young to wed.Right now you’re in your prime.If you wait for the next seven balls, you’ll be considered too old to be of any use as a bargaining chip.”
I held in my eye roll.I would only be twenty-five at the next Paravellian Balls and he made it sound like I would be at my death bed.
“As long as I maintain my usefulness as a bargainer, my father feels no pressure to choose a bride for me.When I find someone I like, with bargaining power and whomIchoose, I will wed.But until then, I intend to play my power games.”I stood from the table and joined him by the window.“And continue beating you at chess.”
I knew I would have no decision in whomever my father decided to marry me off to, but I spoke the words with confidence, as if believing them would bring that reality into existence.
My uncle stared beyond me into some unknown vision.“Don’t you ever want more, Valeris?”
I looked out the large bay windows to the city below and the snow-capped mountains rising in the distance behind it.At a kingdom that would never be mine.Being a prince meant little when you were seventh in line for the throne.“All I have is strategy.No matter what I do or how hard I try, I will never hold claim to more than that.”
A frantic knock sounded at the door.
“Yes?”I called.
A page entered.
“Prince Valeris,” he said.“The king wishes to speak with you.”
