Page 15 of Of Masks and Fury

“I’ve hired someone who comes well recommended.” He leaned back in his chair, watching my face. “A mercenary from the northern borderlands. He has no connections to our court and no loyalties except to the coin I’m paying him. He’ll make sure you behave.”

Northern borderlands. A stranger. Someone who would report my every movement and trap me more thoroughly than any locked door.

“You will obey him at all times,” my father said. “I don’t have time to watch over you myself.”

The old Amarissa would’ve rebelled, questioning why I needed to be watched.

Isi had one task here and no interest in drawing attention.

“Of course.” My voice came out steady despite the panic clawing at my throat. “Whatever you think is best.”

“Good.” He looked past me toward the parlor. “Come.”

A figure stepped into the room. Tall. Muscular. Light brown hair.

Golden eyes catching the light like precious metal.

My knees went weak, and I froze for a beat. My heart didn’t just race, it exploded, shattering into a thousand pieces that reformed in the span of a single heartbeat.

I’d recognize those eyes even if I lived a thousand lifetimes. The way he held his left shoulder slightly higher than his right. The unconscious flex of his fingers against his thigh, the same tell I’d watched during tense situations. Even magically disguised, his stance remained unmistakably his, with his weight balanced on the balls of his feet, ready to move, fight, and protect.

Heat crawled up my neck as my gaze traced the length of him, cataloguing every detail my body remembered. The way he breathed, deeper on the inhale, controlled on the exhale. How he’d stand close enough to a doorway to control it without blocking it. The precise angle of his head when he listened, filing away information for later use.

Every cell in my body screamed recognition while my father’s eyes tracked my reaction. I forced my expression to remain politely curious, but my pulse roared so loud I was certain everyone in the room could hear it.

Don’t react. Don’t breathe differently. Don’t let anything show.

The rest of him was wrong. His hair was lighter, sandy brown instead of dark, and styled differently. His build appeared moreslender, less obviously powerful. A fresh scar cut across his left cheekbone, still pink and healing. Part of the disguise?

But those eyes. Fates, those eyes.

I dug my nails into my palms hard enough to irritate the cuts I’d received last night, using the pain to hold myself steady.

“This is Blain Torreth,” my father said.

Even his name tasted wrong, like poison on my tongue. He was Trew, Trewyn, the king who’d held me through thunderstorms and showed me I was worth fighting for.

Not this stranger wearing his eyes.

“A pleasure to meet you, sir,” I said, dropping into a curtsy.

It was agony using formality when I wanted to run to him. Pure, exquisite agony.

Blain—Trew—moved closer, beginning a slow circle around me that mirrored my father’s inspection. I felt the heat of him as he passed behind me, close enough that the air shifted with his movement. Close enough that I caught his scent beneath his disguise. Cedar and citrus, faint but unmistakable.

My body wanted to lean back into him. I locked my knees, fighting the instinct with everything I had.

“She doesn’t look like much trouble,” he said, his voice pitched slightly higher than normal and his accent like those living in the northern territories. Everything about him was wrong except his eyes.

My cheeks flamed.

“Bit tall for a woman.” He moved to stand beside me, though still angled slightly my way. “But manageable.”

The audacity.

He leaned close and lowered his voice for my ears alone. “Though I expect you’ll require extensive…discipline. Daily sessions at minimum. Perhaps multiple times a day until you learn proper obedience.” With a sardonic lift of one eyebrow, he faced my father. “I’ve guarded more challenging charges.”

For a heartbeat our eyes met, and I found fury there. Cold, controlled, devastating fury. Was he angry I’d left or was this part of the act? I couldn’t tell, and not knowing terrified me.