My back teeth grind. ‘Marrying him instead?’
‘Exactly.’ She folds her hands primly in her lap, her wedding rings proudly on display. The absurdity of it stokes flames in my blood.
‘You don’t even know each other!’ The words burst out of me.
Kay rolls her eyes. ‘I thought your issue was with me marrying Artur? Because of his age. Jonas is significantly younger. Problem solved.’
I close my eyes and force myself to breathe deeply. When I open my eyes again, I make a concerted effort to keep my tone level. ‘I entered the Retterheld for you, Kay. To give you a future. The future you deserve. I wanted you to have the opportunity to marry for love. Or not marry, if that’s what you wanted. Not just marry someone because it fixes a problem. That’s not what I wanted for you at all.’
‘But what about whatIwant?’ Kay snaps back. She closes her eyes for a moment, as if searching for patience.
You and me both, sister.
Kay takes a deep breath and opens her eyes, only to let out a long sigh. ‘WhatIwanted was a place at court and a family of my own. And now I’ll have both. I have a place here, and not just as the sister of the gifted. One day, I’ll be Lady Lorathin.’ She says it with pride, and I want to bite my tongue. She should be proud to be aKultavaris.
‘I’ll be happy, Rose,’ Kay says with the full confidence of the naïve. ‘With Jonas. I can feel it.’
With a smile so saccharine my mouth floods with bitterness, she places her hand in Jonas’s and gazes up at him. He settles down next to her once more, and her eyes warm. The preposterousness of the situation is almost enough to make me laugh.
Or cry.
Unable to look at her any longer, I turn my attention back to Jonas.
‘Who else knows of this sham?’ I ask. ‘Did you tell your father?’
‘He was asleep when I got back last night,’ Jonas replies. ‘And left before breakfast. But William …’ He falls irritatingly silent.
‘But William what?’ I snap. He can’t mention my brother and then just leave things hanging, letting my mind whir. ‘What about William? He knows? Is that what you’re saying?’
A gust of wind billows from outside, strong enough to blow the window ajar, but I make no movement to close it. I’m not going anywhere until Jonas gives me his answer.
‘No, he doesn’t know, I don’t think. I wasn’t wearing my rings. But he could tell something was up at breakfast this morning. It’s fine though. I just gave some excuse about being tired after finishing the Retterheld, you know?’
I don’t know. What I want is his exact wording to our brother, but before I can say as much, Kay interrupts.
‘I don’t get what the issue is. We’re married. It’s a perfectly reasonable pairing and people will find out about our nuptials soon enough. We plan to make an announcement at the next ball.’
Of course she’s already thinking of the damned balls.
‘Did he tell you he proposed tomeonce?’ I spin to face her again. ‘Did he tell you what he’s done to our family?’
Kay’s nose rises into the air. ‘If you’re talking about William, then yes, he told me everything.’ The window beats again as the wind rattles the pane, but I don’t so much as glance at it. All my attention is on my younger sister, who is busy ruining her life.
‘I think it was caring of him, actually,’ she continues. ‘Kind of him not to tell you during the Retterheld so that it didn’t upset your chances in the trials.’
What the actual fuck? Kind of him?
Kay doesn’t look shell-shocked by the fact that our brother is alive, nor does she look annoyed by the deception that has shaped the last decade of our lives. Her feigned casualness riles my anger to full-fledged fury.
‘How can you pretend like it’s no big deal? How can you say that so calmly?’ I snarl. ‘You sit there, with your hands folded on your fucking lap, withyour pretty rings, like we’re talking of the Godsforsaken weather!’
‘Rose …’ Jonas says, his tone a warning I don’t need. I can already see that my breath is clouding and ice crystals are forming on several surfaces.
Maybe I should stop. Back off. But Kayneedsto hear this. And she comes first. Always.
‘We thought Florian wasdead, Acacia. Mum and Dad, they diedmourninghim. Do you not understand that? Do you not understand how much this impacts our lives? What our lives could have been?’
‘Our lives?—’
