When everyone else was out of earshot, Guner came up and gripped my chin, forcing it down several inches. “You better watch that face, heir. Your emotions are too easy to read.”
Read this,I wanted to say, but instead I offered him a wide smile.
“I said watch it,” Guner hissed as he stepped even closer, until I could smell the ale on his breath. “You’ve made enough enemies here that you should sleep with one eye open and your ship’s brow always up.”
“Was that all?” I said, eager to leave him behind. Eager to leave all this behind and get on a ship and sail for the horizon and then a bit farther.
His chest rumbled. “You took the king’s pet. You better be really fucking careful, because the king might have found it entertaining at the time, but he is known to change his mind. Who do you think will be at risk then? The heir everyone hates, or the warrior that won every battle the king has ordered?”
I ignored him as I started walking toward Ivren and Viljan, but as I felt his eyes burning over my back, I let out a shallow breath, trying to quell the trembling in my arms and legs.
“Are you all right?” Ivren asked.
“Fine,” I got out. “All good.”
“You know… you don’t always have to be strong,” Ivren said, his voice lowering. “That was… hard to watch.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Yes, she does.”
Viljan spoke at the same time I did.
I averted my eyes when his lips lifted into a crooked smile, clenching my jaw when his merry expression faded with the salty breeze wrapping around us as we descended the stairs. Viljan might not have given my mother the idea of me and Darcke on purpose, but he’d still lied to me my entire life.
“I do,” I said again. “I must be strong. I have no other choice. I have to ensure no one mistakes my bond with Darcke for something it isn’t, while dealing with everything else.” Bitterness seeped into my tone. “I wish our enemies attacking was the only thing I had to care about. At least no one would think I was about to fall in love with them.”
“No one truly believes you’re about to fall in love with him,” Ivren said as our boots hit the sand. “The king wouldn’t have let you walk away if so. Bond aside, you’re an heir and eldest daughter to a chief. You will need to wed a jarl—an equal.”
“I know,” I said more angrily than I meant to.
“We’ve all messed around below our class before,” Ivren continued. “I did.” He lowered his voice. “Lika did. And I know you have too. Lika used to brag about how good you were at sneaking away from Viljan. But everyone knows that that ends with the Hird.”
Viljan’s face remained relaxed, but something in his eyes flashed when I pretended to laugh.
“I know,” I said again. “I am done with that.”
A deep voice broke in. “Good to know.”
My gut churned as Darcke came to our side.
“I didn’t?—”
“I don’t care,” Darcke drawled. “I’ve never cared. The ships are arriving, and even though I ambelow your class, I am expected to be on yours as we sail back.”
Ivren winced. “Fuck. I didn’t see him.”
“It’s fine,” I replied.
It was fine. It was more than fine. Better Darcke and I went back to bitter enemies than whatever had happened over the past week.
I pretended that the pain wrestling in my chest as Darcke dragged his eyes over me like I was the one who’d torched his village came from Seindra’s slap—and the knowledge that like Viljan, my father had lied to me my entire life as well.
As I fell into the line where Geord, Rakkel, Ottoh, and their seconds already stood, giving Vero a weak smile while I took the spot beside Ottoh, I tried to shove every treacherous emotion deep inside me.
Darcke could do it. The only thing I felt from him was anger. It was always anger. There had been something warmer the past few days, a spark that I couldn’t get enough of, but that was snuffed out now.
“Maybe it’s a skill only karls and thralls can master,” Darcke whispered, his tongue dragging over his teeth. “Difficult to hide your emotions when you’ve been pampered your whole life.”
