Page 12 of When the Sky Breaks

Fine.

But we’d thrown this idiotic party to put on a show for the townsfolk. The least he could do was make an effort. But as soon as I got my whiskey, I found myself face to face with a tall, immaculately dressed Elven man I’d never seen before.

Who I could only assume was someone sent from the Inner Court.

“You, I would have to assume, are the new High Lady Sorcha?” the man asked, taking my hand and kissing it. My skin crawled, and I wrenched my hand back like I’d been burned.

The man’s expression was disinterested, eyes nearly vacant. He froze in place as I pulled away from him, his hand still hovering in the air from where he’d kissed mine.

“Who’s asking?” I snapped, shouldering past him and scanning the crowd for Nokona, Ansel, Neal, somebody.

“My name is Alexi Donavan,” the young Elf said, following closely behind. “I came under High Lady Iksura’s instructions. Instructions that say you and I are to wed.”

“Little late for that,” I said sharply, turning around and gesturing first at my dress and my veil, then my ring, and then the party.

“I’d assumed this was . . . some quaint Mexican folk festival?” Alexi asked, glancing around the plaza with an air of utter derision.

“My wedding?” I asked dryly. “You think my wedding is some ‘quaint Mexican festival’?”

“There are a lot of people in the town square,” Alexi offered by way of explanation.

I cut him off with a glare.

“Why wasn’t word sent to the Inner Court?” He pivoted. “I hardly think Lady Iksura would approve of a match that produced such an unconventionally common celebration.”

Five

Neal

Iglanced to my and Sorcha’s table, expecting to see her there. But when both chairs were conspicuously empty, I felt a pang of terror resonate through my chest. I’d married this girl for the express purpose of protecting her. And now, I looked up at the cathedral clock tower, not five hours after, she was nowhere to be found.

I scanned the crowd, fuming that I’d somehow let her convince me that a blue dress was better and more traditional. There were at least a dozen well-off townswomen in blue, which meant Sorcha didn’t stand out. At all.

I spotted Ansel and rushed over.

“Do we know where Sorcha went?” I hissed.

“Aren’t you supposed to be with her?” Ansel asked. “It’s your wedding day, boy!”

“I was checking on something,” I defended myself, but I knew how hollow it sounded. I didn’t know Ansel well and knew Sorcha didn’t trust him for a second after his behavior two days back when he arrived. So I wasn’t about to tell him the truth—that if I spent the night sitting next to her, listening to her joke about the townsfolk, watching her as she watched the birds and bats overhead, close and calm and relatively private, then I’d take her to bed and peel that blue silk dress off her and kiss her all over until she melted for me. No. I certainly wasn’t saying that to Ansel. I forced myself to focus and told him, “She was at our table. And now she is gone.”

“Then go find her,” Ansel said. “Just keep your head on straight.”

It felt like an eternity of scanning faces before Ansel tugged on my arm and pointed out Sorcha across the way, near the low-slung awning at the Palace of the Governors. She was backed up against one of the posts, with some pompous Elf nobleman looming over her in a too-intricate silk suit. I grabbed Ansel by the arm and dragged more so than led him in her direction.

“Just don’t actually rip the man’s head off,” Ansel said as we walked. “Alright? Bad diplomacy.”

“No promises,” I growled.

“I cannot imagine that, given full information, given the legal implications for the Court, you intend to maintain this union? He’s a Steward, High Lady Wilson,” the nobleman said as we came into earshot, voice dripping with an uncomfortable mixture of seduction and contempt. “Besides, I’m sure you haven’t consummated yet. No reason we can’t just pretend this little indiscretion never happened.”

And then he bent down and kissed her.

I had never once, in more than a century on the face of this planet, felt rage like that.

No one revered Elven men for possessiveness. Fathers preached patience and equal partnership. But everyone had their line. And this was far past mine.

I pushed past the intervening partygoers and grabbed the nobleman by the shoulder, shoving him back and stepping in front of Sorcha.