Still, no one answers. He starts to open his mouth. I scrape together a few shreds of confidence to give the blessing I seriously doubt my younger siblings will volunteer for.“I will.” Mother’s voice, louder than I’ve heard it in a long time, echoes from within the walls of her prison wagon.“No—”
Hollis“Fuck,” King Kieran hisses under his breath.I stare into the depths of the prison wagon, rage pounding like a heartbeat through my veins. “Go. I’ll keep an eye on her.”He looks at me for a second, and I fucking know he’s about to ask why. I don’t have an answer. I think I might’ve exchanged
Inside sits a glass vial with, in the jagged hand of a healer, a label reading “heart.” I swallow. That doesn’t mean anything. I pluck it from the velvet cushion and shake one of the tablets out into my palm. It’s powdery and white, and I raise it to my lips.My mark pulses.What the fuck am I think
Candace“Here we go.” Raven’s Aunt Nola holds out a squalling, still bloody bundle of baby.Kieran accepts it like he barely notices the blood. Raven just slumps back against her pillows, sweat-soaked and panting.“We have a son.” Kieran’s grin could light up a whole castle.“Lemme see’m,” Raven mum
My skin grows cold. “How do you know about that? My parents made me promise never to tell anyone.”“She told me.” He shakes his head. “But we’re getting off topic. I don’t want to talk about your parents. I want to talk about mine.”“Okay?” I say slowly.“My father,” he corrects. “I was talking to h
HollisOutside the tent, Candace’s sobs sound as loud as Raven’s screams did not too long ago, but nothing changes in the flow of frantic traffic between the other tents. Almost everyone heads for the largest one, half of them clutching gifts, to pay fealty to the new baby prince.Something in my ch
Not that I’m keeping track. I, in fact, am doing the exact opposite. I’ve been so caught up in her that I’ve been neglecting my responsibilities. Even if she’s not the person I’m going to spend my life with, I still believe in her dream. There’s just no reason for her to lie, or to seem so scared if
CandaceFor the third morning in a row, I pull my covers over my head as lunch approaches and rub eyes gritty from crying.Well, not exactly the third morning in a row. The very next day, I tried. I got up, made myself beautiful even as Ingrid fluttered around me, saying I didn’t have to go out if I
Kash frowns. “Then how’d she find out? See a mark?”“In effect.” Hollis stares at the rocky floor.“He’s softening it.” I bite my lip. “We didn’t not pursue as much as we intended to, and she caught us. We made a terrible, selfish mistake that’s caused a lot of problems, and we just want to fix them
Candace“This is a bad idea.” Ingrid crosses her arms and glares at her door, like Hollis is just outside of it.He’s not. He’s in my room, waiting for me to come back after I told him his idea was a bad one and that I needed to get someone else’s opinion first.“Is it a bad idea because it’s Hollis
“Lord Soren,” Candace says numbly. “Where is he?”I grimace at the memory of our return home. Soren greeted the caravan at the gate, redder than Father with rage. His bellowing was hard to follow, threading together fights from their childhodbetween him and Father with ancient slights between our fa
Hollis“Come in?” Candace calls hesitantly through the door of one of the lesser guest rooms.I suck in a deep breath. I can smell her even through the door, blackberries and sunshine. Knocking—rather than just tearing down the door like I wanted to the second Lord Gunnar told Father about the addit
“Coming up!” the driver on the front of the carriage calls.Ingrid presses her face to the window. I try to look and almost end up tumbling into Taner’s lap. But finally, the carriage pulls to a stop, and someone opens the door for us to exit.According to protocol, Kieran exits first, with Taner ri
CandaceWhen the sun rises the next morning, it finds me crouching in the stables, sandwiched between one of Finn’s favorite stallions and Ingrid. It lights the wild grin that’s barely left her face since I barged into her drawing practice yesterday and declared Kieran didn’t control me. She immedia
That leaves me with Kash as company. He likes to walk through the castle with me while I point out places where different things happened. And to eat every meal together. And to spend almost every second that I’m not asleep by my side–making up for lost time, always. By the second day, I’m making up
CandaceI fold dresses into my trunk and listen to the commotion of the rest of the encampment breaking down outside. Kieran decided that letting King Andri cool off would yield the best results, so we’re leaving just as quickly as everybody else. This weird pocket of time with so many people in one
“What?” Ingrid scowls. “You’d think assassinating your own father would be enough to prove that you didn’t agree with him. Throw Mother in the dungeon with Hollis, when we get around to that stage.”Anwen winces.“We’re not throwing Hollis in the dungeon,” Kieran says tightly. “Not least because, in