“What?”“I’m dying.” He shoves up on one elbow, proving himself immediately wrong. “If I have to sleep on the ground one more night, I’m going to die.”“You’re just pissed Howell stayed in Dun’s Crossing.” I tug a sack of fire supplies I’ve been collecting out of a small cart and start setting up a
FinnI could’ve asked Kerr, my personal steward, to pack my bag. He probably would’ve done a better job of it than I am. A mountain of half-folded clothes looms at me, asking if that’s really how I’m going to show up to a foreign kingdom.Putting my back to it is easier than answering. I need a few
“I reminded her she had selected the day I asked for her hand in marriage as our meeting,” he snarls at me. “Foolishly, I thought that would mean something. Just as you foolishly believe she was not leaving us for a long, long time before she strode out the doors. Who saw her?”“You.” I struggle to
“Cousin!” Corwyn smiles at me. “I’ve prepared everything for Uncle Alden’s arrival. I thought he might like some privacy.”As I would have, I think to myself. My first scraps of information about Mother in three months will come with an audience.I shake the thought away as soon as I have it. Tansy
XanderVedran lunges at my flank, and I whip out of the way before he can sink his teeth into my skin. He’s silent, as always, a pale ghost against the sand of the training area. I dart left, then right, aiming to scrape a blunted claw over his underbelly. My pulse pounds. Impulses fire into actions
“No.”Kieran stares at me like he can pry the answers he’s looking for out of my skull. I stare dully back at him. We’ll never be close, that’s more than clear. But at least I don’t have to wear his frustration with how incomprehensible I am to him as a bruise for the rest of my Goddess-damned life.