1. His Bride

“Merlara, wake up.”

I blinked, adjusting my eyes to the dim light of the candle Aeliana held in her hand. I hadn’t even been asleep. I’d been awake for hours, trying to rid myself of the nightmare that had followed me around every night.

The man in the red robes.

His face was always just beyond my memory. I could never remember what he said or why he frightened me. Only the color of his robes and the feeling that something terrible had happened.

A shiver ran down my spine as I forced my attention back to my sister.

Aeliana stood beside my bed, already dressed in her leathers and boots. Her brown jacket, the one Father had given her for her birthday, was fastened tightly around her.

“What time is it?” I whispered as I sat up, rubbing the tiredness from my eyes.

“Midnight.”

I stared at her. “Midnight?”

“Get dressed.” Urgent. Her voice was urgent.

I pushed myself from the bed, my heart hammering in my chest. “What’s wrong?”

She set the candle on the table and crossed to my armoire. She pulled out a dress without looking and tossed it toward me. “Grymoria will be at our borders in three weeks.”

My body went still. Grymoria was the last kingdom I ever wanted to see marching toward ours. “What?”

She clicked her tongue, already annoyed with me, but turned toward the window, staring into the darkness beyond the glass while I dressed.

I was in disbelief, almost falling over myself as I pulled the dress up my legs. “Didn’t Grymoria just attack the Eastern Kingdom?”

Aeliana said nothing, but I could sense the way her shoulders tensed.

“Why would they come here?”

She shook her head. “I’m not sure. King Morvar isn’t exactly known for making predictable moves.”

A chill moved through me. I hadn’t heard his name since I was a little girl, listening to the servants whisper in dark corners. No one eer spoke his name this freely.

“Father’s spies have been keeping a close eye on him.”

Technically, they were Aeliana’s spies. Father had been training her for years to become our next general. She commanded soldiers, gathered intelligence, and knew more about the war than any of us. She was important, the second born in our family.

“Why wake me up now?” I asked as I finished dressing.

Aeliana’s eyes traveled over me. Something tightened in her expression before she looked away. “We lost a legion of soldiers in the Eastern Kingdom.”

I stared at her.

“We need more men.”

She started toward the door and I hurried after her. Her candle was the only light in the dark, reflecting off the damp, stone walls.

“Father and Mother have agreed to an alliance. Prince Kaelen will give us two legions.”

I sped up to keep up with her long strides. Prince Kaelen was from the Southern Kingdom, Sunhaven. And there was one thing I knew about relationships between kingdoms.

There was always a price.

“In exchange for what?” I whispered, out of breath.

“His bride.”

My heart dropped. Elysande, our eldest sister had been promised to Prince Kaelen since childhood. She had spent years fighting our parents over it, insisting she would rule our kingdom without a husband.

She was the firstborn, the heir to the Western Kingdom. And now our kingdom needed her marriage more than it needed her choice.

“Prince Kaelan has sent a party. A carriage to take Elysande to him. He will not send troops until they are wed.”

“Aeliana, you’re walking too fast.”

“And you walk too slow, Lara,” she hissed.

I quickened my pace, pumping my arms to keep up with her. Everything she had just said processed through my mind. “Elysande is leaving tonight?”

“I woke you so you could say goodbye.”

We turned into Mother’s favorite sitting room. Mother and Father stood together, speaking in hushed voices. Cyrilla and Vespera sat nearby in their nightclothes, both looking as though they’d been dragged from bed like I had been.

“Oh, thank the gods,” Mother breathed when she saw Aeliana.

She pulled her close, completely ignoring my presence. I turne my attention to my sisters then, pushing away the longing my heart felt.

Cyrilla barely looked up from the book in her hands. “You know, they used to say dragons were real.”

I stopped. I’d heard stories about dragons before. My governess used to tell me that giant beasts once filled the skies and helped the Northern Kingdom win the Great War.

Mother had dismissed her from the palace when she discovered what she’d been teaching me. All I remembered from that terrible night was the man in the red robes.

Even now, the memory was nothing but fragments. Nothing but nightmares.

Cyrilla looked at me when I didn’t answer before returning to her book.

Vespera frowned. “How can you read at a time like this?”

“It calms me.”

That was Cyrilla. Always buried in books, preserving our history while Father trained Aeliana for war. Vespera had learned the trade routes and negotiations.

Everyone had a purpose, except me.

“So,” Vespera said, turning toward me, “how do you feel about Elysande finally being shipped off to marry Prince Kaelen?”

They both gave me their full attention, which was rare. “I’ll miss her.”

“We hardly see her as it is,” Cyrilla said.

“She is still our sister,” I muttered, the words had barely leaving my mouth when Mother rushed toward us.

“We can’t find Elysande.”

Vespera shot to her feet. “What?”

“Her maid was found unconscious in her room. Elysande is gone.”

Aeliana immediately turned toward the door. “I’ll find her.”

“We don’t have time,” Father said. “Kaelen’s carriage is waiting.”

“And his soldiers are waiting too,” Aeliana snapped. “We won’t survive without them.”

Mother clasped her hands together. “What if you don’t find her?”

“Then Kaelen will consider it an insult.”

Cyrilla closed her book. “If he finds out she’s ran, he won’t send his troops. He’ll demand her head.”

I twisted my hands together. This was the man Father had chosen for my sister?

“How could she be so selfish?” Aeliana demanded.

I looked at each of them. At their fear and anger. Their desperation.

Elysande had a duty to marry Prince Kaelen. Aeliana had a duty to protect our kingdom.

And I was the fifth daughter. The unwanted one. My parents had stopped expecting anything from me years ago. They had wanted one more child after four daughters, but they had wanted a son.

Instead, they got me.

I had never been trained for war. I wasn’t the heir. I wasn’t a historian or a diplomat. But perhaps that meant there was one thing I could do that none of them could.

I swallowed and forced the shaking word out of my mouth.

“I’ll go.”