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You could hear a mouse scurry across the floor of a room on the other side of the castle, it was so deathly quiet.
This is it. The moment he takes his court of half-beasts, gets into his carriage, and rolls away for good. Emiana thought her only way out of this marriage was to flee with my face, but there was always another way,I thought, smile tugging to my lips.Make Shadowsoul dump me at the altar. Let him be the one doing the fleeing.
Shadowsoul’s expression suddenly changed, and I reeled back—heart jumping in my throat.
He smirked.
“A festering sore, you say? A splitting headache. An enemy to my peace, youth, will, and eventually, my life. You claim these as your vows?”
I didn’t break. I didn’t look away. “I do.”
“Well.” He released my hands, knocking me off-balance. “I won’t stand for my wife to break her first vow to me, so...” Shadowsoul unsheathed his sword and presented it to me—hilt first.
My mind spun in the split second it took his and Salman’s guards to move. I’d never killed anyone before. I’d never even seen anyone be killed. It was a hard life in Gutter Galley, but a peaceful one. Everyone was too tired and hungry to stir up trouble.
What life in Gutter Galley is... is mine. It’s my life, and Emiana sought to steal it from me to save herself. If I let this monster marry and whisk me away, she’ll have succeeded.
I had to get back to my family. I just had to. This was one promise I would not break.
I snatched the sword. Without pausing for breath, thought, or regret, I plunged it in his chest.
“Ahhh!”
Screams rang out in the ballroom. Shadowsoul folded over like a puppet with cut strings—his mountainous, head-scrambling presence disappearing in a blink. The faeriken ended their silent vigil—snapping, snarling, and barking as they madly climbed and stampeded over each other, surging toward me.
“Guards,” Salman bellowed. “Guards! Take her away!”
A noise sounded high above the calamity, striking fear the likes of which neither me nor Princess Emiana had ever known.
Alisdair Shadowsoullaughed.
Shoulders shaking, chest rumbling, breath catching—he laughed out loud, striking a dong for stunned silence over fae, faeriken, and me.
Straightening, he pulled the sword out of his chest—unharmed. “You, little bird.” My breath caught when he cupped my cheek—a smile as beatific as it was terrifying stretching his full lips. “I must have you.”
Shadowsoul snapped his fingers. The book of vows flew off the ground and dropped on his outstretched palm. “I do vow to take this woman as my lawfully wedded wife—”
“No,” I rasped, scream trapped between my teeth. What was he doing? He couldn’t do this!
“—forsaking all others, for as long as we both shall live.” He snapped the book shut, smiling wider if possible. “This I vow to you, little bird. Not peace, or happiness, or love, or friendship, but I do vow you will never be bored... and you will always be mine. This I promise for the rest of my days—may they be many or few.” He swooped down and kissed my lips so fast, he was already pulling back when I squawked and jumped away. “I leave that up to you.”
“No, y-you can’t do this.” My lips were numb. Did I speak out loud? Because I couldn’t feel them move.
A weight settled on my wrist. My head wrenched down to see a silver bracelet clutching a sparkling black stone.The first gift bestowed to his bride.
That meant there was only one thing left to do. “I don’t accept this.” I threw myself at the wall of guards, my hands straining and flailing through the gaps of their bodies. “I will not marry y—!”
“By the power granted to me by the All Mother, Meya,” the officiant cried, scrambling up. “I name you husband and wife.” He sliced his hand down between us—a coudarian crystal clutched in his hand.
“No!”
It was much too late. Magic washed over me, searing into my skin. I cried out as a black symbol etched into my pores—burning the rune for married deep into my forearm where it would always be, denoting me as the very thing Shadowsoul named me—his.
I lost it.
Screaming, I rammed my head into their armor—opening a dozen cuts on my forehead and cheeks. I pounded every hand that tried to grab me. I kicked and flailed as I was lifted into the air, catching two guards across the face.
Shadowsoul couldn’t take me away or Meliora and my family would lose the only thing they had left to lose—freedom from Kirwan’s iron fist.
