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This is the man to whom you’ll abandon your mother, brother, and sisters.
My fists balled.No.
“No,” I rasped, getting to my feet and taking the children with me. “No crying. I will be back. Nothing will happen to me. I have been there every day since each of you were born. That will never change, faywens.” I meant it with everything in me. “I’ll return.”
Kirwan snatched my wrist, yanking me along.
“I promise.”
Meliora, Jaclan, and Gisela didn’t speak as I was loaded into the carriage. Adan set off before my back hit the cushion, not allowing me a second’s linger in my home. We left Gutter Galley—my faywens becoming still, lonely specks in the distance.
The further we trotted from the Galley, the more noise crowded into the darkened space. Lyrica passed through the sliver in the curtain, warm and alive with the preparations for the royal wedding. The coming faeriken brought fear, but they also brought hope. The hope that the love of a princess and foreign king would save our home and our souls.
I turned away, scooting as far away from Kirwan as the carriage would let me. Shadows danced on the curves and lines of his face, concealing him as well as the unmarked carriage. Kirwan tried to hide his frequent comings and goings from my mother’s hut. Not out of shame. The man did not feel such a thing. And not out of respect to his wife. Him respecting any woman was the one skill this master of magic did not master.
He did it to hide his obsession. It wouldn’t do for the kingdom to know that Lord Dawnbreaker’s weakness was a thin, frail war wife from Gutter Galley.
I once asked my mother why this bitter, hateful man kept coming back when it clearly wasn’t for Meliora. There were hundreds of other war wives for him to choose. She gave me another answer I didn’t understand.
“Because he loves me, he can’t stay away... and because I don’t love him back, he hurts me.”
No, that did not make sense. If there was one thing I was certain of, Kirwan was not capable of love.
“You will not embarrass me.”
I jumped at his sudden speech.
“When we arrive at the palace, you’re to speak only when addressed. And when you do, it’ll be in a polite, soft tone and not that barking screech your mother should’ve drummed out of you. You represent all of Lyrica from the moment you step onto the grounds.
“The faeriken are little more than beasts, and yet they look down on us. They see us all as low-powered fae who dress ourselves up in jewels and finery to hide our inferiority.”
Are you certain they weren’t just thinking of you?
I bit my tongue, holding in the retort. Once, Kirwan hit me and my cheek swelled up like a dalia fruit. Mama broke a bowl over his head, and refused him for an entire year. He returnedagain and again, offering more money until our empty bellies and blistered shoeless feet forced her to take him back.
Ever since, he was only his most vile where she could not see him. And she couldn’t see him then.
“You’re an ugly girl.” He said it as though it was a simple fact of life. “You’re too short, too thin, and too mouthy. And that hair... Only the lowest faeriken with strange tastes will want you. Whatever they tell you to do, you’re not to fight or refuse. To do so would disrespect King Salman. I will not stand for shame to be brought upon the crown. Is that understood?”
I tipped my chin, offering no more than that.
Kirwan seemed to accept it because the carriage lapsed into blessed silence once again.
It was a long ride through the winding streets. Every dip in the road sent a jolt through my heart, taunting me the closer we got. This was it. Once my name was recorded and the money was dropped in Kirwan’s hands, there was no going back. After the wedding, my details would be passed among the kingdom’s brokers.
Any soldier or nobleman looking for a too-short, too-thin, too-mouthy companion would have me offered up on a silver platter. If none of them wanted me, I starved in the streets—denied the right to work in any other profession.
The only thing worse than this being my fate, was if it was Meli’s.
The carriage slowed, jolting me out of my thoughts. I chanced a peek outside and frowned.
“What are we doing here?”
“Have sense, girl. You’re not fit to enter the palace in that state. You will shower, change, and be here waiting for me in exactly one hour.” He climbed out and strode inside, giving no further instruction.
Adan climbed down and waited in his infinite, stoic patience. He was a bit older for his position. Streaks of gray weathered his burnished locks and crow’s feet stamped the corner of his flat, blue eyes. But what value was there in replacing a loyal servant who’d never betray your secrets? A faeriken cut out his tongue decades ago.
I stuck my head out, gaze traveling up, and up, and up to the towering chimney stacks—each stamped with the Dawnbreaker crest.
