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I groan when I feel the sticky piece of candy in my jet-black strands. I yank it out along with a few of my hairs. “What the hell do you want, Finn? I have a dress fitting early tomorrow.” At twenty, I am only two years older than my brother Finnric, but he acts more like a toddler on most days.

“Before or after your dick-sucking class? You know a good wife has to learn how to swallow,” he rasps.

I punch him hard in the chest. “Eww, Finn! That is none of your business. Worry about your own dick.”

“Both of you need to shut up before Mother comes up here. I’m trying to get some sleep.” Silas stands taller than Finn and me. At twenty-five, he’s also the oldest.

“Why are you even still living here? You should marry Jessamine before the town thinks she’s a spinster.”

He glares at me while Finn laughs. “Not all of us get a manor and a dowry like you, Kana. I have to earn my way with Father.”

“Oh, don’t worry, brother, she’ll be earning her keep with what’s between her legs,” Finn quips.

I gasp. “Ugh, Finn! You are disgusting.”

Silas smacks Finn’s chest, nearly knocking him over. “She’s right. Don’t talk to your sister that way.”

He shrugs. “Just wait until I climb the ranks in Nocturnus. I won’t need a fucking dowry. Just a tight hole.”

“Good luck finding a wife with that mouth,” I snap.

He laughs. “I’m a man from a rich family, Kana. I can marry whomever I want, my mouth be damned.”

Silas rolls his eyes. “Enough talk. Go to bed. Both of you.”

I glare at them one last time before heading into my room. Silas is stern but honorable, at least. Finn, on the other hand, is a bully. He always has been. I feel sorry for the girl who gets saddled with him for the rest of her life.

The thought brings me so much melancholy; I almost cry. What if my betrothed is just like Finn? Or worse?

Distraught, I topple onto my bed and scream into the velvet blankets. I kick off my heels and strip down to nothing but my panties before climbing underneath the covers. My mother tells me it’s not proper, but I love the feel of the silks on my bare flesh. The softness of the fabric brushing against my sensitive nipples… Besides, how can sleeping naked in your own bed be improper?

There are things I do look forward to with this marriage. The first being freedom from my controlling mother. I will have my own household to run as I see fit. I can run through it naked if I wish. Well, unless my new husband forbids it.

I will miss these nights though. Perhaps I’ll still sneak out sometimes and crawl into the rafters of the ritual room. Maybe someday I can help change the rules and make it so daughters can be a part of Nocturnus too.

I sigh happily, dreamily, as I drift off to sleep in a sea of perfumed blankets.

BELL

“I was named after my great-grandfather, Bellamy Erebus the Third. He was a grumpy old fellow from what I remember as a child. He’d swat at the cats with his cane when he walked, even when they were paying him no bother.”

Perhaps this is why the man’s so jolly. The antithesis of his own kin as a means of sticking it to the old man. “Felines can be precarious creatures. I assume they got their revenge.”

The lord of the carriage chuckles. “Oh, yes. Great-Grandfather sent everyone away in the end. Even the staff. He really must have gone mad, they say. He was dead for months before anyone found him. The cats had picked his bones clean.”

This makes me smile. I’ve always preferred the company of animals. They can tell you so much more about the true intentions of things. “Those with nine lives never forget.”

The man nods and pours another cup of tea. I hold my hand up in refusal as he tries to offer me another as well. “So, Bell, if I may ask, how did you come to get your name?”

This is where I decide to tell the real story or one of the many fabrications that I’ve spent years perfecting. There is something about this man’s disposition that allows me to sink back into my seat. To drop my shoulders and my guard. Slightly. Never fully for anyone. No person can be trusted. Not even my Pip. Although he was the only one who has never betrayed me. The nuns were actually the worst liars and miscreants.

In this moment, I’m content with a full belly and a slight whiskey buzz. Truth teller accoutrements. “I’m afraid my story isn’t as legendary as yours. My birth parents left me at Wickford Hollow orphanage when I was quite young. They didn’t name me for fear of attachment. The nuns called me Bell for the strange tolls that erupted upon my arrival.”

The man’s face falls, his smile fading. “Oh. My apologies. I wouldn’t have asked if I’d suspected such melancholy surrounding your naming.”

It is I who chuckles this time. He might be the most polite liege I’ve ever met. Certainly nothing like the Thorn man I worked for in the fields. “No need to feel bad for me, Lord Erebus. It was a long time ago. Besides, you can’t miss what you’ve never had.” Although you can certainly crave it and plot to achieve it in the most diabolical fashion.

His smile returns, but it’s tight. “Please, call me Bellamy. Is that why you’re headed to Wickford Hollow?”