Roar (Stormheart #1)(32)
But her reprieve was short-lived. Rora felt Cassius step up behind her before he spoke. “Maybe it’s better this way. No more ceremonies. No more dresses you hate. We’ll get married, and then we’ll get on with our lives.”
Get on with their lives? The future was always scary. Rora knew that. But she couldn’t fight the sinking feeling in her stomach, like she was drowning. Like she’d lost her way in the water and didn’t know up from down, and her limbs were filled with lead, and she would never find the surface again.
“Why do you want to marry me?” The question was out of her mouth before she knew exactly what she was doing. But once it was, she could not stop. “Why leave behind your home and everyone you know to be the king behind the queen? You’ll have to answer to me, give up the Locke name and take mine. You don’t strike me as the kind of man who would enjoy playing politics while his wife rules a kingdom.”
Part of her thought that if he admitted to his hunger for power now, if he told the truth, then perhaps she could salvage it all.
His eyes narrowed, and his mouth tightened. “You don’t trust me.”
“I don’t trust anyone.”
“And I destroyed the trust you gave me with your knives.”
She did not answer him. Just kept her cold gaze fixed on that handsome face.
“I’ll earn it back, Aurora,” he said fiercely. “I promise you that. And I do not make promises I don’t intend to keep. As for why I wanted to marry you? I never felt that I quite fit in my family. Maybe the king behind the queen isn’t the most ideal position, but it’s a far sight better than second heir.” He took her hand, surrounding it with both of his. “Truthfully, Aurora. I am very much looking forward to a life here in Pavan. A life with you.”
He was spinning his webs of charm as always, but that last sentence almost rang true to her ears.
Cassius continued: “We will be embarking on our life together not just as man and woman, but as king and queen. Ours is the first wedding of two royal Stormling families in over a century. We represent a historic alliance. Since the storm is due to arrive soon after our wedding … what if we fought it? Together? Between the two of us, we cover most storm affinities known to man. Our children will be the most powerful Stormlings the world has ever seen, and it would be good for people to see us working together, fighting together. It would send a strong message as our first act as husband and wife.”
Rora played along, saying the right words, smiling the right smile, and nodding, but her mind wasn’t in it. Not really. She was outside herself. Her heart grew calm and steady and quiet—the kind of quiet that came before the Rage season. As if the whole land was bracing itself for the battle to come. All the nerves and the confusing emotions melted away, and she was nothing more than a series of actions cobbled together by instinct alone.
That was what happened to an animal when it was cornered. When the danger was high and adrenaline took over. Reason disappeared then, and the only thing left was an instinct older than blood and bones. And her instinct? It told her two things.
To lie.
And to run.
A door snapped closed, and her concentration sharpened; the world no longer blurred around the edges. Cassius had left, and Rora could barely recall the end of their conversation. She leaped into action and threw open the door to her bedroom. Nova straightened from where she’d been absentmindedly dusting around the room. Rora strode toward her bed where Nova had folded the traveling cloak. Picking up the worn fabric, she asked, “Can you get me more clothes like this? Nondescript. Pants, no dresses?”
“What do you need them for?” Nova asked.
Rora looked at her. At the girl who used to be her best friend, and might still be. And even though everything else was chaos and confusion, she felt undeniably sure about something for the first time in years. “I’m making my own future.”
Citizenship—whether by birth or petition—guarantees the right to live and work in Pavan under the protection of the Stormling crown. Rights may be revoked in the event that a citizen is found guilty of a criminal action or fails to surrender the required taxation.
—The Governing Tenets of Pavan, Article 2: Pavanian Citizenship
8
Rora spent the day pretending, which was not that different from her usual day, except this time there was hope beyond the lies. As she made preparations, she couldn’t quite admit to herself aloud what she was planning.
She was a princess without the power to keep her kingdom, a girl whose future had been decided for her. That was the cold hard truth. But it didn’t have to be. If she had learned anything last night, it was that the world wasn’t as clear-cut as she had always believed. And between the bad choices and the worse choices, perhaps there was another road that she had never known existed until last night.
She expected to change her mind as the day went on, that she might come to her senses. Instead the world seemed to be affirming her reckless decision.
She overheard a conversation between the queen and one of her advisers: “It’s the Rage season, Lord Delrick. If he wants a Stormling guard to take him to Finlagh again, it will cost him. He agrees to my price, or he takes his chances on his own in the wildlands.”
Rora spied a pile of tax documents on the queen’s desk, the top one of which read OVERDUE in big, bold letters. When she flipped through the stack, a few papers had a large red x covering the entirety of the page. Did her mother really banish defenseless people to the mercy of the wildlands if they could not pay?