Forbidden Honor (Dragon Royals #1)(28)

And Lucien had stolen from one of those dragons. A shiver ran down my spine at the thought of the fate that awaited that stupid bastard, so that I could take his place. It made me feel guilty for his death.

The door flew open, smacking the wall hard enough to make me wince, and Hanna bounded into my room. “What are you? Sorry, I fell asleep waiting for you last night.”

“Did you fall out of your tree?” I teased her, hugging my sister. I didn’t want to lie to her, but I had to. I hated to lie and manipulate, it made me feel like my stepmother, like I wasn’t living up to the memory of my parents.

I wanted to be a good person. Being a good person was awfully difficult when the world itself was terrible.

Now I’d have to lie to everyone. The dragon royals weren’t exactly known for their kindness or their laid-back attitudes; trying to duck the elder royals’ spell would be suicidal.

“Turns out that I’m a squirrel,” I said brightly.

She searched my face and I realized, too late, that I should have sounded more upset.

“Honor, are you okay?”

Not in the least. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. I always knew deep down that I wasn’t going to be anything special.”

“Oh no, Honor.” She gripped my hand in a way that she must have meant to be reassuring.

Instead, her hand felt fragile in mine, a reminder that she was mine to protect. I’d sounded self-pitying, and now my little sister felt sorry for me. My mind raced, trying to figure out how to undo my last words without pulling any threads loose from my lie.

She went on, “It doesn’t matter what you are, squirrel, chipmunk. You could… You could be a frog and you’d still be special.”

“Not in anyone else’s eyes.” I still felt a warm glow at my sister’s affection.

“Well we can’t help that the rest of the world is full of idiots who don’t see how amazing we are,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean we have to believe them.”

Everyone should have someone in their lives who loves them and believes in them like Hanna believed in me.

“Well, I have got to get to work,” I said.

“I brought you breakfast. I knew you had a late night last night, and I didn’t want you to miss out.”

“Did you steal something from the kitchen?”

“Maybe.” She handed me a breakfast pie.

“I’m lucky I have you,” I told her. “I’m glad you’re my sister.”

She pretended to preen. “Well, I guess you had to be lucky some way. Even though nothing else seems to have really worked out.”

“Everything will work out eventually,” I promised her.

If only I believed that myself.





Honor



Later that morning, I knocked on my stepmother’s door. “Come in.” Her voice sounded sweet as sugar, the way it always did when she talked to those she valued—or to me in front of an audience.

I pushed open the door, wondering if she didn’t expect me, and found Henrick shirtless in her enormous four poster bed. He seemed perfectly comfortable as I paused in the doorway, trying to get my bearings.

Alis was sitting in front of her vanity, her long blonde hair loose to her waist, brushing through the silky strands which did more to cover her than her wispy nightgown.

“What is it, Honor?” she asked, her brows arching as she studied herself in the mirror. She seemed amused by my discomfort.

“I came to tell you I’m moving into the academy’s dorm for servants.”

“Are you?” she mused. “I’m not sure that’s the right place for you.”

She’d wanted to get rid of me since before she married my father, but now she wanted me to stay? My gaze flickered involuntarily toward Henrick, only to find him watching me, his eyes openly roaming my body.

I snapped my gaze back to her, despite the prickles crawling up my skin like insects. “Why?”

My tone came out blunter than I meant, but then, it usually did.

“I’ll want you to stay close to help me with the wedding. You are my daughter, after all… More or less.” Her gaze finally left the mirror and her startlingly blue eyes met mine.

She came the closest to anyone I’d ever met to having violet eyes, which seemed ridiculously unfair when she was a monster. Supposedly, some of the Fae across the sea had violet eyes; maybe someday, the Scourge would be defeated and we’d join the rest of the world again.

She began to draw her hair up from her long, slender neck, pinning it in place with a comb. A familiar looking comb. My stomach tightened with hatred as she said, “People expect to see you, Honor.”

“I’m not moving across the globe,” I promised. “You’ll see plenty of me.” For Hanna’s sake.

“Will we?” Henrick’s voice was suggestive, and my jaw stiffened.

I didn’t look his way, so I saw the way Alis’s face changed, an unpleasant smile tightening her lips.

I had to get Hanna out of here.

But the only way to do that was to keep working as a maid. The Olds—excuse me, Elders—weren’t going to help me, not when they apparently wanted to see me crumble so they had an excuse to say I wasn’t prophecy material and toss me into the path of the Scourge.