Rise of Fire (Reign of Shadows #2)(58)

I seethed, my hands knotting into fists at my sides. Somehow I managed to hold my tongue during the exchange. I had to keep it together. I could not lose the king’s trust. Not if I wanted to get Luna out of here before she was forced to marry the old man.

The king snapped his fingers and guards appeared. “See that Chasan makes it to his chamber. We would not want him to collapse en route.” He smiled again, but his eyes stayed cold and lifeless. Tebald managed to convey absolute menace even when only kind words dropped from his lips.

The guards moved to either side of Chasan. He gave his father one last long look, and then departed the great hall.

It was as though, as always, Luna could see me. Sensing her stare, I turned to look at her, hoping to convey to her that she had nothing to worry about. We were still going to escape this place. Sooner rather than later. She wasn’t going to marry Tebald, just like she wasn’t going to marry Chasan.

She gave a hard shake of her head at me, her eyebrows dipping low over her eyes, commanding me to do nothing.

I nodded once, more for myself than for her since she couldn’t see me.

I would hold silent and pretend as though Luna marrying an old man who reminded me so much of my father did not send my body into revolt.

The dinner continued, this time with the king salivating over Luna. When he hand-fed her a bit of meat with his pudgy, beringed fingers, I couldn’t stomach it any longer. I rose from my chair.

Maris touched my arm. “Where are you going?”

“I fear that I might not be quite recovered from the fall I took earlier,” I said, referencing the excuse I had given for my appearance. I didn’t know what excuse Chasan had given for his appearance, but no one had pressed me on the fact that I looked like I’d tangled with a tree wolf. Standing, I turned my attention to the king, who was now looking at me intently. “Forgive me, Your Majesty.”

“Retiring already, Prince Fowler?”

“Yes, I’m not feeling quite myself.”

“By all means, rest. We wouldn’t have you sicken on us again. My daughter has her heart set on a wedding next week.”

I inclined my head. “Of course, Your Majesty. I would not want to disappoint her.”

“As well you should not.” The king wore a smile, but the threat was implicit.

It was a threat I would think about on my walk back to my chamber, my hands opening and clenching at my sides as it festered inside me.

He thought he had me—and Luna. Two whipped puppies under his control.

He would be wrong, and I would show him just how wrong he was.





TWENTY-SIX


Luna


I LISTENED AS Fowler left, his tread fading to a dull beat over the stone floor of the great hall. I fought the wild need to call him back. It was better if he wasn’t here right now. I knew that. I felt his anger and knew he was close to snapping.

Still knowing that, it took everything in me not to call Fowler back. If he had not left when he did, he could have lost the fragile trust he had established with Tebald.

I was not marrying Tebald, but I couldn’t declare that. I had to keep that truth bottled up inside. I needed to keep my composure and suffer this meal, suffer Tebald and his roaming fingers.

My heart thumped furiously in my chest. My head buzzed, the king’s announcement running over and over in my mind. He intended to marry me.

After Fowler’s departure, conversation revived in the hall. I turned my head left and right, taking it all in. My eyes burned but no tears fell. I squared my shoulders, pulling them back, reminding myself that I was strong. I had survived so much. I would survive this, too.

I lasted through dessert. Tebald attempted to feed me a candied date and I couldn’t tolerate it any longer. I pushed up from my chair. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty. All the excitement has tired me. It’s not every day a king proposes, after all. I’m quite . . . overwhelmed.” Somehow I didn’t choke on the lie.

“Of course, my dear.” He reached out and grabbed me with one of his hard, square hands. He tugged me down, his grip pinching my skin. I winced, my shoulder joint straining.

His lips brushed my cheek, his beard, as coarse as the bristles of a paintbrush and with the faint odor of rancid meat, prickling my skin. “I may not have won your mother all those years ago, but I shall have you.”

Revulsion bubbled through me. His hand squeezed tighter and I whimpered. His breath came hard against my face, putrid and hot on my skin. He was excited at my pain.

I had to get away. “I look forward to that.” In that moment, I would have said anything.

I twisted my arm until I managed to free myself. Rubbing where he had gripped me, I gathered up a fistful of my skirts and hurried along the back of the dais.

I charged ahead, mindful of the steps leading down from the platform. By now I knew the route to my chamber by heart. No one stopped me. They let me go, and that, perhaps, filled me with the bleakest fear of all.

They thought I could do nothing. They thought I had nowhere to go. Deep down, I was starting to fear they were right. Maybe I was never leaving here.

The night was silent. My maid had come and gone after brushing my hair and helping ready me for bed as though it wasn’t something I’d done for myself countless times. As though this were any ordinary night and not the first night of my death. Marrying Tebald would be a living death. The thought of marrying Chasan had been bad enough. But Tebald? I shuddered.