Grace and Fury (Grace and Fury #1)(18)

“I’m sure you didn’t expect to be chosen,” he said finally.

Nomi swallowed back a bitter laugh. “No, I didn’t.” She added, “Your Eminence,” a beat too late.

“You do not seem pleased with your good fortune,” he rebuked her, crossing his arms over his chest. A whisper of fear unfurled in Nomi’s belly. She couldn’t afford defiance now. She belonged to him; he could do whatever he wanted to her.

He could hurt her.

“I am honored to be your Grace,” she said, somehow managing to say the words without grimacing. “I—I only wish my sister could be here. She knows what’s expected of a Grace. I—I do not.”

At the mention of Serina, Malachi turned away abruptly, stalking to the terrace. After a moment, Nomi followed him uncertainly. Malachi stared over the railing at Bellaqua’s stone bridges and gondolas. It was uncanny, the way the Superior’s palace perched between the city’s canals and the sea, like a great ship, isolated and forbidding.

“I will be riding out to inspect Bellaqua’s troops tomorrow,” Malachi announced. “I will be gone for two days. Shortly after I return, my Graces will attend the Premio Belaria with me. You are behind the others in your training and appearance. I expect you to catch up in time for the event, when you will appear publicly at my side for the first time.”

“Of course, Your Eminence,” Nomi replied, caught between disappointment and relief. His trip would mean more time without news of Serina, and no opportunity to persuade him to share what he knew. But it also meant time free of his unnerving presence. It meant she would have time to make a plan. Hopefully one she could live with.

“What is the Premio Belaria?” she ventured. If it were some kind of ball, she was doomed. She couldn’t learn to dance properly in two days.

“It is a horse race,” he said shortly. “The most famous in Viridia.”

“Ah,” she said faintly. No dancing, at least.

“Do you ride?” he asked.

“Horses?” she asked, surprised.

He nodded.

“I’ve never had call to, Your Eminence,” Nomi replied. Silly question, she thought. Only the wealthiest wives and daughters were taught to ride.

The tips of his ears turned pink. “Of course.”

“Do you enjoy riding?” she asked, for once managing to be polite.

“I do,” the Heir replied. His voice softened slightly as he added, “My horse, Bodi, has been with me since he was foaled. I broke him myself.”

Nomi didn’t know what he meant by that, but the word broke sent a thread of ice down her spine. “‘A man’s worth can be found in the value he places on both man and beast.’”

“What did you say?” Malachi shifted toward her, his eyes narrowing.

Nomi’s breath caught in her throat. Stupid. It was a line from Renzo’s book of legends: from the story of a poor farmer who impresses a rich merchant when he sells a precious heirloom not to feed himself but to feed his horse. Malachi must have recognized it. She scrambled to cover her misstep. “It’s—it’s something my brother used to say a lot, Your Eminence,” she said. “Have I displeased you in mentioning it?”

Malachi shook his head. “It’s from a book I read a long time ago. That line, in particular, struck me.”

Nomi knew that in her place, Serina would turn the conversation back to more superficial topics. But she couldn’t seem to hold her tongue. “My brother liked that story. He said it was about valuing all life equally. Man, beast… woman.” She met his eyes.

“Do you think I value only my own life?” He was so close to her that his breath feathered against her face.

“I wouldn’t presume,” Nomi replied. She’d tried to make her tone innocuous, but from the way Malachi’s eyes narrowed, it was obvious she’d failed.

“You…” he said, stepping a little closer. Too close. “You have a good deal to learn.”

Nomi shivered under the intensity of his gaze. His eyes were a cinnamon brown, with amber flecks that sparkled in the light. She wished she could break free, run, hide away from the unnamed feelings suddenly coursing through her.

He raised a hand, and she stumbled back a step.

But he didn’t strike her, only gestured toward the door. “You may go.”

Nomi curtsied and crossed the room on watery legs, still feeling under threat.





NINE



SERINA


INSTEAD OF TAKING the prisoners to cells, as Serina expected, the guards led them outside. Then they opened the prison gates with a tooth-rattling shriek. The sun had fallen to just above the horizon, swollen and sickly red. For the first time since she’d left Lanos, Serina longed for its cold, jagged mountains and smokestacked factories.

She spotted Jacana’s small form and headed to her side. “Where are they taking us?”

Jacana wrapped her arms around herself. “One of the guards said this building is just for processing. That we live… out there.” She nodded toward the desolate rock outside the gate.

“Out there?” Serina echoed, horrified. The Hotel, the Cave… were those other prison buildings? Beyond the fences and barbed wire?

Anika came up beside them. “What’d you do to end up here?” Her gaze raked Serina from head to foot. “They’ll eat you alive.”