Page 8 of Crimson Kingdom

My mother spoke up next, her features tight. “Even if we were willing to risk our people against their highly trained soldiers when they have the geographical advantage, with the structure of the clans, who would we even bring a war to?”

“We could start with the bastards in Bear and Elk,” my father suggested helpfully.

She shot him a look, but he only returned it.

“They took our daughter, and now they want to take her back? Who’s to say she will even be safe when she gets there? I agree with Camdyn.” He spoke in his usual authoritative, sure tone.

I didn’t bother chiming in again since I had made it clear on multiple occasions that I did not want a war fought over this. Overme.

There were more murmurs of agreement, and even Uncle Oli looked thoughtful.

Then MacKinnon cleared his throat. The room fell silent for the first time since I arrived. The former rebel had been a strong, present voice on this council for as long as I could remember, but losing his adopted son had taken its toll. He rarely spoke up these days.

Until now.

Even I held my breath for what he would say as he eyed my father with a mix of sympathy and disappointment.

“I think it is safe to say you are not the only one at this table who understands the fear of losing a child, nor the reality of it.” The fatigue of the last year lined his face, aging him well past his fifty years.

The reminder of Mac washed over the room in a wave of sadness.

“But when we set aside our differences two decades ago, it was for the sake of peace. The king and queen I serve have always worked for that.” He met my mother’s stare, then my father’s. “Are you willing to throw it all away now?”

“Is peace even a real option anymore?” MacBay interjected quietly.

“It is with a marriage alliance,” MacKinnon supplied. “Those who fear retaliation would feel safer with an ironclad treaty in place, and those who want to attack out of vengeance would be forced to stand down when the very princess they would be avenging is allied with Socair.”

“Ye can’t be asking me to send my daughter back to the men who took her.” Disbelief widened Da’s deep green eyes and tightened his jaw.

MacKinnon ran an agitated hand over his graying beard before responding. “I’m asking you to consider what’s at stake if the lairds get it in their heads to march on Socair.”

He wasn’t wrong. Since shifting the monarchy to a council rule with my parents as the figureheads, the council could be persuaded to outvote my parents. And if they marched on Socair...they’d be going straight into Bear.

Da’ opened his mouth to respond, but I spoke first.

“I’ll do it.”

Everyone at the table turned to look at me.

My mother shook her head. “Row--”

“You wanted me to choose who I married.” I willed my heart to slow and my breaths to come out evenly. “I won’t just sit around waiting for the war I caused to wreck our people...and Socair’s.”

She blew out a slow breath. “You don’t have to decide that right now.”

“There really is no reason to put it off.” Except for the one I had been refusing to think about, but that hardly mattered in the face of war.

“So,” I addressed the rest of the council. “What would our next steps be?”

“Well,” Uncle Oli said, running a hand through his onyx hair. “As you know, we’ve had an offer from Clan Ram--”

I shuddered. “I believe I requested we return that one with a suggestion for him to shove it up his old, perverted--”

“I think the princess has made her feelings on Sir Mikhail’s proposal abundantly clear,” Aunt Jocelyn broke in, gesturing for her husband to continue.

“So that leaves Lynx and Elk.”

Luca had sent a proposal not long after Theo’s had arrived, and I was almost tempted. No one in his family had tried to kill me. He certainly wasn’t hard to look at, and Mila would be my new sister.

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