Page 140 of A War of Three Kings

Not with Finan.

My lips quiver as despair drags me down. I think I would prefer death over this.

I back away, but Jaxon pushes me forward. I want to scream, but it gets stuck in my throat. A wild, desperate need for survival overtakes me, and I turn and slam into the broad wall of the guard’s chest, beating it with my fists, attempting to dart around him. Jaxon spins me on my heel and pushes me forward again.

My brain finally accepts what my eyes are showing me. A large, open-air pergola stands at the end of a path, draped withgauzy white fabric and arranged with flowers. The aisle leading to it is strewn with a layer of white petals so deep that the stone beneath is no longer visible. On either side are pews of gawking nobility.

Dead ahead of me, Finan stands in his finery, before an altar.

He didn’t have me dressed as a priestess to renounce my vows.

I am dressed as a bride.Hisbride.

I want to vomit. To run and run and never look back. I search frantically for an escape, but the way back down the stairs is blocked by rows of guards and the rest of this hilltop is fenced in. I am trapped here, in this nightmare.

Jaxon’s large hand wraps around the base of my skull and forces the direction of my gaze. “Look closely. Do you see your brother up there, with your betrothed?”

My stomach bottoms out. Diarmuid is there, beside the bride’s empty space at the altar, with a knife held to his throat by a guard. The man shakes him for emphasis. My brother’s face is mottled with bruises, and he stands slightly hunched from the pain of his broken ribs.

If I don’t do this, they will kill him.

Finan is insane and impulsive enough that he would destroy the leverage he has over me in an instant, then find someone else to threaten me with.Brianna or Caitlin or my mother.

I take a step forward on shaky legs as the music loops back around and starts from the beginning. It is like I walk through water; like I am in another woman’s body, and this isn’t my fate. It couldn’t possibly be. I’m meant to marry Aldrin. To live my life with him. I so badly want to call to him, but I don’t want him to seethis.To witness my shame.

I need someone to save me.

To whisk me out of here.

Anyone.

I glance frantically from side to side, trying to find an ally in the crowd, but their eyes slide away from mine and into their laps. A tear slides down my face as my slow paces bruise the white petals underfoot, marking them with black veins. Somehow, my steps eat up the distance between myself and Finan all too quickly.

I think my heart will give out from breaking as I arrive at that altar and Finan grabs my hand. He pulls me so close that I can feel his breath on my cheek, and I shudder. It’s like bugs crawl all over my skin, and I want to scrape it off, flesh and all. Another tear slips down my cheek and his eyes narrow on it, then on my wobbling lips.

He twists my wrist so hard I let out a whimper. “If you protest, if you speak a single word that makes the people here think you don’t want this, I will kill your brother, then I will send a horde of soldiers through the priestesses’ portals to Appleshield and take your little sister.”

Finan loosens the pressure on my arm, but doesn’t drop it.

“Put a smile on your face. In time, you will realize you want this as much as I do. That this has always been your fate. You just need a heavy hand to guide you.”

My lips curl in a snarl. “I will never want your touch. I will never love you.”

Finan’s thumb gently brushes circles on the skin of my wrist. “We will see about that.” He places a kiss on my hand, then looks me up and down, taking a step back to get a full view. Tenderness blooms in his eyes. “You look beautiful in my mother’s wedding dress.”

The world spins as the druid behind the altar speaks. The ceremony is officiated by the king’s head adviser, Murdoc, who I thought was on my side. Maybe he is only interested in aiding Prince Niall and saving the realm from a mad king, and won’tget his hands dirty or ruin his cover to protect an insignificant woman like me.

He gives me an apologetic look. There is a tightness in his shoulders and at the corners of his eyes that makes me wonder if he is as powerless in this as I am.

“Where is Prince Niall?” I whisper to Diarmuid at my side.

He visibly shakes with rage and grits his teeth. One eye is almost shut from swelling and purple bruising. “The prince tried to gather support against this marriage, but it all happened too quickly. He didn’t know we had been abducted until this morning. Niall is imprisoned while the king decides if his actions are treason. Apparently, he locks his brother up on these charges regularly, then drops them.”

No one is coming to save me. Neither Aldrin nor my father is going to run up those stairs with an army at their back and stop this wedding. They probably don’t even know I have been taken.

Murdoc drones on, but I can’t follow the words. The erratic drumming of my heart is the only thing I can hear. Finan snaps at the druid to get to the vows and before I know it, I am repeating Murdoc’s words in a daze.

Aldrin was supposed to be my husband. My first, my last, my only husband, not this imposter of a man standing before me.

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