Page 4 of The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King

I shook my head.

“No insults? No refusal? No argument?”

Do youwantme to argue?I almost asked. But then I’d have to see that little concerned twitch on his face, and I’d have to recognize that hedidwant me to argue, and then I’d have to feel that complicated emotion, too.

So I just shook my head again.

He cleared his throat. “Alright. Well. Here. This is for you.” He’d been carrying a silk bag, which he now handed to me.

I didn’t ask.

“It’s a dress,” he said.

“Alright.”

“For the meeting.”

Meeting. That sounded important.

You don’t care,I reminded myself.

He waited for me to ask, but I didn’t.

“It’s the only one I’ve got, so don’t bother arguing with me about it if you don’t like it.”

So pathetically transparent. He was practically poking me with a stick to see when I’d react.

I opened the bag and glanced down to see a pile of black silk.

My chest tightened. Silk, not leather. After everything, the idea of walking through this castle in anything other than armor…

But I said, “It’s fine.”

I just wanted him to go.

But Raihn now never left a conversation without a long, lingering stare, as if he had a lot to say and it all threatened to bubble up before he left my room. Every single fucking time.

“What?” I asked, impatient.

Mother, I felt like my stitches were popping open, one by one.

“Get dressed,” he said at last, to my relief. “I’ll be back in an hour.”

When he was gone, I closed the door and sagged against it, releasing a ragged exhale. Keeping myself together for those last few minutes was agonizing. I didn’t know how I was going to do it in front of a bunch of Raihn’s cronies. For longer. For fuckinghours.

I couldn’t do it.

You will,Vincent whispered in my ear.Show them how strong you are.

I squeezed my eyes shut. I wanted to lean into that voice.

But it faded, as it always did, and my father was dead once more.

I put on the stupid dress.

* * *

Raihn was nervous.

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