Page 13 of Daughter of the Ninth Line: Part One

“Your brother believed you didn’t kill your mother?” I asked, and when she winced, I regretted my careless words.

She shrugged. “Maybe? He said that it was irrelevant whether I pushed her or she fell. What mattered was that she’d loved me with all her heart, and she’d want me to be cared for. So that’s what he’s done. He cared for and loved me, and made sure my siblings did too, despite our father’s rage. We became closer for it; we had a bond born from death and violence.”

I was silent, but I held her tightly, until her stomach rumbled and the warm sun began to set behind the castle, making the chill of the wind even colder.

I forced myself to release her. “Come on. Let’s go get you changed into something dry and feed you.” I held out my hand, hoping she’d take it. But for the first time in my life, I wasn’tsure the gesture of friendship, or something more, would be accepted.

Eyeing my hand like it was a rattlesnake ready to strike, she eventually placed her small palm in mine, and I tried very hard to hold back my smile.

In that moment, I made a silent vow to her. One that I would tell her out loud when the time was right. She would never be alone again—I would stand between her and her ghosts like a shield, until she was ready to fight them herself.

Nine

Avalon

Hayle Taeme had fed me and put me to bed after my emotional breakdown. To thank him, I avoided him like he carried the pox over the next two weeks. Shame heated every inch of skin when I remembered him holding me like a child as I poured out my deepest, darkest secret. He now had something over me, not that it wasn’t common knowledge back home. But Rewill was basically another country to the people down here; I doubted the hushed rumor had made it all the way to the walls of Boellium.

There was a stolt in my pocket and a hound on my heels, and I wondered if maybe I was an honorary member of the Third Line now, with the amount of animal companions I had. My body felt stronger after being here for a month. A month of regular meals, rigorous exercise, and sweet sleep. I was basically a new woman.

However, a month was how long my loner mystique had kept away the other conscripts. As someone sat down opposite me at my table in the dinner hall, I kind of expected Hayle. Instead, it was the girl from the Twelfth who’d checked up on me. The one who had seen my boobs.

“Viana.” She said the word like I was meant to know what it meant.

“What?” I asked around a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

Shaking her head like I was the ill-mannered one, she sighed heavily. “My name is Viana. You never asked. It’s kind of rude, if you ask me, considering I went to check if you still lived.”

“Avalon,” I replied. “And thank you, I guess?”

Viana plucked a bread roll from my plate, but replaced it with a muffin. “You need the sugar for energy. Everyone knows who you are, Avalon. Even if you weren’t the only Ninth Line conscript, you have one of Taeme’s hounds following you around at all times. It’s made you a bit of a topic of conversation..”

Great.So much for keeping a low profile and getting through this without making waves. “Not my choice.” I looked down at a grumpy Braxus. “Not that I don’t enjoy their company,” I told the hound, and he gave me a toothy grin.

Viana looked between me and the hound like I was nuts. “That shit right there is why everyone knows who you are. Also, why everyone is too scared to approach you. But I’ve got nothing to lose, and you look like you need a friend.”

I wanted to argue with her, but if I was honest, loneliness was hitting me harder than I’d thought it would. I’d always lived a solitary lifestyle, people avoiding me to stay out of the firing line of my father’s wrath. But I’d still spoken to the cook and my brothers and the maids. The stablemaster. The shepherd. They weren’t more than acquaintances—except my brothers, of course—but they’d helped stem the loneliness.

Purposefully isolating myself here had been different. I ate alone. Trained alone. Lived alone. And it was harder than I’d thought.

Shaking my head, I reminded myself of my goal. Get through this with no ties. I wanted to disappear after this. I didn’t want to emotionally connect myself to someone I’d lose all too soon.

“Thank you, but I’m fine. I like being on my own.”

Viana just raised her eyebrows at me. “No one likes being alone, Avalon Halhed. We aren’t made for that. But if you aren’t ready to admit you need a badass bestie, I’ll be waiting.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Or maybe you’re getting it on the regular from Hayle Taeme, so you really aren’t lonely. If that’s the case, though, you definitely need a girls’ night to tell me if the rumors are true.”

“Rumors?”

“That Hayle Taeme is hung like a horse. I’ve heard it hangs between his thighs like a third leg. Peony heard that he had to get special undergarments made to keep it contained, so people don’t accidentally clip it during hand-to-hand combat training.”

The hound beside me grunted, his eyes sparkling, and I wondered if he was keeping track of my conversations. He was a dog, though; there was no way he could inform his master that we were talking about his cock, right?

Looking at Braxus, I wasn’t entirely sure that was true. “I’m not sleeping with Hayle,” I told Viana softly. “I’m not sleeping with anyone.”

I’d never slept with anyone. No one would dare to defile the daughter of the Baron of the Ninth Line, and I’d never had any suitors, the way my sister Lenora did. Everyone knew of my father’s hatred—it was infamous up north. Ignoring my existence was a better way to get into his good books than asking for my hand.

“Yet I’ve seen how he looks at you,” Viana told me with a devious chuckle. “He’s imagining what you taste like between your thighs.”

I gasped, my face flooding pink. “Viana!”

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