Page 11 of The Ocean's Heart
“My…what? No. I wasn’t…I killed him.” Her chest heaves, panic setting in as she recalls the incident.
“You killed the invader?”
Another sharp blink. “I’m not sure how. He attacked, and I had a blade and…it all happened so fast.” Her eyes well, and a sob breaks from her lips.
I take a step toward her, intending to comfort, but she sits up, and the fur slips to reveal her smooth brown shoulders and the tops of her breasts.
I turn away. “I’ll leave you to rest. We will be at Merida soon enough.”
“Wait!” she calls out.
I stop at the door. “Yes?”
“To whom do I owe my life?” Her tone is thick with emotion, and of course, she does not know who I am.
I turn to face her. “King Vaarin. You are to wed my son, so best that we keep this incident to ourselves. As innocent and necessary as it may be, there are those that would not understand.”
I slip from the room, closing the door softly behind me, her renewed sobs echoing in my ears.
ChapterSix
THALIA
Bryony was dead.
She was gone.
Eaten…
No…No, no, no.
Grief shook me, burning my eyes and my throat until I was spent and dry-eyed.
Stop it,Bryony’s voice whispered in my mind.Get up and fix this. You have to fix it.
I sat up, panic a fist around my aching heart, because what now?
Without my sister, the alliance was ruined. Only royal blood carried the gift of fertility. Only she could have blessed the Northern Sea Kingdom through marriage to Prince Dylon, and now…What now?
Think, Thalia, think. I would not let Bryony’s death be in vain.
King Vaarin’s gravelly voice filled my head. “You’re safe, Little Princess.”And just now too, he’d addressed me as Princess.
He thought I was Bryony. Of course he did. I’d been wearing the royal crest, after all. My eyes welled again, and I dashed away the useless tears. Crying would serve no purpose here. Best to save the tears for a more opportune moment because the solution was so obvious, so deviously possible, that it stole my breath.
I’d become the princess.
Pretend to be royal blood for as long as it took for the alliance contract to be sealed. I’d marry the prince and consummate, thus sealing the alliance, and once it was sealed, it could not be undone.
Knots formed in my belly because a lie such as this…A betrayal to a crown meant death. But only for me. For not even the king could blame my father for this. A man so far away that he couldn’t possibly have known what happened to his true daughter or what his adopted one chose to do.
Bryony was dead, and once I’d saved our people, then I would gladly join her.
I took a deep breath and exhaled.
It was time to become a princess for real.
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