Page 35 of Trial of Thorns
“Are you stronger than them?”
“Yes,” I whisper.
“Then you’re going to win this?”
“I intend to.”
Her soft brown eyes glisten as she studies me. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Rev
After a challengingtrial and a night of drinking away my sorrows that the shade witch survived, my body is more than spent. I sleep almost the entire next day. I finally wake to bathe near evening and head for dinner with all of the reigning courts. Well, at least those left.
The Cracking Court and the Frost Court, whose champions lost yesterday, have already shipped out. They sent me their support in the upcoming trials, but I suspect they’d sent the same message to the other six champions, just in case they’re the winners.
My father frowns in disapproval at my disheveled state, but I ignore him. “Did you need to drink so heavily last night?” he asks under his breath as I sit beside him.
“Yes.”
My mother gives a polite laugh, but my father silently snarls. He can’t reprimand me here the way he does at home, not that I care if he does regardless. I stopped seeking my father’s approval long ago.
I’ll never live up to my brother’s reputation—in his eyes at least—so why keep trying? I may as well live by my own expectations. By my own goals.
He doesn’t even realize that his and mine are aligned. He only sees what he wants to see. A failure of a son. A pathetic heir.
Why does he want to see that? Because he feels the need to continually feel sorry for himself and his loss of his true heir years ago. Poor, poor soul.
I loved my brother, flaws and all. He was arrogant and powerful and charming when he felt the need for it. Those could be extremely worthwhile attributes in an ambitious fae heir. His short temper also made him a force to reckon with if things didn’t go just right.
In fact, he was a hell of a lot like my father.
My mother loved me, but my father, most of the time, despised me. He’s put on a good face in front of the other courts, if only to avoid weakening our reputation. One day, I will rule. He has no other heirs aside from a set of bastard twins he bore before he married my mother. According to fae law, they can’t inherit unless there are no other options.
They are trained and educated like all other heirs, just in case.
Over time, my father has shown his preference for them a bit too heavy handedly, and I am all but certain this attitude has played a role in why I haven’t yet been named heir to the High Court.
