Page 14 of A Crown of Tears and Treason
A laugh spilled from my lips. Gods, it sounded like a sob. "I don’t have much of a choice, do I?"
"Evie!" my cousin Dax roared. He gripped a broken piece of wood. Blood trickled down his right temple. "Get the fuck away from that bastard!"
Dax looked ready to rip me away from the prince himself, but as he bolted in our direction, a Blood Brotherhood woman crouched down, sweeping Dax off his feet, just like I had with the Serpent woman. As his back hit the ground, she jumped onto his chest.
"Get off me, you she-demon!" he roared.
I jerked in his direction, but the prince leaned his hand against the tree, blocking my path.
"You head back into plain sight and you’ll be an even bigger arrow magnet. He’ll get distracted and you’ll both get killed,” he said. “Have no fear, she won’t hurt him.”
No fear? I'd gotten rid of Fabrian, now I was trembling in front of his murderer.
My heart leaped as Dax shook her off and vanished between the shrubbery, with the woman on his heels.
He would live. He had to. And I couldn’t help him if I couldn’t see him.
The prince towered over me, caging me between him and the sycamore. Not quite touching, not quite far enough away that I could slip past him. "We’re wasting time. I have come here, claimed your hand in front of witnesses, and proven my skills in battle, as is tradition.”
Another poisoned arrow flew at us, another whirl where he held me tight to his chest. How could he even see these arrows? Did he hear them?
“Choose,” he said as soon as we stopped spinning, his unwavering gaze rooting me to the spot.
My throat throbbed with the scream I held back. Either I took my chances with the arrows, or I exchanged one arranged marriage for another.
I’d been better off in those bloody mountains I’d hated.
A sickening green fog slithered in the garden, from somewhere next to the rose bushes.
My insides shriveled. The fog was the same shade as the poison on the arrows. "My cousins. Promise me they’ll be safe."
"It depends on whether they survive today."
“Promise,” I said with a voice I didn’t recognize; this one was strong. This one would have made grandpa Constantine proud. “Promise me my cousins will also be protected if I say yes.”
A mean glint shined in the prince’s gaze. “I promise.”
“I can’t do magic,” I said quickly, before he’d even finished talking.
There, I’d said it. Out loud, for the first time in my life. My parents had forbidden any mention of it, I’d been too embarrassed to admit it to my cousins, and I hadn’t bothered telling Fabrian about it after he’d scoffed at women having powers. Now I’d revealed it to the prince, the stranger I’d beenraised to fear, with nothing but a whisper, drowned out by the pounding in my ears.
Maybe he’d reconsider this whole arranged marriage promise if there was truly nothing to gain from it. The lack of magic made me practically useless on a Clan throne.
Surprise flashed in his eyes briefly, quickly engulfed by the endless sea of ice in his irises.
“I don’t care,” he said in a calm, cool voice that was nothing short of menacing. "Are you coming or not, Evelina?"
My name. He knew my real name, which had rolled off his tongue so easily.
The cries in the garden turned more desperate. The arrows rained down quicker. The mist glided over the fallen chairs and bodies.
Clan life, in all its miserable glory.
And I was powerless in a world ruled by the powerful.
But I didn’t have to be frail for the rest of my life.
I locked eyes with The Dragon once more. The man who’d crashed my wedding and assassinated Fabrian.
