Page 2 of A Crown of Tears and Treason
By then, I’d been missing for sixteen long years.
Sixteen years of surviving between mountain peaks that didn’t bother to thaw in the summer, in a small, forgotten cabin with nothing but hunger, cold, and my parents’ disappointed stares to keep me company.
After my cousins had made absolutely sure it was me and not some imposter, they hadn’t pressed me for answers about my life away from them. They could see the hardship on me.
My sunken cheeks and slight frame, the cuts that hadn’t healed properly, the coarse skin on my fingers, my clavicle that stuck out too much. I’d been soaking in the best creams and fragrances since my less-than-triumphant return to the Protectorate two weeks ago, but the marks of survival ran deep.
Allie’s shoulders fell. “I’m sorry we weren’t the ones to find you.”
My parents, Mara and Falor Vegheara, had done everything in their terrifying power to keep me hidden, as far away from Clan life as possible. Yet here I was, living their nightmare.
I was on the Sanctua Sirena island, dressed in the riches they’d cursed, marrying a Clan heir they probably would have despised even more than the one they’d tried to shield me from.
“What’s done is done.” I walked toward the open window. Allie couldn’t examine me too closely if I was admiring the scenery. I hoped.
I needed to look calm, poised, and most important of all, happy.
Inside, I was quaking. With fear, with uncertainty, and withrage. Deep, hot, seething rage.
I ran a hand down the front of my corset, fingers lingering on the bump. It grounded me as I stared down into the lavish courtyard.
My husband-to-be stood behind the altar in all his overlording glory. He dropped his glass, the amber liquid splashing onto the stone path near the roses. He snapped his fingers at his nearest guard to clean it up. The man trembled when Fabrian hissed at him to hurry. Even his closest were terrified of him.
My stomach roiled with fury.
Allie’s nose wrinkled. “Charming.”
“He’s just nervous.” I sighed, hoping it sounded wistful.
“He’s a vicious bastard.”
“He’s my bastard,” I said past the bile rising in my throat.
“Stop defending the idiot.”
Don’t, Allie, please. Don’t get in the middle of this. Let me save you.
I chanced a look at the mountain of a guard. Fabrian’s assassins had been bigger and more menacing. He must have had power my cousins didn’t know about, there was no other explanation, and I wouldn’t risk all his malice directed at them for nothing in this world.
“Stop trying to ruin my wedding,” I said with a courage I didn’t feel and instantly recoiled inside when I saw the way her eyes softened. I was doing this to keep her alive, I needed to remember that. “What else would you have me do? You know who’s waiting for me out there.”
“Don’t say his name.” Allie clenched her jaw.
I wouldn’t have dared say his name even if I’d known it. Nobody did. They all called him The Dragon, the feared crown prince of the Blood Brotherhood Clan–and the man I was supposed to marry all along.
My betrothed, since the day I was born. The reason my parents had hidden me in the mountains since I was five.
In Malhaven, names were a powerful commodity. Give yours to the wrong person and they could tie it to a spell that could wreck your life. It’s why almost everyone had a nickname or a codename. I’d gone from the firstborn of the First Son of the Protectorate and future leader of my Clan, to the Lost Daughter. I’d heard the sentinels whispering my new “title”, thinking I didn’t hear. Living in the wilderness had taught me to pay attention. Smells, sounds, vibrations. You got distracted, a bear gulped you up or a snake stuck its fangs in your leg. I’d been raised to heareverything.
And Ihatedthem calling me the Lost Daughter.
But I couldn’t be the Protectorate leader ever again. That title had officially gone to Allie on her eighteenth birthday, after grandpa Constantine had taught her all the leadership lessons that should have been mine. She would be a great ruler. Kind and fierce in a way I couldn’t be now, not after everything that had happened.
At least my true given name was still mostly a secret. The Blood Brotherhood prince had been wise to hide his.
“It’s a Blood Moon today.” Allie drummed her fingers onto the windowsill as if she wanted to stab the wood with her nails. “He and all his creepy Brothers and Sisters will be busy with their weird rituals that give them power.”
So the rumors said.
