Page 115 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
But now, the Protectorate was out of my reach. I had the freedom to decide the future of my bloodline, unencumbered by the weight of the crown.
And I couldn’t do it.
“I don’t want to decide right now.” I cleared my throat, trying to dislodge the fears from slipping from my tongue. “Those two years are nothing. Gone in a blink.”
My legs tensed as I waited for the Commander’s reaction.
“I agree. I doubt the Clan Council will allow us to strike it out completely, the whole point is to combine our bloodlines so we won’t kill each other and the next generation won’t want to murder their cousins,” he said, swiftly and calmly. “We can try and change the term.”
“Then let’s lengthen it. Ten years?”
Too much could happen in that time. Either of us could die–that thought rattled me more than I cared to admit.
“Fair.” He drew a sharp line with a pen on his copy of the contract and it reflected on mine, writingten. I stared at his curved letters, so different than the jagged lines I’d imagined would spill from his large hands.
Knots constricted my stomach as the ink darkened, watching my fate twisted by some other hand, just as caged as mine.
“Anything else?” he asked.
I licked my lips. “This whole having to share one meal per week clause sounds a bit much, we should take it out–”
“No.”
The paper crinkled as I placed the contract on the table and splayed my fingers on top of it, as if I could cover the future it weaved for me. “No?”
“No.” He looked up at me, eyes sparking with perfect conviction. “Whether we want it or not, we’ll get married. I won’t be living with a stranger for the rest of my days. If we need a clause to achieve that, we will. It also means you’ll have to walk out of your room at least once a week. I consider this a win.”
Damn him, that was sound logic. But admitting he was right…that was another issue. “I thought this was a negotiation.”
Taking place inhisfortress, athistable, inhisrealm. The one I’d asked him to bring me back to.
“It is.” He jerked his chin at the piles upon piles of paper. “All of my family assets, heirlooms, city resources, and some of the previously mentioned jewels.”
I gawked at him. “Am I supposed to choose from your family heirlooms?”
And city resources? I didn’t want to take anything from these people. They needed all the help they could get in this remote world.
“No, these are for you to look over so you know what you’re getting, down to the last coin, deer trophy, and polished stone.” He shrugged, like he wasn’t just giving me the keys to his entire kingdom, frozen and strange as it was. “You seem like the kind of woman who wants to know what she’s getting herself into. You are going to be my wife. What is mine is yours from the moment we meet at the end of that altar.” He said it like a promise. He splayed out his arms and arched them over the parchments, the leather of his armor crinkling. “This is what I can give you.”
My lips parted as I stared–then kept on staring.
A fortune was laid out in front of me in numbers, deeds, and codes, free for me to explore and use.
I hadn’t asked for this–any of the things he’d given me freely, someone who’d been his enemy mere weeks ago.
To a woman who’d trained her arrows twice on him–the last time was an accident, but still–and had jumped at him with a broken bottle.
The Commander hadn’t flinched, hadn’t backed up, and he hadn’t cowered.
He’d faced me, time and time again.
He’d bared his lands to me, and now his family riches.
And I had nothing to give back.
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “This is going to be a very short negotiation, then.”
I hated how small and detached my voice sounded, especially in this mighty room. Why did everything have to be so big around here?
