Page 13 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
A stab of pain pierced my heart. I was watching a disaster unfold and nobody would listen to reason.
Not Evie, not my father, and I suspected Fabrian wouldn’t either.
Fabrian.
The one person I hadn’t tried to talk some sense into.
I set the glasses down on the banister.
It was a desperate plan, but one nonetheless.
“Evil times indeed,” I whispered. “Grandpa would have wantedusto do something. We need to deal with Fabrian.”
“A dagger to the throat?” Dax asked.
“Too obvious.” Dara shook her head. “He could have an accident in the outhouse.”
“That’s cliche enough that the Serpents would investigate,” Dax said. “We could always poison him.”
Clara shook her head. “That would leave a trace. As would a spell. We can threaten him with an iron-clad treaty.”
Dax jerked his chin at me. “You can tell Evie to stab him during their wedding night. We’ll take care of the body.”
Clara rolled her eyes. “Then she’d be a widow and have to go into mourning for three years, according to the Clan Code. We need to do it during the ceremony, before she signs any contract.”
“You’re right.” Dax turned to Dara. “How quickly can you make a concealment rune?”
“If Uncle Maksim helps?” She shrugged, the metal chains on her shoulders clinking delicately. “Four, maybe five–”
“Enough,” I heard myself say in that imperious tone Grandpa Constantine had taught me. “Evie has forbidden any murders at her wedding–and we aren’t supposed to bear weapons today.”
Both the Protectorate and the Serpents had promised to come unarmed today, as a show of peace.
“She’s going against tradition already, it seems.” Dax grimaced. “What if she actually does love him?”
A ridiculous thought, but one I’d been forced to consider nonetheless. Evie’s proclamations of love had stayed my hand against Fabrian more than once since she’d announced the wedding.
If Evie did loveher lump, then we couldn’t–and shouldn’t–intervene.
But all Evie’s dulcet words about her future groom sounded hollow.
My father said I always saw trouble where there was none–but there were embers here, I could feel it. The smoke just hadn’t risen yet.
“Separating lovers is criminal. Nobody should interfere if their love is pure,” Clara said.
“For some.Iwould have wanted someone to talk some sense into me two years ago and save me the heartache.” I crossed my hands in front of my chest, eyes narrowing on Fabrian. It was time we had a chat. “I couldn’t live with myself if Evie would suffer as I did.”
“At least we managed to do one thing right,” Dara said.
“Coordinate our outfits?” Dax asked.
Dara huffed a laugh. “We kept the wedding a secret from the Blood Brotherhood.”
A heavy silence settled over us.
If the Blood Brotherhood would have discovered us, the wedding would have ended in a blood bath.
Before she’d vanished, Evie had been betrothed to the Blood Brotherhood prince they called The Dragon when they’d both been babes, as a desperate attempt to end the animosity between our Clans.
