Page 6 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
“I can attest to that,” Silas said. “He’d gotten a bit loose in the lips during his old age.”
“Plan on walking in his footsteps, ey, Silas?” Uncle Maksim asked.
“This is not a day for quarreling,” my father said, more patiently than I ever could. “It should be a joyous occasion.”
“Dad.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “You know I usually love going around in circles with you, but we don’t have time for this. Not today.”
While he was a serene lake, I was a sea storm, he always said. With eyes as green as the depths staring back on the brightest day, a gift from my mother, the great Lisette “Lisa” Vegheara–may the gods have mercy on her beautiful soul that was taken much too early from us.
“We’re Protectorate, Allie,” he said so calmly, he made me want to scream. “We make our own time.”
“How do we make this wedding go away?” I asked.
“We can’t.”
I exhaled through my nose. “Why? We’re one of the most powerful Clans in Malhaven. The only Clan who would even think to directly challenge us is the Blood Brotherhood and–”
Uncle Maksim spit on the ground. “Those bloody warlords shouldn’t be mentioned on Sanctua Sirena.”
“Fine,” I said. “But my point still stands.Why?”
“Allie, some things require patience.” My father speared me with that endless gaze of his. The one that always seemed to keep too much from me. “Especially leading a Clan, which you will do. Evie does not want the throne–”
I froze mid-stride, my heart falling near my riding boots. “How do you know?”
“I asked her.”
“Did youofferit to her?”
“Of course,” he said, oblivious to the sudden storm gathering inside me. As if he hadn’t just insulted every hour I sacrificed to prove I’d earned the throne. “She was the rightful heir before she vanished.”
Yes.
Was.
Before her parents had kidnapped her and hid her so masterfully, not even Grandpa Constantine had found them. But then he’d made my father his successor and had concentrated all his efforts on raisingmeto rule. From diplomacy to defending, Grandpa Constantine had been an almanac of knowledge and I’d become his grateful student. We’d lock ourselves away for hours on end as he’d poured everything he’d learned during his reign into my curious ears.
Some part of me still wondered if he’d dedicated so many waking hours to teaching me to make sure I was almost always in his sights, so I wouldn’t be snatched away like Evie had.
Another part questioned how much faith Grandpa Constantine truly had in my father and his abilities if he was so adamant with his lessons.
In the past sixteen years, the throne had become my right. Not by birth, but through blood and bruises on the training ring, paper cuts and headaches in the library, and countless nights stolen by urgent negotiations.
A right I would have parted with if Evie had expressed even the slightest interest in it. Perhaps I would have done it begrudgingly at first, after almost a lifetime of being trained for the crown. But all those skills I’d gathered and worked for would have made me an excellent advisor as well.
Myfather had no right to offermyfuture behind my back.
My knees threatened to buckle, but I locked them.
The First Daughter stood tall, even when the ground crumbled underneath her.
Sixteen years.
Sixteen years I’d bled myself dry for the crown and honor to protect my Clan and he made it sound like it meantnothing.
He hadn’t even said it with any spite–Alaric Vegheara’s sinless heart did not stoop to such wretched emotions.
But it hurt me just the same–and made me wonder.
