Page 24 of Storm of Desire
"Get up here,"Amadea hissed in hermind.
Gathering her skirts, she somehow made it to her mother's side, sliding her hand into thedrekiqueen's. Over a hundred faces stared back at her, and not a single one of them smiled. Thedrekiwarriors who served her mother and Stellan simply stared, and the others looked at her with holloweyes.
The fate of thedreklinghad brokenthem.
"And the greatest of us all, theBlackfrost."
Sirius's head turned just assharply.
Their eyes met for a second before Árdís looked away. He pushed away from the wall, moving with slow, careful steps, his face devoid of allemotion.
Did he support his father inthis?
Had he known what wascoming?
"It is the dearest hope of myself and my brother to join our two bloodlines and present a unified court." Amadea drew their hands together, and Árdís found her palm resting uponSirius's.
What was going on here? She hadn't protested the betrothal too hard, knowing whichever way she looked, her back was in a corner. With both of her brother's fleeing the court, she was the only heir, but she'd never hold such a position without a strong male behind her—the way Stellan backed thequeen.
But it had been over ayear.
Neither the queen nor her uncle Stellan had pushed this, beyond the odd mutter, and Sirius never breathed a word about thebetrothal.
It had loomed over her, and yet protected her from the attentions of otherdreki. Both threat and savior. Her heart began to pound as she realized what her motherintended.
"Let us bring in the equinox with a celebration." Amadea's voice rang through the enormous cavern. "Tomorrow night, I shall watch as my beloved daughter takes the Blackfrost as a mate, and I can officially announce him as myheir."
Árdís's breath sucked through her.Tomorrownight?
She didn't realize she'd flinched until Sirius's fingers laced through hers, forcing their handstogether.
"Don't,"he whispered on a thought-thread.
Cheers rang out among her mother's warriors, and hands clapped together. The rest of the hall was silent. Some of her father's remaining coterie ofdrekiexchanged glances. Thedreklingdidn't move. It all seemed so distant. Árdís's world was narrowing in around her, caging her within their false cheer. The laces on her dress seemed to pull tighter. She couldn'tbreathe.
"If you'll excuse me," Árdís said, unable to stay there a second longer. Gathering her skirts, she fled thedais.
* * *
"You selfish little bitch."Skirts stalked after her, a menacing swish that told her she couldn't flee. "Do you think this is a game? Do you think you can defy me like that in front of the entire court, and I shall merely turn the othercheek?"
Árdís spun around, her heart beating wildly behind the cage of her ribs as the queen stalked toward her. "How could you do that? Right after.... You could have warnedme."
The queen's smile was thin. "You've had a year to grow used to theidea."
"He's not mychoice!"
"Do you think your father wasmychoice?"
Movement flashed. Her ears rang as the slap drove her sideways. Árdís caught herself on the wall, and looked up. Defiance was unwise. Her mother was dangerous, and had long proved she held no sense of loyalty toward her ownchildren.
But Haakon's kiss blazed across her mouth, and Árdís'sdrekiwrithed within her, as if it had woken from a long slumber to find the world burning aroundit.
Or perhaps the kiss had wokenher.
The heart of her. Therealher.
How much of herself could she bury? How much of her soul could she cage, before it was too late? Nodrekishould ever have its wingsclipped.
