Page 9 of Seduced By Darkness
His eyes light up and he laughs. “I’m glad we’ve had this little chat. This is much more interesting than having you simper at me like some little lovesick swain.”
I can’t breathe.
My mother wouldn’t do this to me.
Shewouldn’t.
But I can’t help thinking of her close ties with Maren of Aska. Mother’s been murmuring about an alliance with the Queen of Nightmares for months.
War is on the horizon. She’s already sent her troops marching north to hold the borders against the encroach of Evernight. Their murderous prince has been making aggressions, and the lands of Mistmere have long been in dispute between them.
I stare at Etan as he blows me a kiss and backs away.
“Until tonight,” he says. “Save me a dance at the rites. No. Save themallfor me. Once we are married you will never touch another fae again.”
Mother won’t care if I go bursting in there demanding the truth. I’m her daughter, and she’s been hinting that my virginity is worthless to the kingdom if I never plan to gift it.
This is exactly something she would do to me.
I know it as surely as I know that marrying Etan will be a worse nightmare than my current life at court.
My mother has sold me.
To a monster.
“Over my dead body,” I whisper, but there’s no one here to hear it.
* * *
“Are you coming?”Andraste calls as she slips within my tent. “Mother’s gone to the queensmoot’s opening ceremony. We’re supposed to—”
My sister’s voice cuts off as she notices I’m not even dressed, my hair hanging in tangled knots over my shoulders. I’ve spent the last two hours pacing, trying to think my way around this.
“Vi.” Andraste’s brows furrow. She looks like a miniature version of my mother. Tall, blonde, blue-eyed. “What are you doing? The first bonfires are being lit at any moment. Mother wants us to be there for it.”
Traditionally, the three Seelie queens light the bonfires that bring in Lammastide. It hearkens back to a time when the fae went to war against the Old Ones and the otherkin who ruled Arcaedia before the fae arrived; night was a time of mischief and murder, and fire was used to ward them off.
The first time the fae lit the bonfires and sang in the equinox the way they did in the home world, there was a bloody ambush.
The otherkin fight with fangs and claws, and knives chipped from obsidian or stone. They hunt in packs and prefer ambush over outright confrontation.
And the first time Lammastide darkened the skies, when the fae were merry and drunk, the otherkin slipped from the forests and attacked.
Hundreds died until Blessed Maia and the other fae queens joined their powers together and fueled the fires with their magic, until the otherkin were blinded by the sudden light and left defenseless. The fae retaliated and drove them back, but now we always remember to light the bonfires.
It is an honor for my mother.
It’s a moment where she and her sister queens will stand in power before all the fae assembled.
And it forces her hated enemy, the Prince of Evernight, to bear silent witness as she reigns supreme.
I don’t give a damn about any of it.
“Did you know?” I stare at myself in the mirror, clad in my underthings.
There’s a pair of dresses laid out on the bed behind me.
One is green and gold—the colors of the Goldenhills, now that I know the game is afoot. Mother gifted it to me weeks ago. It’s another slap in the face to know this has been going on for at least a month, and I was completely unaware of it.
