Page 111 of A Tempest of Shadows

I was halfway down the hall when my father emerged from his private solar. His eyes widened when he saw me. “What happened? Why are you dragging mud through my home?”

“I’m not dealing with you today.”

“Was there something wrong at your mother’s property?”

“Fuck off.”

As the duke watched his son storm up the stairs, he smiled. The girl had done as he’d ordered. Now, it was time to put his plan in motion.

CHAPTER NINETY-THREE

Ellery

Over the next two weeks, life became something I endured instead of enjoyed. All the happiness I’d experienced with Ryker was gone, sucked from the world, and torn from my life.

I’d always known my father’s death broke my mother’s heart, but now I understood the true depth of what she endured every day. She’d somehow kept herself together after his loss, and I’d do the same.

That didn’t stop me from spending a few nights in her room, curled up in her arms and crying. She never asked me about Ryker and the duke; she didn’t have to.

She understood the story without ever hearing the details. I was a foolish idiot who fell in love with someone I couldn’t have, and the duke had made sure of that.

She never offered me false platitudes or told me things would get better; she knew a broken heart didn’t heal with empty promises. She simply held me, and while things didn’t get better, her calm presence helped ease some of my sorrow.

Although I’d told him not to come back here, I kept waiting for Ryker to return. He never did.

I didn’t blame him for not returning; I was awful. And he didn’t even know how truly terrible I was.

Still, I couldn’t deny that a small part of me retained hope he’d return; if he did, I had no doubt I’d break and tell him everything. That would be disastrous, but I’d give anything to see him again, take back what I did, and start again.

None of that could ever happen. The duke and my lies would make sure of that. This was the only path we could have trod together, but I still dreamed of different possibilities every night and woke with tears on my cheeks.

After two weeks, when I heard the thud of horse’s hooves on the dirt road, my heart leapt with joy, but then the rattle of a carriage followed, and it sank again. The last time a carriage arrived here, it tore my life apart.

From where I stood with Scarlet and my mother, feeding the sheep, we couldn’t see the vehicle on the road. We all stopped what we were doing and listened for it to go past the manor, but the rattle of wheels and the jangle of harnesses stopped.

A chill crept down my spine; this couldn’t be good. I tossed the rest of the grain onto the ground and wiped my hands on my apron, but my mother seized my arm before I could leave the pen.

“I will deal with this,” my mother said.

The sharp edge of her voice caused my eyebrows to rise. “But⁠—”

“Stay here.”

Before I could reply, she released me and stormed out of the pen. She stalked up the hill toward the road.

“Don’t mess with your mother,” Scarlet whispered, and I managed a small smile.

“I should make sure she doesn’t do anything foolish,” I said.

Scarlet nodded, and the two of us tossed the rest of the feed on the ground before leaving the pen and closing it. My mother was already up the hill and out of sight by the time we finished.

The two of us walked together to the corner of the manor, and when we turned it, my whole world screeched to a halt. I didn’t know who I’d expected to find there, though I’d feared it was the duke.

Staring at the carriage, I realized I would have preferred to deal with that asshole again than what sat in the road. The king’s insignia of a lightning bolt, rain, fog, a tornado, and snow marked the side of the metal carriage with bars over its windows and door.

Hands grasped those bars, and faces pressed against them as amsirah peered out from their prison. Two men held my mother’s arms as they dragged her toward the back of the carriage and the other guards who waited there.

She struggled in their grasp while demanding to know what this was about. They all remained stone-faced with their lips clamped together as they got to the back of the carriage.