Page 35

My bones and brain could no longer keep up the fight against the food and sleep deprivation, and there was little fight left in me. So I headed to the seat the Seer had pointed to and slumped onto the cold, hard wood. It turned out that once someone pointed out my shivering, it became so much worse. Cold had seeped into my very bones, and I couldn’t get it out.

Then I waited.

Watching and waiting were my specialty.

In a bid to get warm, I stretched out my sodden boots and the wet hem of my dress towards the roaring fire, which was too far away to do any good.

There were four chairs closer to the fire, and I wasn’t sitting in any of them. The power move was an immature one at best.

I made myself relax, but I was focused on the two women as they muttered together under a halo of magic so we couldn’t hear them. Aster furrowed his brow, and the two women turned to him and smiled at his discomfort. The Seer walked over and whispered to him. The slight twitch in his neck told me the words he replied with were a lie. Perhaps he wasn’t the model Celt he portrayed himself as.

Behind me, door hinges squeaked open, and my hand went into my pocket for my dagger. There was no need for me to turn around to know more trouble had entered the room.

Bronwen stood by the fire, opposite Aster. Her arms rippled with strength and long hours of training. She studied the newcomer, and then me, before claiming the largest, fur-covered seat by the fire. Crossing her ankle over her knee as she relaxed back.

I had never before met a woman with such a powerful presence—it was as if she commanded the very air without uttering a word. The Seer’s war-painted face almost glittered like YuleMots in the firelight as she came to stand behind Bronwen’s chair. Her hand rested on the high back, but her gaze was locked on whoever had just entered. When I turned to look, all I could make out was the silhouette of a person.

Without looking at me, she said, “My name is Mabe.” Her voice was quiet, but it still echoed around the room. “You are Aliwen of Annatalia.” It wasn’t a question. “Your cheap glamour tricks don’t work on me.”

Aster crossed his arms, and his fingers intertwined with his bracelets. He tilted his head. Clearly, he wasn’t going to interfere in this conversation. I was on my own, even if he was in the room with me.

Bronwen’s blue eyes bored into me, but the rest of her looked as if she were having a drink with friends. I admired how she controlled her movements.

It was time to play my hand—and I was fully aware of the wrath that I would get from Aster when I did it.

“You’re right. I’m glamoured, and I’m sure you understand the need. The Barren and Northland Kings have been hunting me for a decade.” The stranger behind me moved, but he still wasn’t in my line of sight. I took a lungful of air and decided that I had always done what was needed to fulfil the mission, and if I was to stay in the Ruckus and meet the other Annatalians here, I had to do it as myself. “I am the Princess Royal, Aliwen of Annatalia, and I seek refuge in the Ruckus as a royal survivor after the fall of my kingdom. You might not have been a friend to Annatalia in the war, but we shared the same enemies of the Barrens, Wilds, and Northlands. They seek to take your lands just as they succeeded in taking ours.”

Bronwen snorted, and her gaze narrowed on me. Mabe hummed, and Aster blinked ever so slowly. He was furious.

The flames that danced and popped in the huge hearth were the only movement.

I made sure that every inch of me demanded she agree.

Everyone waited to see what Bronwen would do.

The way Aster’s eyes met mine and then closed for just a second too long told me he had done the same. But refuge always demanded a price. I didn’t need to ask what he had given in return to live in the Ruckus—it was tattooed all over his skin, and it hung around his neck and wrists. He had given them his loyalty and his oath. He had betrayed us, and I was going to find out why.

I, however, would refuse to surrender that much, so I needed a different angle.

Bronwen sneered. “I was told that you all had bright violet eyes and white hair. You don’t.”

“To hide me after the castle fell, I was given an anklet by…” It was Aster who had given them to us, and I had assumed they had come from my uncle as a backup plan, but they’d come from Morlan. The witch was behind a lot, and if I saw her again, I would demand answers. “…some witches, and that hid our identity. Your Seer can tell if what I say is true.”

She leaned forward, and strands of her hair fell over her cheek, but she paid them no attention. “We know who you are. In return for sanctuary, you’ll marry a Lord of my choosing.” My eyes snapped to Aster on instinct. “Him? That’s who you want? You wouldn’t be the first to beg me to give him to you. But no, not him. One born in these lands. A man who’s worshipped the Earth since birth.”

The jab at Aster was clear. So, she still didn’t trust him even after he bonded himself to her cause—whatever that cause was.

I slowly shook my head. “Drop me back over the border. In the Wilds, for all I care… or send me back to the Barren.”

“No…” said Aster.

I glared at him. “You don’t get to talk to me or for me in this. I owe you. You owe me. But I’ll never marry, and you know that.”

Aster ground his jaw, and the Seer gave me the first genuine smile I had seen since I arrived.

“What else can you offer?”

“She can go to the library and fix the codex as planned.” The voice was a low rumble from behind me, and I sprang to my feet and spun around.