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Tears blurred her eyes, and she ripped off the mask in the garden. She could hardly see where she was going, only that her past had caught up with her and she wanted to forget any of this had ever happened. That it all had the ability to make her cry at all.
A figure blocked her path. She hardly saw him and nearly careened into him.
“Sorry,” she gasped, stepping around him to try to find an empty space to grieve her old life.
But the man caught her elbow. “Kerrigan?”
She stilled, her eyes drifting up to meet blue. The last person she wanted to meet tonight. “Kivrin.”
He looked around the gardens. No one had yet noticed them. “What are you doing here? How did you even get into my party?” He fingered a lock of her tresses. “What have you done to your hair?”
Kerrigan tugged her arm out of his grasp. “Don’t touch me.”
“This is unacceptable,” Kivrin said with fury in his tone. “You were not invited to this event. You should not be attending parties.”
“And why not? Are you ashamed of me?” she hissed. “Oh wait, you gave me up. Of course you are. Here’s a hint: leave me alone.”
“I would leave you alone if you didn’t stumble into my events. I want you to leave.”
Kerrigan couldn’t leave, not yet. She fought for a lie. “I have one week to find a patron or else I will work for the Society for life. I’ll give up everything I’ve worked for.”
His eyes softened marginally. “And you thought you’d find one here?”
She inclined her head slightly. “Yes.”
“Then you are more foolish than I thought. Why did you not come to me if that was the bargain? I could have helped you find someone.”
She laughed at him. “I don’t need your help. You’ve done quite enough.”
Kivrin grasped her arm again, towering over her. He should have been intimidating in his grandeur, but he seemed smaller than ever.
“Listen and listen closely,” he growled.
But Kerrigan never had to hear what he said because a hand came down and clamped on Kivrin’s shoulder.
“I would release her, good sir.”
Fordham Ollivier stood there, standing eye to eye with her father. His mask had been removed, and his stormy-gray eyes raged. He didn’t even look ridiculous in the powder blue. He looked like he belonged.
Kivrin let Kerrigan’s arm go. “So, this is how you got into the party?”
“I was invited,” Fordham said evenly. He gestured to Kerrigan. “Come on. Let’s go.”
“This is a bad idea,” Kivrin said, glancing between them.
“Not any more than you are,” Kerrigan spat.
She followed Fordham away from her father. Her chest ached, and she felt like she had been wrung out. She didn’t even pay attention to where Fordham was leading until they were in the gazebo at the back of the property, where they had all agreed to meet. Fordham gestured for her to take a seat, which she did, burying her head into her hands.
“What was that all about?” he asked.
“It’s complicated.”
“That guy was a total dick to you.”
Suddenly, she just couldn’t pretend anymore. She was tired of hiding who she was. After Audria’s confession and her dealings with her dad, she couldn’t sit by and act like everything was fine.
“That guy is my father,” she said, looking up to meet his eyes.
Fordham balked at that. “Kivrin Argon is your father?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“But he’s a royal? And you’re…”
“Half-Fae?”
“Dragon Blessed,” he finished. “Obviously, your father would have to be Fae if your mother was human, but I thought that the House of Dragons was a way to advance in society. I gathered that they took kids off the streets and out of poverty to help them have a second chance in society. If your father is a royal…”
“That’s exactly why he abandoned me,” she said bitterly. “Most Fae don’t grow into their severely pointed ears until they’re five or six.” She gestured to the sharp points of his own ears. “I was left at the mountain when I was five right as my shorter ears were beginning to reveal that I wasn’t fully Fae.”
Fordham stared at her, his face unreadable. She didn’t know if he felt the horror that she did when she thought about it. Perhaps this was normal where he was from. Perhaps they would have just killed Kerrigan instead.
Kerrigan didn’t wait for him to say something. She just barreled forward. “There’s a story of the lost princess of Bryonica. Princess Felicity Argon of the House of Cruse was stolen at five years old, and everyone went looking for her, but she was nowhere to be found,” Kerrigan said, looking off into the gardens. “But I wasn’t lost. I was right here, where my father left me. Now, Audria found it all out. She wants her mother to adopt me from the House of Dragons so that everything can go back to the way it was.” She choked on the last words. “But it can never go back. Not after what my father did. Besides Helly, who knows what happened, I’ve avoided everyone from Bryonica. The very last thing I want is to go back to the place that let my father abandon me and be paraded around like some long-lost princess. I would rather work every day in the Society as a forgotten nobody than live that sham of a life.”
