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In order to make it to nightfall, I’d have to marry Kauvras.
I ran my hands across the fabric, an overwhelming wave of longing crashing over me as I thought of Larka. The laugh my sister would have let out if she saw the gown… I could almost hear it. She’d make some joke about wiping her ass with the dress before suggesting we stuff it through the bars on the window and watch it fly to the street below.Good fucking riddance, she would have said.
I choked back a sob at the thought, letting my fingers trail over the intricate white lace that was sewn over silk. The sleeves ended in a delicate fringe, somehow elaborate and simple all at once. The crystals on the bodice glimmered softly in the light, reminiscent of the ghost of a life I’d once lived. My fingers caught on one that was slightly loose, and the crystal pinged to the floor, a tiny hole left behind and…
Something poked out. My eyes shot wide, peering instinctively back to the door before working the tinysomethingout of the slit in the fabric, tucked into the lining of the bodice.
It was a slip of rolled parchment. My hands grew clammy instantly, my stomach whooshing with hope and fear and desperation.
Under the dress. For the candle.
Before I knew it I was ducking to the ground, throwing layers of ruffled silk and tulle over my head, searching, searching, searching–
A thin elastic strap had been sewn inside the dress at the seam between the bodice and the skirts, just wide enough for the candle that lay under my pillow. It was so small I never would have noticed it was there.
A smile cracked across my lips, a quiet sob breaking with it as I climbed out from the ruffles, out into the idea that hope was here, even if it was as tiny as the strip of parchment in my hands.
? ? ?
“You’ll be retrieved in one hour’s time,” a monotone guard announced in my doorway. I didn’t have the energy nor the heart to look back at him, to see if his face gave me clues as to his allegiance. I sat at the small vanity in my room, my unwashed caramel hair twisted into some semblance of something presentable. I’d found kohl in the drawer and ran it across my lashes, hoping it would help distract from the exhaustion that shadowed my eyes. At this point, I didn’t think Onera, Saint of Miracles herself could’ve helped me.
I wished Solise were here now. More than my own mother, I wished Solise were here to talk to me, to tell me everything was going to be okay, to tell me I’d get out of here. As soon as I was retrieved from Kauvras’ chambers, I’d send someone to get Solise from the dungeons. I breathed in as I repeated the plan to myself.
But she wasn’t the only one imprisoned. My heart hammered in my chest at the thought of Cal.No, Belin.I felt the anguish in every bone of my body, felt its claws begging to pull me apart, consume me piece by piece. I pushedBelinfrom my mind and faced the mirror, finding hollow brown eyes staring back at me.
The diadem modeled after Katia’s own sat on the vanity. The diadem that Castemont had given me. I clenched my jaw in anger at the irony, at the fuckingnerveof the man. But I let the crown give me strength and willed the power of Katia to run through my body as I nestled it atop my head.
Exhaling, I stared at myself in the mirror again, the square set of my jaw, the smudges of purple beneath my eyes, the sharp nose that had never looked like Larka’s for a reason I now knew — because I wasn’t her sister by blood.
“Please,” I whispered into the quiet, thinking that maybe Katia could hear me. I didn’t know what I wanted, I just knew I needed someone.
Silence was the only answer.
I turned, the gown still hanging in the wardrobe. It was time. I unbuttoned and rebuttoned and pulled and tucked until it was fitted to my body, the gown hugging my figure perfectly. I reached for the veil that had been gently tucked onto the hanger and pinned it into my hair, throwing the tulle back from my face and repositioning the diadem. I avoided looking at myself in the mirror as I snatched the candle from under the pillow, hiking the ruffles of my skirts up to find the strap and pull it through.
A voice rang from the hallway, lilting and sick in its familiarity. I let my skirts fall as footsteps neared. The door clicked open to reveal Castemont in a pitch black surcoat stitched with the gold dragon of the Cabillian crest.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I spat.
He laughed. He fuckinglaughedas he stalked toward me. “You look beautiful, Petra. Absolutely perfect.”
“What are you doing here?” I repeated.
“I suppose, since your father is otherwise indisposed, I’ll be the one giving you away.” His tone edged on amusement.
My eyes narrowed, the anger growing even hotter in my chest. “My father isn’t here because youkilled him.”
“I didn’t kill your father.”
“Rhedros is not my father.”
He scoffed. “Rhedrosisyour father. Sarek Gaignory was no more your father than I am. Now we’re going to be late. Come along.”
I felt my face flush with fury at his words, hot vitriol bubbling in my mouth like boiling oil. “No.”
“No?” he asked, a brow cocking atop a face still etched with humor. I stared, fists clenched at my sides as I steadied my feet on the ground. He sighed, an arm crossing across his chest, the other resting atop it while a hand held his cheek. “I’m not sure when you’ll realize that you don’t have a choice, Petra.”
I seethed, my eyes flooding. “I never had a choice, did I?”
