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“Drunk?!” Aunt Berna’s voice was almost shrill. “What the hell were you thinking, Cal?”
My broken leg was propped up on a kitchen chair that Lord Castemont had dragged into the living room. I was silent. I had nothing to say. I hadn’t wanted to drink. I only did it because I’d been ordered to. Now my head pounded along with my tightly wrapped leg.
“I don’t know,” I murmured, more to myself than to her. I didn’t. I could’ve ignored him.
Aunt Berna paced back and forth across the room, her face beet red with anger. Lord Castemont leaned forward in his chair. “It’s a normal part of growing up, Berna.”
“Don’t you even think of speaking,” she snapped at him. “You let him get drunk. And in aSiduspub? Might as well have taken him to Inkwell.”
Our eyes met momentarily.Don’t say anything. He looked back to Aunt Berna with an apologetic expression. “If I may,” he tested. Her brows raised, but she let him continue. “Once he started, I couldn’t stop him. I intended to bring him home and let him sleep it off, but then he fell.”
I still didn’t know how I fell. I couldn’t remember. I was walking with Lord Castemont and Tyrak and suddenly I was on the ground with a bone sticking out of my shin. The thought made me queasy, and my entire leg throbbed.
“You think this is how a Royal Guard acts?” Aunt Berna yelled. “Do you see Tyrak getting drunk and breaking his bones in the streets?” Her hand flew out, pointing at Tyrak. “Is this how you act, Tyrak?”
He stood silently at the back of the room, dark eyes shadowed and glued to me. Out of the corner of my vision, I saw Lord Castemont turn to him. Tyrak’s eyes met his for only a moment before they were back on me. “No. It’s not.”
The disappointment in his voice… It gutted me. I blinked hard, wanting to hide my face. My shame. My stupid fucking broken leg.
“I ought to ban you from training,” Aunt Berna seethed. I straightened, fear rushing through me. “In fact, I think I will.”
“No,” I breathed, my eyes wide. I tried to sit up straighter, but my leg shot pain through my body in protest. “Please.”
“Berna, darling,” Lord Castemont crooned. Something about the words derailed her anger, and the façade slipped just enough that her face softened. “It was a mistake. I think the pain of his broken leg is punishment enough.”
Her eyes landed back on me. I knew her mind was running in circles, thinking about how to handle the fact that her boy had fucked up so badly. “Will he even be able to train again?”
My jaw clenched. Dread pooled in every part of me at the prospect as I watched Tyrak think. “It’s a bad break. He could end up with a limp. It will be difficult.” We hung on his next words. I think all of us were terrified of what he’d say. “But I think it can be done.”
“That’sifI allow it,” Aunt Berna cut in. Her eyes flicked to Lord Castemont. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
“Goodness,” he huffed, quickly rising. “My next appointment to petition the High Royal Court for our courtship.” He smoothed his surcoat, nodding to Tyrak and leaning in to kiss Aunt Berna on the cheek. “I believe we’re getting close to earning their approval.”
I always thought it was odd that Lord Castemont attended these meetings alone. Shouldn’t the members of the High Royal Court want to meet the woman he’s petitioning to marry?
“You’ll be lucky if I go through with it, considering this happened under your watch.”
“I’ll be lucky either way, having known you,” he crooned, flashing her a smile. I knew she was trying to stay mad, but she had to hide the blush that crept into her cheeks. “Farewell.”
An awkward silence blanketed the room as the door closed behind them. I stared down at my leg and nausea bubbled up once again.
Aunt Berna sighed and lowered herself into a chair. She pinched the bridge of her nose before her blue eyes met mine. “I just don’t know what got into you, Cal.”
My teeth clenched around the truth. I fought with myself whether I should keep it in or tell her. Then I remembered Mama’s words, to be brave, kind, and honest. I guess it was time for honesty. “He ordered me to drink.”
She lifted her face. “Who did?”
“Lord Castemont.”
She was silent for a moment. Her eyes narrowed into slits as she pursed her lips. “You expect me to believe that?”
I opened my mouth but no words came out at first. “That’s the truth, Aunt Berna. He ordered me to drink.”
“And Tyrak, yourtrainer, just stood by and let it happen?” I’d never seen her so angry. Not even when Tobyas tracked mud all over her hand-woven rug from Kruria. And she’d beenangry.
“Yes.”
She sat back and crossed her arms, tapping her toe on the ground. “And how did you end up in a Sidus pub with Lord Castemont and Tyrak?”
