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“I am restless, Father. I’ve been annoying the shit out of you for weeks.”
He tried not to chuckle, but it slipped out. “You have been a little shit.”
My hands fluttered in a guilty gesture. “See?”
He sighed. “I don’t think an adventure to Demora is the best thing for a young wom—”
“Father, let me do this. For us, our future, our livelihood.”
“It… The idea holds merit, Autumn, but what do you thi—"
My mother entered at that moment and halted when she noted her husband’s disgruntled look. “The Count is making more threats?”
“Yes,” I exclaimed. “He is threatening our reputation in Catalan.”
“It can’t be so drastic as that, Autumn. He’s but one man—”
Father shook his head. “Unfortunately, he has a lot of sway in the North where most of our recent orders are from.”
“Brigham, do you think one late delivery could affect us so?”
“I am unsure, my dear.”
“I have a solution.”
Her eyes swiveled, and I shrank a little, my confidence deflating. My mother had always intimidated me despite her tiny stature. My father was a pushover, and I was his little princess. I’d had him wrapped around my finger since I was born. My mother, not so much.
“A solution?”
“I will deliver the weapons for the Count and a few of the higher nobles that complained.”
She scoffed. “No.”
“But Mother, I have the most to lose if our reputation is tarnished. The shop is my future, even more so than yours, isn’t it? Isn’t that what you try to instill in me each day?”
She arched a dark brow. “You want adventure, not to secure your future.”
“Let's call it killing two birds with one stone.”
My father choked on a laugh, but my mother only narrowed her eyes.
“I can defend myself.”
“Of that, I am certain.”
My mouth was open to defend my skill with bow and blade, but it snapped shut at her statement.Well, then.My mother had never approved of me learning to use weapons, even though she was quite adequate with a dagger. But when one makes blades, as I had learned before I could walk, you wanted to test them. So I learned how to balance our weapons and improve their layout. As a result, our blades had progressed into a much sought-after design. I had even improved our ax design, which had not changed in decades. My weapon prowess was cause for pride in my father, but my mother would rather I parade suitors than arrows.
“I… I want to help.” I didn’t hide my vulnerability or the truth in those words. I could forge a blade as well as my father, butIcould infuse magic in the weapons—something I still didn’t understand. One of them was the stunning blade that needed to get to the Count. My father had laid the groundwork, but the final additions were mine. It was my power pushed into the Savina stone on the pommel. The stone alone was worth a small fortune and a gift to Count Hastings from Queen Amira. They didn’t know that I could infuse magic, but since discovering so a few years ago, I had been honing the skill. It was nothing drastic or unbelievable, but no one had seen it since the dwarves had reigned in the Dunvar mountains long ago. The history books stated that magic had been extinct for half a century, so we didn’t know why it manifested in me. We safeguarded my gift and told no one except Ativan.
“Who do you plan on going with?”
“Well…” I glanced at my father, who looked away.Coward.“Ativan, and possibly Gregoire.”
“And you’ve spoken to them about this?”
“Well, no. I mean, Ativan—”
“Ativan will agree, my love. I am sure of that,” my father provided.
