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“Father always felt that should be up to you.”

I looked at my brother sharply. “He did?”

“He made me swear before he died.” Rolund hesitated. “He wanted you matched with a lord who would honor you as a Princess of Sithistra.”

Rolund’s meaning was clear. My father had worried any future husband would treat me poorly because of the vampire taint in my blood. No matter how hard I tried to bury that side of my nature, I would never fool the people of Sithistra. Nor Doru was the enemy. The tenuous peace between north and south held only because Sithistra ceded to the vampires’ demands. The proud people of Sithistra resented it.

I couldn’t really blame them.

I shook my head. “Why would Father wed my mother? It caused nothing but trouble.”

A hint of humor entered Rolund’s voice. “Do you count yourself among that trouble?”

“I think you do.”

His lips twitched. Then he grinned. “Well, the Lord knows I’ve said it often enough.”

We both laughed, and any remaining tension eased. Several of the knights looked our way, as if trying to puzzle out what had amused the king, who wasn’t generally known for levity. I could have told them he hadn’t always been that way. Once upon a time, before the crown and the need for an heir weighed him down, my brother had been kinder. Softer. When I was a child, and our father barred me from his chambers, it was Rolund who comforted me.

“Father hates me,” I’d wept, soaking my brother’s jacket.

Rolund’s chest had rumbled under my cheek. “No, he doesn’t. It’s just that you remind him of what he lost.”

I lifted my head. “My mother?”

“You’re the image of her.” He rubbed a thumb under my eye, drying my tears. “Why are you up so late? Bad dreams again?”

I nodded. “I can never remember them.” My nightmares disintegrated the moment I woke. But they left me shaken and afraid to be alone.

Rolund clasped my hand. “Come on. I’ll take you to Helen.”

“No,” I said. “Let me stay with you.”

“Given—”

“I’ll sleep on the trundle. You won’t even know I’m there.” It was too frightening to be alone. The nightmares always came back.

He’d shaken his head. But then he’d smiled. “Yes, I will. Because you snore loudly enough to wake the demons in the Fir.”

The clang of metal on metal pulled me from my memories. As the city gates closed behind us, the knights reformed into a double column, their horses’ hooves kicking up clouds of dust. In the rear, the carriages creaked and rattled.

Rolund studied the road ahead with a faraway look in his eyes. “Father loved your mother deeply. Anyone who saw them together knew it. He believed the same kind of love was possible for you regardless of your blood. It’s why he wanted you to choose your own husband.”

I hung on his words, wanting to ask for more detail but reluctant to interrupt. His mother had forbidden the court to speak Vessa of Lar Satha’s name. Queen Amantha had been dead for fourteen years, but the rule endured. As a result, I knew next to nothing about the woman who’d given birth to me.

Rolund turned serious eyes to mine. “I believe father was right in this, Given, and I intend to honor his wishes. But we must also be mindful of our duty. As royals, we serve the realm before ourselves.”

“I understand.” My path had been laid out for me since birth. Rolund might let me suggest potential husbands, but I had little doubt he’d require his seal of approval on anyone I picked.

And now that he’d mentioned marriage, I knew it was inevitable. Maybe that was his true purpose for asking me to accompany him to the Rift. He wanted to break the news—and perhaps discuss the candidates he had in mind for my husband.

My hands began to sweat inside my gloves. I looked at the lords riding closest to me from under my lashes. Many already had one wife, but they would take another…

I tore my gaze away. The excitement I’d begun the day with fizzled to a knot of anxiety. Despite their dangers, I’d looked forward to seeing the Rift and the darkened edge of Nor Doru. No harm could come to me surrounded by the most battle-hardened knights in Sithistra.

But nothing could save me from the future that awaited me. It was marriage and monotony, and I had about as good a chance of escaping it as I did surviving a plunge down the Rift.

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