Page 3

CHAPTER 3

T he musty air in the room instantly sucked the cold from my skin, causing my palms to clam up. After a poor attempt to wipe them on my dress, I spotted Taylin searching the room, presumably trying to find me.

Shoving through the crowd of warm bodies and drunken dancing, I reached her, wrapping a hand around her wrist. Pulling her over to the wall, right below a massive painting of the hills that housed our barren mines, I dropped her arm.

“Did you know?” Taylin asked immediately.

I shook my head, giving myself a moment to catch my breath. “I had no idea. I don’t even know who Lander is.” Which only infuriated me more. My father used me like a pawn in his game of chess, and I had no choice but to play along.

“He’s not here,” Taylin said, confusion and frustration on my behalf marring her face. “I searched the entire crowd trying to find you after your father’s speech, and not once did I see him.”

“I know. His father admitted he wasn’t here.” I turned my attention to the crowd. Women’s dresses swayed and men laughed as everyone but me was clearly enjoying their evening.

Well, maybe me and the man outside.

There was only one reason someone would step out of a party.

I subtly shook my head, clearing my thoughts of the man. He wasn’t important right now. Turning back to Taylin, I asked, “You know what he looks like?” I knew his last name, but I’d never met a Lander. I would’ve remembered if I was introduced to my future husband. He should’ve at least made a lasting impression. Well, I hoped.

“I know you’re kind of a homebody, Auria, but no one would miss him. He’s handsome. Blond hair, a dashing smile, beautifully tan skin, bright hazel eyes. He’s been waltzing about Silicate for a few days now. That is, when he’s not holed up in one of the gambling dens.”

I tried not to roll my eyes at her explanation of him. I didn’t want to hear about how beautiful he might look. Charming or not, it wouldn’t lighten my reality.

My father rarely let me outside to see Taylin, and he sure as hell didn’t let me go frolic around in the city, meeting boys of all ages and sizes, and that was for one reason. I was needed here. He always told me it was for my own safety. That if I was let out and didn’t know how to handle myself, I could get hurt.

But I’d found that pain wasn’t just a possibility from outside of these walls.

It came from inside, too.

“I don’t care about his looks.” Not that I should give a damn about that anyway. Regardless of if he was some egg of a man, it wouldn’t have stopped my father from setting me up with him for his own political gain.

He told me long ago to give up hopes of ever finding love. His words: it’s impossible to find it true anymore—might as well not waste my time and dream of it to begin with. Which was why I guessed he’d moved on so quickly after my mother’s death. She died when I was just barely four years old, so I only had small memories of her, but even with that, she never truly seemed happy. Anytime I tried to ask about her in the years since, I was shut down by my father, so I eventually stopped bothering. All I knew of her death was that she was extremely ill before she passed.

I was never told the reason in the end.

“I suppose it makes sense he’s not here. People say he’s more of a gambler than a respectable prince,” Taylin added.

“A gambler?” Why in the hell would my father set me up with a gambler?

Taylin nodded. “He’s probably off blowing coin or magic, letting loose since he’s away from home. A lot of people in Silicate get lost in stuff like that. Can be quite dangerous, I’ve heard.”

Amosite was the richest kingdom in all of Serpentine, despite the mines having been shut down long ago. My magic was the reason we stayed afloat. The entire kingdom counted on me, which was why I couldn’t wrap my head around him marrying me off to another kingdom. Marrying wasn’t some kind of small agreement that didn’t change lives. My father would never risk losing me, so why?

“What a coward,” I sneered under my breath.

“Took the words right from my mouth,” Taylin agreed. “I wonder if he knows?”

“I meant my father.” I found him across the room in his garnet suit, talking with a few other men. “I’d like to believe Lander and I are blind in this together.”

She quirked a brow. “Already saying you two are together, are we?”

I rolled my eyes, bile rising in my throat at the thought of the word. “At least I’m not alone in this.”

Her face softened slightly. “Auria, you’ve never been alone.”

I shook my head. She didn’t get it. I loved Taylin as if she was my sister, but she didn’t know what it felt like to be locked in this castle day in and day out, only allowed to leave the walls if I were in the garden with her. Even then, I barely got an hour with my best friend before I was forced back inside.

“Maybe it won’t be so bad,” she said, trying to lessen the load.

There was no bright side to this. I was being forced into a marriage with a man I didn’t know, under circumstances I wasn’t—and would likely never—be aware of.

Not only had my father been using me since I was young for his monetary gain and power display, but he was now using me as a political pawn as well.

“Maybe,” I replied, but only because I was too tired to go on about it further.

It was no secret to Taylin that I didn’t want this. I didn’t have to say the words out loud.

“Come. Let’s dance,” she said, grabbing my hand.

Rather than spend the rest of the night stressing over the inevitable, I followed her to the middle of the floor. The rest could wait until tomorrow.

Every worry, every second thought, every doubt.

None of it needed to taint tonight.

I’d enjoy my time with my best friend and fight my battles in the morning.

After all, no war was won in a night.