Page 72 of Fate’s Sweetest Curse (Mirrors of Fate #2)

And with my hunger halfway satiated, Kalden’s earlier accusations weren’t so frightening. I shoved more chicken into my mouth, talking over it. “You already know I’m not a traitor.”

He lifted a bushy black eyebrow. “Do I?”

“Yes. ”

“But you’re an alchemist of Fenrir?” he supplied.

I held his gaze, mustering courage. “Exactly.”

“I cannot allow you to report your findings to Lord Haron,” Kalden said. “You understand that, don’t you?”

That was…reasonable. And certainly not part of my plan. “What is there for me to report? I rid Noble of the curse. If what you say is true, that’s the opposite of what Lord Haron wants.”

“And what do you want, Hattie?”

I dropped the chicken thigh onto my plate, wiped my fingers off on a napkin, and threw the soiled cloth on the table.

“I want to be an alchemist, which should be no surprise to you or anyone else in Marona,” I said.

“I want to graduate from the Collegium of Fenrir with an apothecary license I can take home to Waldron. I want to live a peaceful life far away from the expectations and limitations of my former court. I want freedom .” I gripped the edge of the table.

“Do you believe me?” I pressed. “Do you believe I’m not a willful participant in Lord Haron’s conspiracy? ”

Kalden sat back in his chair, appraising me with a cool, calculated expression. “I believe you,” he said. “However, I am afraid that’s not an option.”

My grip on the table slackened.

So, this was it. I was back at the beginning. Kalden could overlook my role in Phina’s research, but he couldn’t overlook who I was.

“What’s your plan, then?” I asked flippantly. “Last time, you had me sent away, but clearly that didn’t work. Do you think my uncle would agree to have me executed this time?”

“I never suggested such a thing.”

“You might as well have,” I said.

“Sending you to Poe was a kindness.”

“Sending me to Poe was a death of a different sort,” I snapped.

Kalden stiffened, catching my meaning. “So, you escaped. ”

“I had to.”

“Was the marriage agreement broken?” Kalden asked.

“Yes. I received documentation and assurance that the divorce was reported to the Census Ledgers in Fenrir.”

“Your real name is on the Fenriran Census Ledgers? That was a grave risk, Hattie.”

“Yet it has remained a secret until now,” I retorted. “Almost as if no one in Fenrir has been scouring the Census Ledgers for Maronan names.”

Kalden’s temple pulsed with irritation—then a new thought seemed to occur. “The crown was never notified.”

“That’s because the crown was sending the bastard money.”

My ex-husband Corvin’s greed had been a failsafe of sorts, a guarantee that my family would never learn about our separation. As the king still thought we were married, money continued to flow to Poe-on-Wend, and Corvin was more than happy to keep his mouth shut about my disappearance.

“And you ended up in…Waldron, you said?”

“That’s the short version.”

“And Noble?”

I glanced over my shoulder at the man I loved, still resting on the cot. While I’d been out, a healer had come to assess Noble again; Kalden had reported to me that he was stable, but asleep. The update gave me a reticent sense of hope.

“Our reunion was a coincidence,” I murmured.

“An act of Fate,” Kalden mused, and he sounded serious.

I met his eyes again. “You truly won’t let me go?”

“Raina is not yet married.”

“And next year, when she is married?”

“The risk—to Marona, to Lothgaim, to the realm—remains. Fenrir’s treasonous dealings only makes our unity with Lothgaim more important. ”

“So, death, then?”

“I will escort you back to Marona,” Kalden said cooly, “where we will speak with King Braven about how best to proceed.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No. I will not go to Marona.”

“Hattie,” Kalden said gently—too gently. “So long as you—”

I sprang to my feet, my chair toppling behind me.

“So long as I breathe, I am seen as a threat, is that it? No matter how much I don’t want my claim?

No matter how many times I promise I will not come forward?

No matter how vehemently I insist that I would never, ever , endanger Raina’s future? I am still seen as a threat?”

“This isn’t just about your potential actions,” Kalden said, resting his fists on the table. “You have already been recognized. Rumors are already spreading—just as they did before.”

“Rumors can be dismissed!”

“Rumors,” Kalden enunciated darkly, “have a mind of their own.”

“But what do they matter, this far from Marona?” I pressed.

“That was part of your logic nine years ago, wasn’t it?

Get me so far away from Castle Wynhaim that I become invisible.

” Kalden opened his mouth, but I continued.

“I’ve been living in hiding for nearly a decade, just to preserve what little freedom I found in Waldron.

Why do you not trust me to continue as I did before? ”

“There is the matter of your name,” Kalden said.

“I use a fake name.”

“Census Ledgers can’t be forged, though,” Kalden said—back to that gentle, pitying tone, a tone that struck genuine fear in my heart.

“As long as you remain unmarried, you can be traced. No one might’ve been looking for you before, but according to Captain Harrow’s spies, you recently announced yourself in the middle of Fenrir City. Witnesses could be looking, now. ”

“I think you’re overestimating how much Fenrirans care about Maronan and Lothgaimian court politics,” I argued.

“It is my duty to overestimate all potential threats to the crown.”

“So, what, you’ll marry me off again?” I asked, voice strangled and shrill. “Send me to a more remote territory this time? Tuul, perhaps, or Vernfal, or—” I broke off as a sob worked its way up my throat. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. Not again .

Kalden rose from his seat and approached me, placing a huge hand on my shoulder. I didn’t feel threatened, but his touch wasn’t a comfort, either. Because it was pitying.

“I do not relish this, Hattie.”

“Is there no other option?” I whispered.

“She could marry me.”

Kalden’s hand fell from my shoulder as I whirled toward the familiar voice.

Noble was sitting upright on his cot, rubbing his temple as if he were nursing the remnants of a terrible headache.

Emotion welled in my eyes, throat, chest, filling me with watery relief.

A choked, jubilant cry escaped me. I wanted to fall into his arms, collide with his solid frame, but I didn’t know how fragile he was—how careful I ought to be.

I sank to my knees in front of him instead, cupping his cheek with my good hand.

“You’re awake,” I said, tears pouring down my face even as I laughed with glee. “Fates, you’re actually awake .”

“Came back just for you,” he murmured against my temple, pressing a kiss there.

I pulled back to look into his eyes, green eyes, so bright and keen and open . “How are you feeling?”

His brow furrowed with a troubled expression. “Hattie, I—”

“No apologies,” I said. “How are you?”

“Groggy,” he replied. “But strangely fine.”

“Are you sure? ”

Noble slid his hand along my neck, into my hair, gripping my nape like he might never let go. “Come here, would you?”

Then his mouth was on mine, his soft lips claiming me, making me forget about everything before and everything ahead—bringing me, blissfully, into now .

With him. I stretched up from where I knelt, wrapping my uninjured arm around his middle, sliding my hand under the hem of his shirt to feel the warm, solid strength of his back.

He was awake.

He was alive.

He was—

I broke our kiss. “Wait, what did you say?”