Page 57

Wrens Reach, September the Fifteenth, 593 A.G.

Mara’s eyes shut briefly as Evrardin lifted her from his horse, his hands tight on her waist until she stood firmly on the ground.

She could sense Evrardin’s eyes on her and her lips ticked into a grin. When her eyes fluttered open, the captain watched her expectantly.

“It feels so weird to be back. To be standing in Wrens Reach again,” she muttered softly, peeking out behind Evrardin and soaking in the sight of her home.

Many of Venmore’s guards met the two as they trekked through the slowly lightening Sandwoods. And they had been surprised to see the princess emerge from the depths, all falling to a knee, associating the widespread lightness with her. She tried to correct them, but Evrardin had shushed her.

She asked the knights about the prince’s whereabouts, and after a few odd looks between the men, they told her he went back to Venmore to aid the council with the shroud that threatened the kingdom. Pride made her stand tall; how very kingly of him.

She hadn’t realized her hands were shaking until Evrardin intertwined their fingers, calling her attention back to him. “I’m right here,” he reminded her.

Her face fell to a frown, not from being upset, but because she had craved those words for so long and she didn’t know how to react. To have someone on her side. Someone there to catch her and help her up. Always. While she had her friends and family, her relationship with the captain felt different. Evrardin was always there, he even slept in the same bed as her, clutching her close, afraid to let her go even in sleep. She initially worried he’d find her presence too overbearing, too used to sleeping alone. But he had been the one to insist they share a bed, not liking the idea of leaving her alone in her rooms. He told her with a slur in his speech one morning that he had never slept quite as well as he did when she was curled against his side.

She nodded and Evrardin stepped aside so she could approach the castle. Before she made it two steps, a male voice shouted her name. Her knees threatened to buckle. Evrardin dropped her hand so when Azor came barreling toward Mara, he was able to scoop her off the ground and hug her closely.

She quickly wrapped her arms around his neck in return, clutching him closely, something she had never done before to her brother. By the gods, she missed him.

“You’re okay,” he mumbled in her hair.

She nodded, tears threatening to spill down her cheeks.

“Gods, Mara. I’ve been worried sick.”

She pulled back and Azor set her straight, his hands resting on her shoulders. “I hate to say it, but you were right,” she began.

He subtly removed one hand from her shoulder and pretended to wipe something off his face, but Mara could tell his eyes were watery. “About?”

“I did miss your antics. Not right away, though, of course.”

He chuckled as she shook out of his grip and began to walk toward the castle. Azor matched her pace, peeking over his shoulder at Evrardin who had his mare tied at the stable and was now following behind them.

“New guard dog?” Azor asked, giving his sister a sidelong glance.

“Something like that,” Evrardin mumbled, and Mara tried her hardest to contain her smile.

Azor had barely left her side as they came into the castle, taking her to her rooms, and letting her clean up while talking to her through the door. He had so much to fill her in on, so many crazy things with her father that she had missed.

“Are you to stay here now?”

Mara rolled on the balls of her feet. She didn’t know what she wanted to do now. “I haven‘t thought that far ahead, yet.” She hoped her brother wouldn’t push her for more when she still hadn’t let her mind adjust to the shift, and she was glad when he didn’t.

She opened her bedroom door and Azor pushed off the wall and turned to her. “Ready to see father?”

She swallowed; her throat tight. She went to speak, to tell Azor that she wasn’t sure she was ready yet. She still had no idea what she wanted to say to him. But he cut her off, grabbing her arm. “What in the gods happened to your hand?”

She winced as he turned it over and inspected it. “Maybe it’s time I finally tell you what happened in Solstrale these past few weeks.”

Azor’s eyes trailed back to her face solemnly, the pain beneath them bright, disquieted by the notion his sister had been treated poorly in his absence. That he should have fought harder for her to stay.

He nodded and walked into her room, falling to sit beside her on the bed.

After rehashing all she had dealt with in Solstrale—from Acastus slowly becoming more threatening, to the execution of Crowrot, and the sun goddess’ reappearance—she realized she was ready to speak to her father. She knew exactly what she wanted to say, even if it was just a feeling. The rage and nerves fluttered down to her burnt fingertips.

“Will he join us at dinner?” Mara asked Azor. Maybe she should meet with him before dinner, so as to not cause a major scene in front of their food. Yet, the idea of Azor and Evrardin being present as she let her feelings slide off her tongue, the hurt she kept nestling inside her chest at her father’s abandonment, set her at an odd form of ease. Knowing they would validate everything she went through and wouldn’t let her father excuse what occurred.

Azor rubbed the back of his neck as they entered the throne room. “That’s the thing,” he said nervously.

She glanced at him with a brow raised before following his gaze to the courtiers and noblemen in the throne room. All except for her father.

“Father hasn’t been well. Once you left, he…” Azor swallowed, pausing to turn toward her before they could make it within hearing distance of the council. “His skin started to ashen. He felt sick. Couldn’t get out of bed.”

Mara’s heart began to race. “His skin…?” she asked aghast. Her palms warmed and she rubbed them on her dress. She hadn’t realized Evrardin was in the room, intermingling with the king’s council, until he shifted beside her. Her face must have been stricken with something similar to fear because his hand found her side, forcing her to look at him.

In a silent exchange, he let her know he was right there. Here for her.

When she looked back at Azor, he raised a brow. Before he could say what was on the tip of his tongue, one of the councilmen approached. “My King, if you’re ready?”

Mara’s head shook. “King?”

Azor nodded at the councilmen then gave Mara a cheeky grin. “Oh, forgot to tell you that one bit.” He flushed slightly, biting his lip. “Father has relinquished his position to me.”

She laughed, astonished. “Oh my stars.”

She giggled at the fact that her brother—her annoying, frustrating, irritating, self-absorbed, caring, funny, and loving older brother—was now king of Wrens Reach.

“I didn’t even know Father could do that.”

Azor pursed his lips. “Neither did I.” He took a deep breath, his chest relaxing when he realized she wasn’t mad at him. “Come.” He gestured his head toward the roundtable where the councilmen were getting seated. “You’ll understand everything that has happened in your month away at this meeting.”

Her face warmed at the idea of being so easily included in her brother's affairs. She looked at Evrardin whose face was stoic.

“You can bring your… friend , too,” Azor added, and Mara definitely turned red. She could hear it in her brother’s voice that he knew something was going on between her and the captain.

“Don’t worry, liten rev ,” Evrardin muttered in her ear as they made their way toward the rest of the party. “You’ll know when the time comes exactly what to say to your father. And you’ll know what to do next.”

“How do you know that?”

He gave her a coy grin. “You’re stronger than you think, Princess. And you’ve got us here. It will come to you in the moment.”

She wanted to sob at his encouraging words. Instead, she held her head high and sat at the unusually tall table, Evrardin standing behind her.

“First order of business,” Azor began. He quickly fell into his kingly role and that made Mara glad. They discussed the darkening and now lightening of Wrens Reach. The state of her father. The economic welfare of their army. The plans to assist the outer farms.

Mara was surprised when her brother asked Evrardin for his thoughts on certain matters, even addressing him as “Captain.”

Evrardin had leaned forward so he towered slightly over her, his hand tracing her side as he spoke, no one able to see from the shroud the table provided. His hand absently grazed her curves before halting on her stomach as he rumbled some response out to one of the more inept councilmen, making everyone around laugh. Mara glanced at him and he shook his head at the older man who clearly should be removed from the council. His fingers drifted, lightly feathering over her stomach as he moved to stand taller, and Mara’s cheeks warmed. She shook her head, trying to shake the thoughts of her body round with the captain’s child—his hand protectively on her belly.

The idea of bearing children had always sounded burdensome; when she imagined taking someone’s hand she wasn’t particularly romantically interested in, having their children always felt like a duty. Just another requirement of a wife. But when the idea fought its way into her mind as Evrardin towered behind her, a weird explosion of butterflies surfaced to her chest. She wondered if Evrardin even wanted babes of his own. Perhaps his childhood scarred him too much to want to risk raising children.

When the council concluded, the hall erupting into separate conversations, Evrardin raised a brow. “Why are you so flustered?” He almost sounded angry, like he might be worried someone here was bothering her even though he stood guard the entire time.

She shook her head. “I’m not.”

“Mara,” he chided. Gods, he wasn’t going to let this go until she told him what he wanted to hear. He could read her so easily that it bordered on frustrating.

She should have lied, told him she had been feeling claustrophobic, needed to step outside to cool down, or anything else. But instead, she told him the truth. “Your hand…” she said softly, the pair of them the only ones still standing at the table.

“My… hand?” He held his hand out before him, appraising it, looking for the source of her worry.

She twirled her rings. “When you stroked my stomach… I just, well, I didn’t mean to. But the thought came on its own accord, I really had no say in the matter. I wasn’t purposefully trying to?—”

His hand fell to his side. “Out with it.”

She glanced around to make sure no one could hear them, still a bit unsure of how her relationship with the captain would be taken by those who felt they held more power over her. Those who thought it wrong for a military captain to court a princess. That thought it was Mara’s duty to take a new husband, one that would benefit Wrens Reach politically. “It made me think of what it would be like if I was with child.” She paused before adding, “Your child.”

She had to avert her gaze, too embarrassed. This would scare him off. She should have kept her mouth shut. They had only accepted their feelings for one another a measly fortnight ago–

“You’d want to have my children?” he asked her, astonished. His hand found her chin, forcing her to look at him. His thumb stroked across her bottom lip.

“I don’t know,” she trailed, dancing between him and somewhere in the distance. “I didn’t hate the idea.”

He studied her for a beat.

“Am I frightening you?” she asked timidly, hoping she wasn’t overbearing as he often thought her.

“Quite the opposite.”

Her skin flushed and her mouth parted in surprise.

Someone cleared their throat from behind and Evrardin’s eyes met the person interrupting them. She turned to face her brother, thoroughly embarrassed now.

“You know,” he began, and she worried he might lecture her. “Now that I’m king, I get to decide—however unfair it might be—what’s to come of your marital status.”

She tilted her head. “What?”

He nudged her shoulder. “I’m saying, you don’t have to marry anymore. It’s not required of you to marry to settle alliances—or whatever else it might be that we’d use your marriage for.” He smiled, nodded at Evrardin, then strolled away from them. “Come find me when you’re ready to visit Father. I’d very much like to be with you.” A hint of a blush dusted Azor’s cheeks. “I think I’d like to hear what you have to say to him. You're braver than me, Mara. I still don’t dare to stand up to him.”

Mara nodded and Azor seemed to like that answer, leaving the room fully, two councilmen shadowing him.

She looked back to Evrardin, the room becoming empty, and he stared at her. “What now?” she asked him.

“Whatever you want.”

“Does it bother you if I wish for people to know… about us?”

His face remained flat, but his voice gave way to a softer tone. “No. I think I rather like the idea of people knowing you’re mine.”

She bit her lip and Evrardin laced their fingers together. “It’s quite scandalous, don’t you think?”

His free hand pushed a stray tendril of her hair out of her way, his fingers tracing through her hair like wading through water. “Not if we’re to be married.”

Mara almost choked, shocked at those words on his tongue. She laughed. “Marriage?! You want to… marry me?” She tried to hide the tears of love from her eyes.

“Well, you wouldn’t want to have children out of wedlock, would you? Now that would be quite the scandal for a princess.” He turned to leave before looking over his shoulder. “Come, liten rev ,” he cooed as if he hadn’t just said the most devastatingly romantic thing she had ever heard.

Mara didn’t know what was to come of her life. No idea what would happen after she visited her father, or accepted Evrardin’s hand, or what she’d do after feeling like she got what she came to Wrens Reach for. Nor when she’d want to set off to Throneskeep to visit Jessamine. But what she did know was that Evrardin was going to be right beside her as the chapters of her story continued to unfold.

She scurried after him and he extended his elbow for her to hold, placing a kiss on the top of her head.