Page 22 of Her Cruel Redemption (The Dark Reflection #3)

Chapter Twenty-Two

M y fingers finally stopped drumming against the table when Gwinellyn entered the room. She’d been gone for much longer than she should have been.

‘Where have you been?’

‘I just needed a little time to think. I went for a walk around the castle.’ She swept her hair back from her face, offering me a brief smile as she unhooked her cloak.

‘What did Esario want?’

‘Oh, this and that,’ she said, dropping her cloak over a chair. ‘He showed me the view. They have these little contraptions called telescopes set up along the walk that enlarge whatever you point them at. No magic involved at all, just glass. He thinks their lack of access to magic is a disadvantage, but I feel like they’re more ingenious for it. Are we going to eat? I’m starving.’

I narrowed my eyes as she prattled, sensing her discomfort. ‘Have you heard from Elias and the others?’

‘I had a note to say where they are. They’re alright,’ she replied as she headed for the dining room, where lunch was already being readied for serving. It seemed an optimistic assumption that relied entirely on their clumsy efforts to pass as human, but I didn’t point that out to her in the moment.

She talked more as we were served, summarising what the king had said about the state of the conflict, about being blockaded by Morwarian war ships, about how that snake Dovegni had been collaborating with the druthi in Oceatold, about numbers of Brimordian refugees who had crossed the border. The whole time, it felt like she was nibbling her way around some central issue, and by the time we’d finished eating, I’d had enough.

‘Maybe it’s time to talk about what happened in that meeting,’ I said as the bowls of soup were cleared. ‘They completely bowled you over in there.’

Gwinellyn looked up from the napkin she was toying with. ‘They’re my advisors. They just want what’s—’

‘—best for them,’ I cut in, dispersing with the na?ve notion that they were on anyone’s side but their own. ‘If you don’t take them in hand, you’ll wind up married to Tallius before the moon is full again.’

‘What if that’s what’s best?’

I groaned and dropped my head back to cast my gaze towards the ceiling. When I returned my focus to her, I tried to reign in my frustration. ‘I followed you across two countries because I believe you should rule Brimordia, Gwinellyn, not the smarmy Prince Tallius.’

‘Esario expects a marriage if he's going to fight for my claim to the throne' she said quietly. 'What if it's my responsibility to make that sacrifice?If I can’t even hold my own in a council meeting…’ She was twisting the napkin, now, like she was trying to strangle it. ‘How am I supposed to fight a war?’

‘But you can hold your own,’ I countered. ‘I saw it at the Song circle. I’ve seen it on the road. I saw it at that table when you stood up and told them off. I know you have it in you, we just need to figure out how to keep that part of you at the forefront and keep the anxious, timid part out of the way.’ I sat back in my chair, folding my arms as I studied her. She looked as pale and fragile as ever, her dark hair making her blue eyes seem enormous, especially while they were still shadowed with the exhaustion of the road. How to turn her into a queen? ‘Is that what's got you up in knots? Did Esario spend most of your walk trying to sell you on his brother’s marriageable qualities?’

‘Well… no. He wanted to talk about something else.’ She looked down at the table, her shoulders rising as she took a deep breath. I had the sense that whatever she was about to say, I wasn’t going to like it.

‘Don’t hang me with suspense, Gwinellyn.’

She finally looked up again, meeting my eye steadily. ‘A messenger arrived before we did. One requesting to open talks between Oceatold and Ashreign.’

My heart began to beat a little faster. ‘Really? Well, if Esario is fool enough to hold Draven to a single promise he makes, then he'll deserve whatever fate awaits him.’

‘It's the first time there's been any kind of dialogue, apparently,’ she continued, as though I hadn’t spoken. ‘But for any negotiation to go ahead, there’s a condition.’

Of course there was. It would never be so straight forward as simply agreeing to talk. ‘Which is?’

‘He… Draven… wants you to be there.’

I snorted. ‘Then he must be feeling suicidal.’

‘If we met under truce conditions, you couldn’t hurt him,’ she said. Slowly, deliberately, her eyes beseeching.

The thought of being near Draven without a screen of magic to hide behind was impossible. I imagined sitting at a war room table. Imagined him whispering something wicked to me while he slid his hand up my leg. A decadent shiver trembled down my spine, settled between my thighs. ‘Then I’m not going. I refuse to sit in a room with him if I can’t kill him where he stands.’

‘There’s more. In the message, he said if you attend, he’ll return your maid?’ Gwinellyn said the last part as a question, unsure who the letter referred to no doubt, but with a heavy, iron-clad certainty sinking through my stomach, I knew who it was. Draven would know exactly which maid would serve as that kind of leverage.

‘Leela,’ I whispered in horror. He had Leela . Clever, stoic, steadfast Leela who’d stayed in Lee Helse because she didn’t want to leave me without someone I could trust. Who hadn’t run even when I’d told her to. Who I’d left behind when I’d fled the city, assuming she would be able to keep herself safe. Madeia help her, she was Draven’s prisoner. What would he do to her? What had he already done? Had she been his prisoner this whole time? I hoped not. Gods, I hoped not. I hoped she hadn’t been the one to weather his rage after what I’d done to him.

‘She’s the one who was with you before you married my father, wasn’t she?’ Gwin asked, her eyes softening with sympathy. I hated it. I didn’t need her sympathy. I had been the one to leave Leela to Draven’s mercy. I deserved no sympathy from anyone.

‘I’ll do it,’ I said. ‘Whatever he wants. I’ll sit across a table from him and play nice. Do you know anything about how she’s been kept?’

‘There wasn’t any other information given,' she said gently, 'just that she’d be exchanged if you complied.’

‘Then Madeia help me, I’ll comply. Was there anything else?’

‘Well, King Esario hasn’t agreed to it yet, but he won’t even consider it unless you meet one of his conditions too.’

Another fucking condition. As though Leela’s life could be balanced on me agreeing to dance to whatever tune these men were playing. ‘Which is?’

‘He’s concerned about how trustworthy you are. I told him I have the utmost faith in your loyalty, but he’s worried about how having the wife of our enemy playing a part in political negotiations will look.’

‘So what does he want me to do about it? I can’t turn back time and undo what’s already done.’ If only.

‘No, but you could have your marriage annulled.’

I blinked at her, frowning. Surely no one was going to believe it went unconsummated. Not with my reputation.

‘He believes his Sanctum would be willing to consider an annulment on grounds of enchantment,’ she continued.

I chewed on this. How would Draven react if I annulled our marriage? Would he be relieved, pleased to no longer be married to me? It might make his political situation shaky if Ashreign's system of governance even somewhat resembled what it once was, but I doubted anyone was concerned with the legitimacy of his claim to the crown now that he’d torn it all apart. He could be angry, though. Angry I’d been able to shake myself free of him when he so liked having me under his thumb.

‘Isn’t an annulment something you’d want?’ Gwin ventured, interrupting my silent contemplation.

‘Of course,’ I said immediately, though that question hadn’t even occurred to me yet. Want an annulment? Of course I wanted an annulment. Of course I did.

‘Then you’ll do it?’

With a weight sinking through my stomach that made absolutely no sense, I agreed. ‘I’ll do it.’