Page 91 of The Keeper of the Kingdoms

I loved it.

Casimir whipped his head towards Jaxus at his casual use of my childhood name. Disgust came off him in waves. I almost choked on my tiny mushroom.

“Arsehole,”I chided through our bond, but I couldn’t hide the amusement in my voice, even in my head.

The tension broke when our plates were cleared, and Gran shifted the subject.

“Tell us more about becoming a ryder, Kiera,” she said loudly to the room. Throwing me out of the frying pan straight into the fire.

Casimir’s father made a small sound of disapproval. “Yes, it’s most unheard of. Tell us how you intend to balance that with your healing duties.”

I cleared my throat and glanced at Jaxus. He gave me a supportive smile.

“Well, as you know, it’s still quite new, so I have not yet fully worked out how it will fit together. For a while, we had so much disruption in the palace, what with Kol’s death and the revelationthat Octavian had been corrupt. Plus, we are so short on healers in the capital that I’ve been extremely busy, and we had hardly come to terms with the changes when I was poisoned. My hope is that things settle down now so that we can really start figuring things out.”

“How do you hope to fit it all in if you are so busy?” Casimir’s mother chimed in.

“I hope the council will send more healers soon, but actually, Jaxus has come up with a very clever plan which puts the flyers and their ryders to good use and gives them some training they will find beneficial in the field.” I smiled at him proudly.

“What kind of plan?” she asked.

“Some of the day-to-day tasks that take up a healer’s time in a busy city, such as prep work and housekeeping, are now being done by our new volunteers, which gives the healers much more time for the essential works we are trained for.”

“You have flyers making medicines?” Casimir’s father spluttered.

“Indeed, and some of them are very good at it. In return, we will teach them field techniques that could save lives when there is no healer on hand.”

“Preposterous! Your father would never hear of it. Healing is sacred.”

“Actually, my father is in full support. He’s very impressed with Jaxus’ ideas. I expect he will present to the council in the near future about implementing the idea elsewhere.”

As pockets of disparaging chatter began around the table, Casimir suddenly brought his hand down on the table. Everything jumped and rattled, including my heart, at the outburst. “Oh, for pity’s sake, Kiera. When are you going to stop this nonsense and come home?”

I turned slowly towards him, trying to keep my cool. “Excuse me?”

“Don’t play innocent with me. You don’t need to live there.I’ve let you have your freedom, but enough is enough. It’s time to come home and wed, fulfill your duties. You’ll go to the capital occasionally on rotation like we all do, but your obligations are here, and to our union. It’s time you met them.” The way he said union made my skin crawl.

The whole room was ominously silent save for a low growl coming from the head of the table.

“I don’t think you understand, Casimir,” I began. “I’ve been called to be a ryder. That’s no longer an option.”

“You can’t forever remain in Amaya!” Casimir exclaimed, horrified. He scraped his chair back and stood, all pretense of civility gone.

Jaxus got swiftly and silently to his feet. He had a grace no fae of his size should have. “It’s the law. Would you go against the King?”

I jumped up to put myself between them, not sure how it would go. “I have to,” I told Casimir. “All ryders are required to.”

“So what does this mean for us?” Casimir’s upper lip curled in disgust.

“Surely—” I side-glanced at Gran, not sure what I was expected to say.

“Surely what?” Casimir stepped closer to me.

“Surely things are different now? The King—” I tried but I wasn’t sure what I could even say. This was unprecedented.

“We will petition the King. We have treaties in place. He cannot prevent our marriage, nor will he be able to keep you from bearing children—” Casimir kept speaking, but my ears buzzed.

“I guess then you’ll have to move to the capital—” Jaxus said through his teeth but finished his thought only between us.“Where I can beat you to death with a tiny mushroom when you don’t shut up.”