Page 50 of The Nightmare Bride

B ehind me, Olivian bellowed. “What’s the meaning of this?”

I didn’t move, too caught in the grip of my terror. Kai held my eyes, but the way he craned his head told me some part of him believed Vick would actually cut his throat.

My stomach hollowed out. No. No, no, no. If Vick killed Kai, I’d hunt him to the ends of the earth. I’d murder him in the most inhumane way possible, then feed the leftovers to the alligators.

I stumbled down another step.

“Just stop right there, Princess.” Vick flashed a smile. “I don’t want that dagger of yours getting too close.”

I halted, my blood congealing in my veins. Kai gazed at me without blinking. Steady , he seemed to say. I’ll be all right .

But I wouldn’t. I wanted to throw up. Or pass out. Or hurl my dagger and bury the blade between Vick’s eyes, which I probably would have tried for, if he hadn’t been standing so close to a man I’d rather have lopped off my own hand than hurt.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Olivian yelled to Vick, the question even frostier than the fear chewing through my insides. “Do you have any idea what the penalty is for cutting a royal throat? For even threatening to cut a royal throat?”

Vick snorted. “Considering your lawmen are a distant memory, nothing. We all know no one’s coming. Besides, this is between me and the keymistress.”

“The keymistress ? What does she have to do with this?”

“Very little, actually.” Vick’s smile turned feral. “Except that I want that dagger of hers.”

My grip snuck to my waist. The knife hummed, Zephyrine’s magic flowing into me.

Stand down , I ordered Vick. Lower your blade and step away from him.

His forehead creased. His sword dipped, but stabilized a moment later.

I screamed a silent curse. Just like with Kai at breakfast that morning, it wasn’t enough.

“Try that again, Princess, and you’ll be mopping his blood off the floor. Now, hands off the knife. I know what it can do.”

My molars ground together, but I raised spread hands.

“What in goddess’s name are you talking about?” Olivian said. “That dagger is just an heirloom. It’s worthless.”

“Oh, really?” Vick snapped. He gestured to the diary, which had somehow survived the scuffle tucked within his waistband. “Because your wife’s journal would suggest otherwise. So would this.” He flipped up his tunic to reveal a livid bruise where I’d unleashed the blade’s magic on him yesterday.

Olivian made an enraged sound. “You read my wife’s diary?”

“I did. And now you can either command your keymistress to hand over her dagger, or bid your precious prince and your fancy little wedding goodbye.”

My heartbeat swelled to fill my entire throat. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t see anything but the lethal silver line indenting Kai’s neck.

“Go fuck yourself.” Olivian’s bellow sounded like stones rattling in a can. “No man reads my wife’s private diary, and no one tells me what to do in my own house.”

Vick’s eyes narrowed. His sword-hand flicked.

A scream tore from my throat. “No!”

Kai’s eyes widened. The blade bit through his skin, and a crimson dribble slid down his neck. Blood flowered on his white collar, but he was still standing. Still breathing, thank Zephyrine. Thank every god that had ever walked this earth.

“I’ll give you anything,” I heard myself blubber. “Just don’t hurt him. For the love of all that’s holy, please don’t hurt him.”

“Harlowe,” Olivian warned.

Vick made an impatient, get-on-with-it gesture. “The dagger, then. Hurry up.”

My stomach pitched and rocked. I grappled with my belt, scrabbling at the buckle until it came undone.

“Harlowe,” Olivian roared. “Don’t.”

“Shut. Up,” I hissed, then ripped off the belt and tossed the entire bundle down the stairs. I didn’t even look at where it landed, because I couldn’t wrench my gaze from Kai’s. I needed him to be okay. I needed him not to die.

“Why, thank you.” With an exaggerated smile, Vick toed the belt and dagger across the parquet, then snatched them up without lowering his blade from Kai’s throat.

Something moved in the background. Lunk and Miss Quist, along with Merron and the stewards, wandered from the library. No doubt they’d gathered for the wedding, then heard the commotion.

“Nobody move,” I said. “Just let Vick go. Let him leave.”

Olivian started down the stairs. “He isn’t going anywhere.”

Vick flicked his sword again. “Stay back.”

Kai grunted. More blood leaked from his throat. I muffled my cry in a fist and came within a hairsbreadth of vomiting.

Olivian stopped, two steps down from me now, vibrating with fury. “Unhand him, you conniving little shit. You have your knife.”

“Oh, me, conniving?” Vick arced his brows. “That’s rich. If you think I’m conniving, you should hear the story the prince here has to tell you.”

Oh, no . All my blood dived into my feet and stayed there. I knew exactly where Vick was going with this. How he planned to divert everyone’s attention long enough to escape.

But...I wouldn’t stop him. If I had to choose between Kai’s life and getting Amryssa to Hightower—well, I’d choose both. I’d just have to take my best friend to the capital on my own.

“Tell them, Kyven ,” Vick said. “I’m sure the seneschal would love to know who you really are.”

Olivian’s focus shifted. “What in Zephyrine’s name does that mean?”

Kai’s unfailing half-smile kicked into place. “I’m afraid you won’t like it.”

Vick’s attention darted—first to Olivian, then to Merron and the stewards—before settling on the front door. “Tell them. Don’t make me cut it out of you.”

He applied pressure, more blood leaking from Kai’s neck.

A grunt tore from my husband’s chest as he raised splayed hands.

“I’m no prince,” he rushed out. “All right? The real Kyven Windermere died on the Oceansgate road when his carriage overturned. I’m just..

.well. An actor. Here at the urging of the gentleman who’s about to saw my vocal cords in half. ”

The stewards gasped. Olivian’s hands curled into fists at his sides. “An... actor ?”

I wanted to scream. That was the important part in all this? Really?

Kai gave a sorry-not-sorry shrug.

“And you thought you could marry my daughter?” the seneschal said, low and trembling. “You thought my Amryssa would marry an actor ?”

Kai’s gaze slid to mine. “What can I say? I’m nothing if not optimistic. And I do have a habit of shooting for the stars.”

“Get. Out,” Olivian said. Then, louder, “Out! Get out of my house!”

Vick shoved Kai toward us and ran, taking the dagger and diary with him. He hauled open the doors and disappeared before Olivian had even made it down the stairs. The stewards hovered, frozen.

Meanwhile, relief screamed through me, so complete that my knees buckled. I half-slid, half-scrambled toward Kai, who just stood there, bleeding, like he had exactly zero plans to retreat from Olivian’s advance.

I made it between them just in time. I skidded to a stop and faced the seneschal with my arms flung out. “Don’t touch him.”

“Lioness,” Kai said from behind me. “There’s really no need.”

Olivian lowered his head, the tendons of his neck sharp enough to slice. “Get out of my way.”

“No.”

“Go ahead,” Kai said. “Let him hit me, if he likes.”

“No,” I gritted out. “Only I get to do that. If he does, he’ll break your face, and you won’t be nearly as pretty, afterward.”

Kai laughed softly, and gods, I wanted to drink the sound. Build a shrine to it, because it meant he was alive, that he would be fine, that he could walk out of here and not look back and live a whole life in Fairmont or wherever the hell he ended up and never think about this place again.

“Just go,” I said.

“Go?” He sounded offended. “Surely you don’t think I’m leaving ?”

Olivian flashed his teeth. “Step aside, girl. Or I will go through you. He tried to marry my daughter, and he’ll answer for it.”

Oh, that was it. I’d had enough of the threats.

Of Olivian’s bullying and glowering and stomping around.

I stepped in and shoved my finger in his face, exactly the way I’d dreamed of doing for years.

“Just stop it, will you? Stop throwing your weight around. Stop intimidating people all the time. Stop refusing to look past the end of your own stubborn nose, and give me thirty seconds to talk to Kai without you threatening us, you brutish, tyrannical, hate-mongering failure of a seneschal and a father.”

Olivian jerked back, his eyes wide.

I shook my finger again, scarcely daring to believe I’d actually cowed him. “Look. You can throw him out, if you want. It’s your house. But let me talk to my husband first, for pity’s sake.”

He blinked, his green eyes traveling between us. “Your...husband?”

“Yes.” Acid dripped from my tone.

His mouth twisted. “But the annulment.”

“Didn’t matter by the time it got signed. And it wasn’t Kai’s name on that paper, anyway.”

Olivian took that in. “You’re married to this charlatan? Of your own choosing?”

“I am.”

“You care about him?”

“Yes,” I hissed.

He made as if to come at us, then stopped. His attention flickered to the corner, and something surfaced in his expression. A glimmer I recognized.

The Lady Marche. She must have been hovering again, because Olivian’s eyes glinted. Some whisper—some ghost of an emotion—reached him, because he grunted and turned away. “Fine. But he’s not staying. You can leave with him if you like, but I won’t tolerate him under this roof.”

My chest inflated as I let my hands fall. “Thank you.”

“Thirty. Seconds. That’s all.”

I whirled and grabbed Kai’s arm, then towed him past the bewildered stewards. At the doors, I grabbed the lapels of his wedding jacket.

He peered down, his infuriating smile as crooked as ever. Ruby slickness coated one side of his throat, but he paid the wounds no attention. “Well, that was rather dramatic. I think I preferred my first wedding, to be honest.”

A buzz filled my ears. This man had almost died, right in front of me. How dare he? “For once in your life, can you stop making jokes? It’s a terrible way to say goodbye.”

“Goodbye?” He stiffened. “What, you’re just going to let him toss me out?”

“Of course I am. It’s not my decision.”

“Well, no. But whether you come with me is.”

Now I stiffened. “What? No. Olivian won’t let Amryssa go, so...you can’t possibly think I’d leave her. And I’ve already told you how this ends. I said so upstairs.”

He stared into my eyes. Something built inside me, a growing shadow that tinted my vision dark.

He’d almost died. He’d nearly left me, permanently, in a way that would’ve replayed itself on the insides of my eyelids until I was old and wrinkled.

Even then, I still would’ve seen him leaving me.

Making a graceless exit from my life, never to be patched over or apologized for, just borne forever.

He would’ve carved an unhealing wound into me that would’ve chased me into old age and beyond.

The nerve. The unbelievable audacity of this man.

“What, no last-minute change of heart?” he said. “No third-act realization about how you can’t live without me?”

“No.” I nearly choked on the word. “This isn’t one of your plays.”

“But what if I want it to end like one?”

“It doesn’t. You were always going to leave, and I was always going to let you. I was always going to put Amryssa first. And now I have to get her to Hightower, some other way. So go. To Fairmont, like you wanted. See your last territory. Get your last accent.”

A scowl marred his perfect features. “That doesn’t matter to me nearly as much as you seem to think it does.”

I held that wide-sky gaze. Oh, goddess. Part of me was crumbling, collapsing, each word from my mouth a wave battering at my resolve. Except...he’d almost left me. The knowledge was like a fist around my heart. I had to hide, had to get away. “Just think of me sometimes, okay?”

His expression darkened. “This is absurd.”

“It’s not.”

“Come with me.”

I swallowed the stone in my throat. “No. I already told you. I’ve been telling you this whole time. That isn’t how this works.”

His face hardened. His eyes chilled, but he straightened, tugging at his ruined coat. “So that’s it, then? You’re absolutely certain?”

“Yes.”

“Well.” He sniffed. “Even I can tell when I’m not wanted.”

A steely weight descended on my shoulders. Goddess, I couldn’t manage another word. If I tried, I would break.

He leaned in and kissed my temple. Tears invaded my throat, but I walled them off.

“Goodbye, then, just Harlowe,” he murmured.

“Goodbye, just Kai.”

He scanned the great hall, then nodded at those assembled. “It’s been a pleasure.”

Nobody said anything. After a moment, Ky turned and walked into the glowing morning. For the second time in my life, I watched a white-clad back fade into the distance.

I stood there until the beacon of his jacket winked out.

I didn’t cry. I closed the front doors, then trudged past Merron, who shook his head at me, then the stewards.

Past an oddly silent Olivian. Then up past Amryssa, who stood on the stairs, a vision in white lace, a glinting, priceless jewel in this tarnished crown.

She reached for my arm, but I shrugged her off.

Only once I reached the safety of my room did I allow myself to cry.

And then, it was so much more than crying. It was me completely falling apart.