Page 51 of The Nightmare Bride

A week passed. And another.

With Kai and Vick gone, an uneasy peace descended on the house, and I threw myself into caring for Amryssa.

She continued to shed weight at an alarming pace, each day solidifying my conviction that she couldn’t stay here.

Especially because I’d lost the dagger, and now had no way to protect her from the nightmares.

I had a month, probably less, to get her out.

I begged Olivian to let me take her to Hightower, royal marriage be damned. But ever since I’d publicly rebuked him in the great hall, he mostly communicated in grunts and sneers.

“She’s not going anywhere,” he growled, when I finally pestered him into answering. “I won’t just send her out into the world with no guarantee. It’ll chew her up and spit her out. She’s too soft. Too fragile.”

Tears pricked at my eyes. “But that’s my point. She is fragile. So fragile she’s wasting away. She can’t stay here.”

Olivian’s reddened eyes did their best to scorch a hole in me. “This is the safest place for her, now.” His insistence carried a hint of the same madness I’d heard that night in the Lady’s room, and I knew, then—he would never let her go. Maybe he never would have.

So I decided to steal her.

Over the next week, I squirreled away every bite of food I could lay hands on.

I stashed rye bread and hard cheese, dried jerky and berries.

I also “borrowed” two waterskins from Miss Quist, though I didn’t tell her what they were for.

I figured she probably knew, and since she gave them to me anyway, that equated to approval, in my mind.

As the days passed, the heat of summer broke, the heavy humidity giving way to afternoon rainshowers that peppered the windows. Each time the clouds cleared, the honeyed sunset arrived a few minutes earlier.

In another week, I’d have enough supplies to last us. Then we would disappear.

Multiple times, I wondered where Kai was. At first, I’d mentally tracked his progress along the Oceansgate road, but by now, he would’ve made it back to civilization, maybe even to Fairmont. Or maybe he’d changed his mind and gone somewhere else entirely.

I hoped not, though. Some part of me liked believing he’d accomplished his goal, that I’d gifted him with that last experience he’d wanted so badly.

Still, that didn’t keep me from missing him.

Horribly. Every reminder of him—the clothes he’d left hanging in my armoire, the dried peonies I’d now enshrined in a vase on my nightstand—added footprint upon footprint to the trail of pain stretching behind me, which seemed to lengthen with each passing day.

Not that I doubted whether I’d done the right thing. Kai had nearly died, and I’d protected both of us by sending him away. There wasn’t any way I could have joined him. Even if I’d done the impossible and left Amryssa, things would’ve eventually fallen apart.

Three more days limped past, during which Miss Quist announced that she and Lunk were engaged.

She’d begged the seneschal for amnesty on the giant’s behalf, and, to my surprise, had it granted.

In answer, Lunk had found the courage to put a ring on her finger, complete with a tiny seed pearl I’d helped him choose in town.

At that, the household revived a bit. People laughed again. There was talk of how, come equinox, we’d have a second wedding, after all.

Meanwhile, I waited, and prepared. But each day felt emptier than the last, and I swore the hours stretched like putty.

Which was stupid, but I couldn’t seem to stop missing my husband. At night, I wondered where Kai was sleeping, whether he’d had enough to eat today. Whether he was warm enough tonight.

Whether he’d ravished anyone else on a bathroom counter yet.

If he had, I couldn’t seem to manage the same. Once, Merron came to my room, but I could tell he understood there was no real hope, because when I rebuffed him, he actually chuckled.

“What?” I said. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing. I’m actually kind of relieved, to be honest.”

“Relieved? Why?”

“Because. This proves you have a heart.” Merron’s smile grew rueful. “I don’t like knowing it’s broken, but I do like knowing it exists.”

I rolled my eyes and shooed him out, then lingered by the door, pretending his fading steps belonged to someone else—that Kai had just laughed and given me one of his obnoxious half-smiles and gone off to chop wood or rebuild a pig trough or weed the gardens or whatever the hell else he felt compelled to exhaust himself with today.

I stood there for far too long, pretending he would be back. That any minute, I’d see him again.

Even though I knew I never would.

Amryssa only tolerated my moping for so long. Three and a half weeks after Kai’s departure, she turned to me in the hallway, took me by the shoulders, and shook me.

I stood there and let her, too shocked to resist. “What’re you doing?”

“Snapping you out of it,” she said. “That’s what people are always doing in books, aren’t they? Did it work?”

I brushed my hands down my front, then glanced at my upturned palms. “I don’t think so. I don’t feel any different.”

She blew out a breath. “Well, we need to do something . Because watching you scowl all day is making me itchy.”

I considered. “Have you considered that you might be allergic to something?”

She crossed her arms. “Harlowe. I hate seeing you sad, but I can’t bring Kai back to you. So you’re going to have to let me... I don’t know. Take you into town, maybe. Why don’t we go drinking? Or do some dancing? What was it that made you happy before Kai came?”

A beat of silence spun by. What had I spent all my time on, before? “I don’t know. I was always so focused on taking care of you.”

Her smile looked almost apologetic. “Then you ought to let me take care of you, for once. Starting with a night in town.”

A scorching weight settled in my chest. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I do, though. You’re my friend. My sister, for all intents and purposes.”

She said it just like that, as if it were the plainest truth in the world, and my throat thickened. I didn’t have the heart to tell her a night in town would only remind me of Kai more .

I really had to get my mind off him, in any way I could, and I couldn’t possibly refuse Amryssa when she called us kin. “Okay.”

“Really?” she said, her eyes bright. “Tonight?”

I hesitated. “Will Olivian even let us?”

“Let’s go ask.”

We did. The seneschal paused perusing some documents and leveled a look at us over his desk. “You want to go to town? Tonight?”

“Yes.” Amryssa squared her shoulders. “Harlowe needs cheering up. I’d like to spend some...what do you call it? Girl time?”

He blinked at her. “Girl time.”

“Yes.”

He sat motionless, his face like a granite slab.

Amryssa’s courage dried up. She aimed a pleading glance at me, as if I had a say in any of this.

“I’ll have her home by ten?” I offered.

Olivian deployed another glare, but this one contained a glimmer of the same thing I’d caught in the great hall a few weeks ago.

Compassion. Bruised-up, maybe—buried deep, shackled by bitterness, but that was compassion, nonetheless. Somewhere in the depths of his stony heart, the seneschal felt sorry for me. Probably because he’d lost someone he loved, too.

He sighed. “Fine. But you’re taking Merron with you.”

“Merron?” I arced a brow. “Why him?”

He shot me a glare. “Because you saw fit to give away Zephyrine’s dagger, and now you’re of little use to me, beyond the keeping of the keys.

” He opened a desk drawer and rummaged around, then slid a sheathed dagger across the desk.

“You can take this, but it isn’t anything like the last one, so you’ll have to take the head steward with you. Just in case.”

I took the weapon and fastened it to my belt. “In case what ?”

“You see Vick again.” He gave me a hard stare. “We don’t know what he plans on doing with Zephyrine’s dagger.”

“Feed people, I imagine.” That was really all that man had wanted. To play savior to a broken people. “Or maybe change his hair to a less offensive color.”

Olivian lowered his brows, unamused. “The point is, you’ll need someone capable.”

I slitted my gaze. “A man, you mean?”

“Yes, a man. And Merron happens to be one. Take it or leave it.”

“We’ll take it,” Amryssa said quickly.

Olivian resumed shuffling his papers. “And be back by nine, not ten. We haven’t had a nightmare in weeks, and I don’t trust the weather not to turn. I want all of you back here before it can become a problem.”

Amryssa nodded and swept out before her father could change his mind. I swallowed the burn in my chest and followed, but Olivian grumbled my name.

I turned back. “What?”

“I...” He cleared his throat and looked down, as if the papers in his hands had offered up brand-new information in the last two seconds. “...just wanted to say...I was perhaps...a bit hasty, when I banished your husband.”

My feet turned leaden. I couldn’t have moved if I’d tried. “Kai. His name’s Kai.”

“Right. Kai. I...”

I waited, my breath held.

“Look. You can write to this Kai of yours. Let him know he can come back, if he likes.”

My stomach somersaulted. This was...unprecedented. By a long shot.

My silence seemed to fluster him. He grabbed a pen and tapped it against his papers. “He was remarkably useful when it came to chopping wood.”

I gave a slow nod. “That’s...probably the kindest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“Kindness has nothing to do with it. He was useful.”

“Sure. Still. Thank you. And I might’ve been a little hasty myself, when I said all those things to you that night.”

“No. Every word you said was true.”

Shock cascaded through me. Olivian tugged at his collar, clearly uncomfortable with that admission, and I hurried to change the subject. “The thing is...I have no idea where Kai went. And even if I did, it wouldn’t matter. We never would’ve worked. But thanks for the offer.”

“You’re welcome.” He still didn’t look up. “Now do me a favor and get the hell out.”