Page 59 of The Starlit Ring (The Chronicles of Liridin #1)

“It’s magnificent,” I said, unable to tear my gaze away. “How does that work? Who made this? Is there any record of the spell?” I was afraid to touch it but couldn’t tear my eyes away.

“It’s a shame you were never in a guild,” said Marius, sighing. “Absolute cruelty.”

I ignored him. I was lucky that Father let me anywhere near the forge, let alone allowed me to study under Cranz.

Perhaps, one day, I might be able to do more than just enchant pebbles in my spare time, but I wasn’t confident enough to do more than hope.

Even with my new husband beside me, I couldn’t fully grasp the concept of freedom.

I was still trapped in my father’s iron grip, twisting and screaming.

Fallamor shot me a confused glance, but neither of us bothered to explain.

Toral cleared his throat. “You still have to transfer the ring, Marius.”

“Oh, yes,” said Marius, straightening his spine, and stepping forward.

“Well, this is rather less hideous than I expected, actually. It’s almost pretty.

” With a trembling hand, he grasped the box, and slowly, gently extricated the ring from its slot.

In his fingers, it looked nearly dainty, like something crafted by an artisan rather than vengeful gods.

Flashing a brittle grin, Marius slipped the ring onto my finger.

I expected to feel something. A flare of devastation. A rumble of anger. But there was nothing, just the odd sensation of polished bone against my skin.

Marius withdrew his hand cautiously, as if afraid that the ring would combust. But nothing happened.

I examined my finger, turning my hand this way and that. Stars reflected in the scarlet sphere and shined upon the band so that it nearly glowed.

“It’s surprisingly nice,” said Toral, watching me. The stars glimmered in his dark eyes, too, like a vision of the night sky.

Fallamor pursed his lips.

“I think it worked,” said Marius. Disbelief lingered in his voice.

The ring glittered on my finger, solid evidence of our union, our devotion. “It did.”

Toral produced a slip of paper. A marriage certificate, I realized, squinting. A scribe’s neat handwriting filled the page, save for a few blank spaces where the four of us signed our names. I was half-giddy as I wrote my name beside Marius’s.

“Great,” said Fallamor. “Now remember, don’t blame any of this on us.”

Any joy I felt was quickly stamped out by reality.

Ria would soon find out I betrayed her. The King and Queen would learn that we had deceived them. No matter what I told myself, I was wholly unprepared for the consequences.

“I would never,” said Marius, crossing his arms. “Thank you, eternally, for bearing witness to our union.”

“And now kindly fuck off,” Toral joked.

Marius pretended to consider this, and said, “Yes, actually. I would like one night with my wife, so if you don’t mind?—”

“Fine, fine,” said Toral, turning toward the door.

He stalked forward with the determination of a king.

For the first time, I saw the weight of his role in his posture, his movements.

Acting as regent must have exhausted him, but he carried himself with the air of a ruler.

Back to the war room , I thought, and wondered why he even bothered with our little ceremony when his people were being struck down like clay pigeons. “I can see myself out.”

“Wait for me,” called Fallamor, trailing after him with all the urgency of someone taking an evening stroll through the gardens.

When they were gone, I turned to grin at Marius. Jumped into his willing arms, and pressed my lips to his neck, his jaw, his perfect lips. “We did it,” I gasped, overwhelmed by a sudden swell of emotion. “We actually did it.”

“We did,” he agreed, kissing me back fiercely. A hand roamed down my back. “I was afraid?—”

“Me, too,” I said, loosing a tiny squeak when his hand found my right hip, and grabbed it playfully. “I thought it would go wrong, somehow.”

“But it didn’t,” he said, his grasp moving from my backside to my hand, where the ring rested. “It worked. They can’t argue against that. I was so afraid they wouldn’t allow us to marry, but now it doesn’t matter. We did it ourselves.”

“No,” I agreed, breathless. “The ring transformed. That means that it accepted us, right?” I really was King Amonrew’s daughter. My fears of illegitimacy fled, leaving me giddy with relief.

“Right,” he said, drawing me into another kiss, this one so slow and sensual that I couldn’t help but soften against him. Heat enveloped me and raced to my core.

“Is now a bad time to mention that I love you?” I mumbled, face hot, heart pounding.

“Not at all,” he said, holding me close, blue eyes alight with an adoration so deep that I thought I might fall in, and drown there. “In fact, I’d argue that it’s the perfect?—”

A distant clang.

Marius paused, head tilted toward the door. His embrace loosened.

There came the sound of footsteps charging down the passageway.

“Shit,” said Marius, catching me by the arm, leading me behind the altar. “Get down.”

“Surely it’s just Toral and Fallamor?”

“I don’t like the sound of it,” Marius insisted. The lines of his body drew taut with tension as he watched the door. His hand pushed against my shoulder, and I finally ducked down beside him. Knife unsheathed, I waited.

A shout. A cacophony of footsteps, like a herd of frightened cattle.

The lever wrenched. The door flew open with a bang! and Valeria burst through it, her eyes wild, hair untamed, a livid twist to her lips.

Fallamor and Toral crashed into the Star Room behind her.

“Oh,” I whispered, stomach flipping.

Something in Marius’s expression shifted. In it, I saw a hint of regret, a smidge of embarrassment, but mostly, raw determination.

“Valeria,” he said, rising from his position behind the altar. He stepped toward her, spine straight, pointed chin jutting out proudly. If he was remorseful, I saw no indication. “Welcome.”

Ria was panting, her face so pale that even her lips were white. “I knew it,” she hissed, looking right at me, still crouched behind the altar, knife in hand. “I fucking knew it.”

Panic overcame me, forceful as a riptide. “Ria,” I said. My knife clattered to the floor.

“Don’t you dare,” Ria growled, stalking toward me, teeth bared like a wild animal. “Don’t you dare.”

The ring slipped to my knuckle, suddenly loose around my finger. I didn’t dare adjust it for fear of drawing her gaze. Would’ve torn it from my finger and flung it across the room if I thought it would soothe Ria’s rage.

But the sight of the ring would only deepen the wound.

Marius stepped between us. “Valeria,” he said, calm and businesslike, as if he were negotiating the price of wheat. “I hoped to have a conversation with you over breakfast.”

“Breakfast?” Ria repeated. “As if we were discussing the weather?” Her glare returned to me. “What the fuck have you done, Talina? Is he the reason you won’t leave?”

I flinched. My mouth opened, but I couldn’t find the words.

“Yes,” said Marius evenly, crossing his arms over his chest. “I asked her not to.”

Fallamor and Toral stood behind Valeria, their faces stony, their shoulders squared. I wondered how many weapons they had hidden in their clothes (and if they’d dare draw them).

I wondered how many Ria had. If she’d thought to bring one at all.

“Perhaps this is not a conversation that should wait for breakfast,” said Marius, spinning on his heel, gesturing to the tight corridor that led to the study. “Please, Princess Valeria, if you’d just follow me?—”

The ring slipped again; I had to clench my fist to stop it from falling to the floor. Ria caught the movement. Saw the glint of silver.

For the tiniest fraction of a second, she did not react. Then her lips pulled back into a sneer. “What the fuck is that?”

Marius fought to keep his face neutral. A muscle in his jaw ticked, and his eyelids fluttered. “That… is a ring. I—Look, Valeria, we should really sit down?—”

I thought of the massive window in the study and shook my head. Not a safe place for an altercation. It was too easy to imagine someone falling—or being pushed—from it.

Marius wasn’t looking at me, but Fallamor saw my reaction, and gently suggested, “Perhaps an evening in the great hall would be for the best.”

“The great hall,” Ria repeated, a dangerous edge to her voice. “So that everyone will know? I don’t think so.”

“Then at least the library,” said Marius, clapping his hands together like he’d found the perfect solution. “I can ask the staff to vacate. It will be far more private.”

“No.” Valeria crossed her arms. A slippered foot tapped a frenzied beat against the floor. “No. You owe me an explanation, and you owe me my privacy. Tell me, right now, what the fuck you’ve done. Is she pregnant? Is that the problem?”

Marius glanced at me. Worry twisted his expression, like the thought hadn’t even occurred to him. I quickly shook my head.

Valeria hissed through her teeth. “So you’re not pregnant? Just a whore then? Just like our mother?”

A dagger to the gut would’ve hurt less. My eyes went wide.

I felt the burn of tears, and willed them away.

I could cry later. This moment was not about me or my feelings—not really.

It was about the way I’d taken everything Ria was entitled to, and stomped on it.

“Yes,” I mumbled. “But I’m not a whore. ”

Desperate thoughts swirled through my head. I’d ruined my relationship with Ria. There was nothing I could say or do to earn her forgiveness. I could implore her every day, and she’d only scowl upon me.

I deserved every minute of her ire.

“Gods, you’re pathetic,” she snapped, throwing her hands in the air. “You’re both pathetic. What the hell is that on your finger? Are you going to tell me you’re married now?”

“Valeria, please calm down—” Marius started, moving toward her.

That was the wrong thing to say.

“You are !” she shrieked, stepping towards me. Both Fallamor and Toral followed after her, ready to intervene. “What the fuck, Talina? Were you going to tell me?”

“Yes,” I said. Tears streamed down my face like twin waterfalls. “Yes, of course I was going to tell you! Ria, please?—”

She scoffed, stalking past Marius to stand before me. He followed and caught her by the shoulder. “Don’t,” he said, voice low and gravelly.

“Don’t tell me what to do with traitors!” Valeria snarled, whipping to face him. “You—you went so low! Seducing my own sister!”

“It wasn’t like that,” I protested, but my voice fell upon deaf ears. Valeria’s ire was purely focused on Marius now, her glare sharp enough to lacerate.

“What did you offer her?” she demanded, turning to me, hands on her hips. “Money? Asylum? Your undying love ?” She spat the last word like a mouthful of tar.

“All of the above,” said Marius, arms crossed, scowl marring his face. “Because she has my undying love, and everything that comes with it.”

Her answering screech was feral. “And me ? What was wrong with me? ”

“Nothing,” said Marius, taking care to lower his arms and speak gently, as if to a frightened child. My heart stuttered, equal parts charmed and alarmed by his tone, and all the ways Ria could react to it. “There is nothing wrong with you. I simply… don’t love you.”

“Please,” I said, wiping the tears from my eyes. I caught a glimpse of the ring. Its silvery sheen had faded. The band had returned to old, yellowed bone. What was happening? “Ria, I?—”

She glared at me. Agony and despair lurked beyond her anger. “Did you think about me at all when you did this? I’ve endured so much, and you’ve just thrown it all away! You absolute fucking bitch!”

Ria dove at me, tears and spit flying. My hands flew up to block her, but she slammed into me with such force that we crashed to the floor.

I glimpsed the knife I’d dropped earlier, glinting in the starlight, but didn’t dare reach for it.

Ria might eventually forgive me for stealing her husband, but she would never let it go if I brandished a blade at her.

With a roar not unlike that of a bear, she tore at my hair. I tried to shove her off, but it was no good. In her fury, she was nothing but claws. Spittle landed on my cheek, hot and stinking of wine. A hand fisted in my dress. Fabric ripped—the sound split the room.

Shouts echoed around us. Someone tried to grab Ria, and she fought them off, screaming and writhing. A foot connected with my ankle. Pain erupted, and I tried to roll out from under her, but she howled and grappled for something behind me.

I heard rather than saw the knife as it plunged into me.

A terrible squelch, followed by a lance of agony.

I yelped and fought in earnest even as blood spread across my blouse.

I caught Ria by the back of her gown and used the last of my strength to flip her over.

Her back slammed against the floor. A loud grunt sliced through the high-pitched wheeze coming from somewhere behind me .

And then she was on her feet, a screaming flurry of hands and arms.

I looked up and saw Marius grappling with her. Marius, whose eyes were locked on me, on the blood blooming across my abdomen. He’d managed to pin Ria’s arms to her sides, but she knew enough self-defense to maneuver her way out. Within seconds, she’d torn free of his grip.

Toral shouted something. I couldn’t hear it over the ringing in my ears. Fallamor lunged.

Silver flashed in Ria’s hand as the knife drove through Marius’s ruffled collar and into the meat of his throat. A startled cry escaped him. He stumbled backward, hands flying to his neck.

A great cracking sound echoed through the room.

Fallamor tackled Ria to the ground, where she gasped and writhed beneath him. The knife skittered across the floor. He was quick to retrieve it.

For two horrible heartbeats, I waited for the blood to spray from Marius’s wound.

But when he lowered his hands, I saw no telltale crimson stains—just the shattered pieces of the stone at his throat.