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Chapter Three

Talyria

I glare after Victor as he scurries off, leaving me to deal with the aftermath of his statement and to meet his father officially as his daughter-in-law.

The man—I don’t even know his name—stares at me with his mouth agape. I muster what I hope is a smile, I’m a bit out of practice, but before I can think of something to say he lunges forward.

For a second, my hand flies to where I would have kept a dagger in the past before I realize that I only just recently escaped from my imprisonment. Getting a new knife should have been the top of my list of priorities, but instead I wound up with a husband.

However, the man simply wraps me in a hug. I stiffen a bit at the unfamiliar contact, but he doesn’t seem to notice. Instead, he pulls back bracing his hands on my shoulders. “That boy of mine,” he says with a laugh. “I swear by the gods I can’t keep up with him every time he changes things. But at least, this time it is for the better. Hello, hello!” He pulls away resting a hand on his chest. “Oh, but where are my manors. My name is Sasha, I’m sure my son failed to mention his old man’s name. And Mika….”

He trails off and turns his head, giving me a better view of his impressive sideburns. I certainly hope that Victor sticks with the beard. “Mika!”

“Coming!” I hear a small voice call and then a little brown-haired girl comes racing out of one of the back rooms, a broom in hand. “Just cleaning out the spare room, Pa; what did you need?”

“I wanted to introduce you to your new sister!” Sasha booms, clearly more excited about this than the rest of us combined.

He places a hand on my shoulder, clapping it so hard that it rattles my teeth. I force a smile.

Mika wrinkles her nose, clearly confused.

“I married your brother,” I supply since apparently Sasha is too busy offering drinks to the whole room to celebrate.

Mika doesn’t look convinced, but with Sasha’s generous announcement the whole room is now paying very close attention to me.

“Victor married?” a girl asks with a snort. “Who can imagine it. I’m surprised he found someone willing to take him.” She holds up her tankard as if to toast me. “You’re a better woman than most.”

Victor chuckles slightly, but the sound is strained as he steps up beside me, resting a hand on my hip. “That’s my friend Estelle. We grew up together. She’s practically my sister .”

“I thought I was your sister,” Mika replies with a pout.

“Oh, yes how could I forget!” Victor says as he steps past me and sweeps his younger sister up into a hug. She lets out a squeal and kicks her legs as she buries her face in his shoulder.

I feel a slight pang as I watch him. Despite Sasha’s words, Mika is not my sister. I had a sister. And she is lost like everything else I once held dear.

Victor places his sister back to the ground be finally turns to me. “Everyone, this is my wife Talyria.”

I force another small smile as all eyes in the inn remain focused on me. I’ll admit, I didn’t expect to be introduced to an entire inn. It’s not exactly the lying low I was expecting, but now that I’m here seeing the Andreevs and their establishment, I can tell that it will be a good cover. It will be easy to blend in as just another Andreev, another person in the inn.

“Cheersish, I’ll drink to that!” a man at the bar says, clearly intoxicated. His armor under a cloth overcoat stitched with an insignia gives him away as a guard. I feel my nose wrinkle at the thought. I’m glad I married an inn keeper’s son at least.

Nothing is worse than a guard.

Mika scuttles away, getting the extra drinks for everyone. I’m not sure what I think about such a young girl handling alcoholic drinks, but she seems to know what she’s doing. Sasha wipes his hands off on his apron as he turns to me. “Now, girl let’s talk. You have to tell us more about yourself.”

“Yeah,” the bard says as she steps over, depositing her lute behind the counter and taking a cup from Mika. Given her resemblance to the other Andreevs, I would say that she is probably a relative although I don’t know how closely related. “How did you meet our Victor?”

“Well…” I begin. I glance over at Victor, but he’s picked up Mika’s broom and is now working to sweep the floor like he hadn’t just been traveling for days on end.

Like it isn’t our wedding night.

Like there isn’t anything else he should be doing, such as—oh, I don’t know—introducing me to his family.

I turn back to his family. “We have a pack of wolves to thank for bringing us together actually.”

“Wolves?” Mika breathes.

“How romantic,” the girl Estelle sighs. I notice that Victor looks up at that. So, I suppose he’s paying more attention than he seems.

“What do the wolves have to do with it?” the bard asks, wrinkling her nose in a manner that looks just like Mika’s expression from earlier further confirming my suspicion that they are related.

“It was due to their savage nature and how they had been attacking other travelers on the road that we decided to travel together.” I shrug and Victor doesn’t correct my simplification of the events. “I suppose after a while on the road, we started to fall in love and that’s that.”

“ That’s most certainly not that , lass,” Sasha says. “I’m an innkeeper, I live off the gossip. Give me all the juicy details.”

I blow out a small breath as I look into each of their eager faces. They aren’t going to settle for a half-told story. It doesn’t look like I’m going anywhere until I’ve sated their curiosity.

This is going to be a long night…