Page 38 of To Touch A Silent Fury

“I promise,” I said. That was all I could promise him, but I meant it.

He searched my face, and smiled once more. “I—I had hoped all of this might be different. But I will always be here for you.”

My throat thickened, and I felt the threat of my own tears. “Thank you, Seth.”

He breathed out hard, dropping my hand and composing himself. He turned away from me, clenching his fist and rolling back his shoulders. I felt my hands shaking as he turned back to me. “Shall we?”

I nodded. “We must.”

He forced a bright smile onto his face and offered his arm.

I took it readily and leaned on him as we left the room. If I had guessed at a fragment of his feelings before, still nothing would have prepared me for that declaration. It spun in my mind, his words repeating and bleeding together. Nausea and uncertainty clamoured in my body, and I felt so confused.

I was honoured, of course, that he might choose to spend his life by my side. But part of me found it baffling. We’d never been anywhere, never met anyone else. How could he be so sure? I was his childhood love, perhaps, but there was so much left of ourselves to discover, let alone anyone else.

Thread Ersimmon waited in the corridor for us, and I wondered if he had heard anything, or if he simply assumed we might need to speak alone. He hadn’t changed from his earlier attire, and by his drooping eyes, I assumed he’d only recently woken up from a nap.

He looked me up and down, nodding at my appearance. Then, he handed me a hook of beads. White, this time. “Are you ready?”

I positioned the beads and released a heavy breath, making the glass on the tiny threads move and sway. “I’m ready. Does your offer still stand?”

The Thread raised an eyebrow. “Who?”

“Duc de Fleur. Make him never sniff in my direction again.”

Ersimmon nodded, no criticism or judgement in his gaze. “Consider it done.”

Together, as a three, we walked through the maze of corridors towards the ballroom. My stomach was coiled from the conversation with Seth, my skin clammy already from the stress of what was to come next, and my head already aching from the weight of the pins.

But nothing could prepare me for the sight when the guards opened the ballroom doors.

Standing in the centre of the room, taking a cup of wine from a server’s tray, was a man I had hoped not to see for some time. A man who wasn’t supposed to be competing.

I took him in from head to toe, the red silken shirt tucked into black dress trousers. He wore no coat, his oiled dark hair combed back and plaited.

The Dragon Prince turned as the three of us stepped in together, and his blood-red eyes met mine.

11

Lang

The sight of her struck me to the bone. I was not a strong follower of the Five, nor one who had yet thought of marriage, but seeing her dressed all in white with her hair falling behind her perfect golden shoulders like moonlight, I struggled to decide if she was mortal enough to be a bride.

What a prize,Chaethor breathed in my head.I want pearls like those.

Tanidwen stepped in with no awareness of her own power, meeting my gaze with surprise and, if I wasn’t mistaken, ire. I smiled at that. How I had managed to provoke anger in her, I did not know, but that slight line between her brows somehow only elevated her beauty. She whispered something to the Thread beside her, but I made out nothing, too focused on the smattering of freckles across her nose, the line of those white beads withholding my admiration of the rest of her face.

Her dress wasn’t white, I realised. As much as the vision had been instantly bridal, I now saw the subtlecolour beneath it, as if she had worn white but then been dipped in pure sunlight. Pearls lined her bust, and all of her seemed to dance in the candlelight. Seeing her like this, all unblemished tanned skin and captivating milk-white eyes, I had definitely underestimated her.

I glanced to my left to see cousin Brascillan’s eyes as attached to her form as mine had just been. Then I looked behind me and saw every other man’s eyes drinking her in more deeply than their forgotten cups. The musicians at least, cramped on a small dais to my right, had the discipline to keep playing their instruments, the vocalist not skipping a note of her ballad of Myrgh.

Even in her drab cloak, I had thought Tanidwen to be very pretty, and dangerous if her power were allowed to be met. Now, I realised how far from the mark I was.

This woman could start wars.

I finally took in her companions. As on the boat, cousin Septillis was attached to her right. He held her hand, leading her down the stairs. His eyes did not leave her as she stepped carefully towards the ballroom floor.

My Moontouched cousin admired the girl, that much was plain. Did she reciprocate his affections? Had her Marriage Fate interrupted what could have been a love match? I studied the pair of them, filing the questions for later, and looked instead to her other companion.