Page 61 of To Touch A Silent Fury (The Bride of Eavenfold #1)

I placed my hand in his, and every part of his unpleasant countenance infected me again. His seething rage choked me as he pulled me towards the unlit gardens behind, the hedges rising like dark ghosts and the shadows pulling us in like sleep to a nightmare.

The Wragg walked quickly, forcing us further into the night, away from the warmth of the fires, but it was his anger that caused my shiver, not the evening air.

I did not struggle, but I spoke up. “The gardens are very pretty, should we come back in the daylight?”

We rounded a hedge, and before us was a moonlit marble courtyard with a fountain in its centre. A cherubic child spouted water onto a carved fish the same size as him.

The Wragg turned to me but did not let go of my hand .

“Vorska.” He coughed into his other hand, and my sense of foreboding reached an awful peak. “My father told me a story recently, about how he proposed to his wife the same day he met her. I know that we met before, but tonight, I was able to truly meet you.”

Then, before me, the eldest son of King Braxthorn, the unchosen general, fell to one knee. The so-called Wall of the Embergrin Pass looked up at me with no warmth. Through his hand, I felt his resolve, his conviction. But no love, and barely any desire.

The Wragg was about to propose to me.

Why? Why this prince?

I tried to pull my hand back. “Your Gr—”

His grip on me tightened painfully, and I bit back my yelp. “I will inform my family in the morning and petition my father to wed us in five days’ time, so that we may begin our life together as early as possible.”

The words fell without thinking. “You cannot be serious.”

Banrillen forced a smile. “I know it must come as a shock. I go against my whole family in this, which is how I know it is right. They seek to use you for themselves. I will not allow it.”

“Ban—”

“As my wife, you will have every comfort,” he interrupted, as if it was little more than an afterthought to his plot against his family’s interest.

Why had I stayed? I knew I needed to leave, and I had let my want for the younger prince twist my intentions. Now, it was all ruined. My Fate slipped through my fingers like sand. How could I, a pauper by every measure, ever reject this offer? How could I stall him?

Tears sprung into my eyes, and I blinked them back. “Banrillen. I am honoured. Entirely honoured. But I never expected to be made such an offer. You must give me time to think about this and give your family time to approve it.”

He finally dropped my hand, and it fell limp to my side. The moonstone against my wrist sat like an open taunt. It was supposed to keep me safe. How was this safe?

“You will have the coming days to gather yourself.” He stood up, dusting off his knee. “When we are married, we will both have to get used to our new life. Your dragon, and you, will live in my quarters. They are very spacious.”

My dragon and me. Me, the afterthought. “I have not yet given you my answer.”

“Your answer,” he repeated, without inflection. He towered above me, breathing ale-clad air into my face. “You would refuse me?”

I took a step back, gathering myself. I had known unpleasant boys and men alike, and I knew what it was to see a man ready to hit.

No doubt this man was worse than most. I needed to be smarter, far smarter, if I had any chance of getting out of this.

“No, no. That is not what I meant. In the Soundlands, it is customary to—”

He waved a hand. “I care not. I honour you by selecting you, and it is not without reservations.”

I nodded. “Of course. I apologise.”

He touched my chin, pressing rough spheres of beads against my neck. I stared at him and let the fear show. Satisfaction flickered in him. “Five days.”

“Yes,” I whispered.

He dropped his touch with a jovial smile. “Shall we return?”

I pressed my hand to my chest. “I find myself breathless, by your words and my new future. A lady from an animal, as you said. I might take the air for a moment. ”

“As you wish.” He tutted as he walked away, calling over his shoulder. “Then return to your rooms. I will not have you seen drinking into the early hours. You are a respectable lady, now.”

I nodded as he faded into the darkness of the hedgerow, his laughter haunting. My voice was barely more than a whimper. “Yes. I thank you.”

I stumbled over to the fountain and fell onto its cold stone wall.

The noise of the trickling water behind me reminded me of the water dripping down from my reed thatched roof in the forest after a long Ergreen rain.

I held my knees to my chest. The beads pressed against my mouth, and I wrenched them away, breaking the thread as they tumbled to the floor and pooled in my skirt.

It was all lost. Everything I had suffered for years, for nothing. For ego and cruelty, and a life I would never escape.

A scuffling noise snapped my head up.

Someone stood in the shadows.

“Show yourself,” I said, wiping my face with the back of my hand.

He stepped forwards into the moonlight. Langnathin.

I remembered Seth’s warning, then. Me, bleeding on the floor. Langnathin stood over me, his hand bloody. For a brief moment, a fear spiked. But then Langnathin took another step, and I saw the torturous expression on his face.

One day, he might hurt me. I did not believe today was that day. “Langnathin,” I said, my voice dead. “What are you doing here?”

He shook his head. “I’m so sorry.”

I shivered, and the need to sob came back thick and fast. I pressed my hand over my mouth as all of it became so much more real .

“I heard,” he continued. “When I saw you leave with him, I feared the worst. I followed you, sorry. I had to—I had to be sure he wouldn’t hurt you.” He took one more step. “I never thought…”

I couldn’t hold back the cry, then. It broke out of me, the grief of everything that could have been. A tear dropped down my cheek. “What do I do?”

He clutched at his hair as he stared at me with more anguish than I had ever seen. “Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

I sniffed, trying to smile even as the tears flowed. “My sentiments exactly.”

Langnathin stayed where he was, several steps from me. His voice was stronger when he spoke again. “You must leave the city.”

“Your family will hunt me,” I said. “Half of them to kill me and half of them to drag me back to your brother.”

“You have to try. Better a life on the run than a marriage to him.”

We were both silent. Only the puttering of the fountain and the wind ruffling the branches broke through our melancholic bubble.

I took a deep breath in and let it out shakily. I wiped my nose and peered up at him. “He’s marrying me to take my dragon, isn’t he?”

He nodded, grinding his jaw. “I didn’t think he would do it.”

“But you suspected.”

“Yes.” He gave me a sad smile. “To dissuade him any more would have only made this more likely.”

What did that even mean? Why did everything have to come back to them, and their rivalry?

This family had taken everything from me.

My Fate was nearly in the grave. My life would be married to the Wragg or on the run.

Even my dignity was falling fast, because I had started to believe this man before me might actually like me enough to marry himself.

But no. I should have listened to everyone, and now it was too late.

I stood up, keeping my eyes on the floor. “I need to rest, I cannot think.”

Langnathin stepped forwards, reaching out. “Let me walk you back.”

I moved away from him. “No.”

He frowned. “Vorsk—”

“Do not touch me,” I spat, and he dropped his hand instantly. My voice was softer when I spoke again. “You cannot be seen near me. It will only make this worse.”

The Dragon Prince’s body curled in on himself as his face painted his grief. “I’m so sorry.”

I sighed. “It isn’t your fault.”

He looked ready to cry himself. “If I can do anything, you must tell me.”

Marry me, then. Marry me yourself. I wanted to yell it, scream it.

But I was exhausted. The idea must have already occurred to him, we’d already danced around it once this night, and I couldn’t take his rejection tonight, not on top of everything else.

So instead, I pointed back to the shadows he appeared from. “Just go, Lang. I need to be alone.”

He nodded, and walked away without complaint. I missed him before he had even disappeared, and hated myself for it. Every part of me felt cold, and so deeply alone.

Three options. Marry the Wragg, and live my life as a true Broken with a man who only wished to control me.

Run away, and live my life on the run. How long would I last, with a young dragon to take care of ?

Or convince Langnathin to marry me in his brother’s place. A bride his father didn’t approve for his lesser son, let alone his chosen. The Dragon Prince might care for me, pity me. But he would not risk himself, his legacy, his title, for me. And I could not expect him to.

A span of days to make the call as to which horror I could more easily stomach.

It was the first time I had called him Lang. I wondered if he noticed.