Page 155 of Traitor Witch

My betrothal.

So I did the only thing I could. The one thing my mother never expected.

Announced a mate challenge.

I have a month. A month to convince my mate to come and fight for me.

But the woman in front of me doesn't look capable of fighting anything.

She's covered in dirt and bruises. Her delicate skin marred by raised slash marks that cover her body in an all-too-familiar pattern.

She's been whipped.

"What did they do to you?" I whisper, collapsing by her side. My hands go out to touch her, but hover just millimetres from her skin, afraid to make things worse.

"Oh, this?" Nilsa looks up, eyes dull in a face full of bruises. "Turns out, some people really hate it when you try to kill a queen."

Shit. "You need to wake up. Get yourself out of there."

"Already tried." She winces as she forces herself into a sitting position and starts examining herself, prodding her ribs and hissing. "Goddess, that hurts."

Anger bubbles beneath my skin. My mate's been tortured and I'm stuck hundreds of miles away while the cowards who did this to her keep her captive.

When I get out of Marisang, I'll kill them all for touching her.

Her eyes meet mine and the depth of the blankness in them is disturbing. She should never look like this. Empty. Hollow. Her spirit crushed by defeat.

"You don't look much better than me," she mumbles.

I snort because it's true. Although most of mine could have been avoided if I hadn't struggled so much.

"I tried to escape as well." She might as well hear the whole story. "My betrothed's sisters weren't impressed."

Her eyes snap to mine, filled with fury where moments ago there had been only emptiness. "You're engaged?"

"As of yesterday morning." I try to sound chipper about it, but the bitterness seeps through. "I lost my third battle. According to the bargain I made with my mother when I was a child, that gave her the right to accept a petition for my hand in marriage."

The fight disappears from her gaze, replaced with a deep kind of sadness. "But you're mine."

I smirk, trying to find the levity despite the grimness of our situation. "Took you long enough to believe me."

"It wasn't you so much..." she whispers. "I met another Shadow. She made a lot of things make sense. Not that it matters much anymore."

"It matters," I move closer so our shoulders are touching, the two of us staring out into the misty dream sea.

"Don't freak out on me, but the crew of theDeadwoodare mine too," she says after a long silence.

I flop backwards onto the spongy pebbles with a groan of frustration. "Of course they are."

"They're good men. The stuff they do isn't by choice; they're fae-bound to serve the Queen."

That…explains a lot actually. A bit of my anger eases, but I'm still a long way from forgiveness.

"You should be able to break up the betrothal." She changes the subject, stroking a lock of unruly dark hair behind her ear. "It's unfair."

"Sirenae society is matriarchal. Short of my own mate coming to claim me..."

She turns those fierce, stormy eyes on me. "Don't you dare pin your hopes on me. I'll be surprised if I survive the week."