Chapter 2 #2
Instead of asking me to join the daily council in the throne room, he’d stuck me in the Protectorate vault with a mountain of ledgers and scraps of parchment to track every single gold coin which had entered and left our coffers.
Then came the little comments about me needing to be more diplomatic and humble. Even at twenty-one years-old, he still lectured me on patience. Which, yes , was an issue, but I didn’t need to be reprimanded.
In front of Silas, of all people.
I’d worked hard to become The Huntress. Only I knew how many nights I’d fallen asleep poring over treaties my youngling eyes shouldn’t have witnessed yet or the days I’d wandered the woods alone when drought had hit Aquila; one doe could feed five families and clothed a child for a year.
I hadn’t become a future leader by sitting on velvet sofas and delighting myself with honeyed almonds.
To have my own father question all of those sacrifices constricted my chest. It hurt more than even I, with my famed sharp tongue, could put into words.
Because I questioned it myself.
All the damn time.
I hadn’t been born to rule.
I’d had to learn how to.
Worse still, nobody could know The Huntress and the Protectorate’s First Daughter doubted herself.
“You’re right. Evie was born to rule,” I said evenly. “The fact that she does not want the Protectorate throne should make all of us wonder why.”
“Not everyone wants to bear the responsibility, Allie,” my father said.
“I do. And as future leader of the Protectorate,” I said with more courage than I felt. “Let me bear the responsibility of breaking this wedding before it happens.”
There. I’d said it.
The plan had been stinting the tip of my tongue for weeks.
If nobody else wanted to do the right thing, save Evie from an imprudent marriage and live with the consequences, I would.
Just like I always did.
My father turned to me slowly.
Silas scoffed.
“I didn’t quite catch that, uncle . Mind repeating it?” I asked, gaze not leaving my father’s.
“Meddling is not a good idea,” Silas said.
I took one step toward him, enough to catch a whiff of his wine-soaked breath. “Do you have a better one? Let’s hear it, then.”
Silence.
“We should let things follow their due course,” Silas said petulantly. The man had greying hairs, but he was still a sulky child deep down. “If Evelina wants to ruin her life–”
“ Evie .” I gritted my teeth. “Spell or not, we are not alone on this island.”
“Save your commands for when the crown is on your head,” Silas said. “I’m your elder, you need to respect me.”
“Respect is earned.”
“Alaric.” Silas sputtered. “She just–”
“Quiet,” my father said in that eerie calm tone that somehow leashed the loudest voices. “Allie, my brother is right, for once in his life. Some things need to follow their due course.”
“I will not let Evie suffer, tied to that heinous man. Fabrian is vindictive. Dangerous,” I said. “We have failed my cousin once. We cannot do it again. We can’t take this standing down–”
The first tendrils of anger coiled in my father’s voice. “You think that’s what we’re doing?”
I licked my lips, caught off guard. My father was the pacifist, I was the fiery one, and I didn’t like this reversal of our roles. “I–”
“Do you think I want our Clan to be tied to that brute? To let him and his lackeys traipse around our island?” he asked.
“Fabrian cares for nothing but his own miserable self. Has no regard for life and squashes it any chance he gets. No, my dear Allie, I am not pleased by this. And I am not taking it standing down .”
Suddenly, I felt seven years-old again, being chided for spilling wine onto the Fair Isles emissary lap after he’d stolen one of the cherries from my plate. Silas grinning from ear to ear also didn’t help.
My shoulder caved. “I’m sorry, but–”
“Did you mean what you said?”
I clenched my jaw and tilted that famed Vegheara pointed chin up. “Yes.”
“Then the problem still stands. Regretting the words but not the thought doesn’t help, does it?” His thumb tapped his temple gently. “I raised you to speak the truth. But we each have our own truths.”
“Yes.” I sighed. “Dad, this is serious, please–”
“Setting sail from Sanctua Sirena is no small feat.” He turned, watching a sparrow dive underneath the embossed eaves of the castle. “Not when the strong winds rattle the sea and fight against your sails.”
The sky was as clear as a mountain spring, the sun glistening over the castle raised from the stones guarding the island.
There would be no storm today–unless one was created.
I huffed a surprised laugh. “You want to call on the winds.”
My father nodded, not taking his eyes off his precious swallow nest.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked, hating how vulnerable I sounded. Exposed.
“I’ve already asked so much of you.” He sighed and I heard the guilt in that small sound.
Still, he didn’t turn to me. I sometimes wondered if he avoided my gaze because I reminded him too much of Mom.
Her death had cracked the warmth between us, like we were suddenly speaking different languages.
“You make sure Evie is alright and let me fret over this marriage.”
“But–”
“Evie, Fabrian, and his slithering Serpents won’t be leaving this island until we get to the bottom of this marriage and this strange newfound love that nobody understands.
” He rolled his shoulders back, his blue coat wrinkling as if waves washed over him.
“The sea will understand and the gods will forgive me.”
His words eased the knot tightening inside me, but didn’t unravel it fully. “But they’d still be wedded. Undoing a Clan marriage is no easy feat.”
“No marriage contract has been signed yet. Nothing is official until then and we will keep it that way for as long as we can.”
“That’s a mighty plan, but you should listen to the girl, Aric,” Uncle Maksim said.
He still had the stature of a warrior and the steely stare of someone who’d won all the battles he’d faced, but my father had never been easily swayed.
“Fabrian might take offense. He won’t dare attack directly, but the Clan Council will have our hides for it if the Serpents demand retribution. ”
“Then we make them an offer not even Fabrian can walk away from,” my father said.
“The Serpents are the richest Clan in all of Malhaven. We can’t pit our gold against theirs,” I said.
Especially not with the pitiful state of our vaults. That mountain of ledgers painted a very grim image, and I hadn’t even gotten through all of them yet.
“Fabrian could always go missing,” Uncle Maksim said.
“Uncle Maksim.” I sighed. It was one thing for me, the headstrong Huntress, to threaten assassinations left and right. People expected that. But it sounded so much worse when he said it, in that smoke-soaked, serious tone of his. “What if Dad’s right? What if she really loves the louse?”
“Plenty of other men in this world, many of them just as bad as Fabrian. If Evie wants another one, all she has to do is walk into the first bar and offer a free drink.” Uncle Maksim cocked his head to the side. “Though I hope she–and you –find better. Much better.”
My cheeks instantly heated up even as my heart slammed into my ribs. I was sick and bloody tired of everyone mentioning my failed engagement.
None of them had said a thing–no warning, no whispers, no sage advice–while I’d been deliriously in love, had they?
“Yes, well.” I avoided his gaze. “This family has a bad history with love.”
With me leading the pack of bad choices when it came to relationships.
“One of the many reasons I never married.” Uncle Maksim patted his left shoulder; his old war wound acted up in the worst times. “We can’t all find a woman like Lisette.”
That was a very polite half-truth. Uncle Maksim was an old fox, always seeing too much, never saying enough. He was one of Grandpa Constantine’s best secret weapons and had taught Dax and Dara everything he knew.
He hadn’t lived a life in which a marriage would have fit.
“Let’s hope Evie is the lucky one, then.” My father looked up at the sun slowly approaching the tallest tower on the island. Midday was almost here. “We need to make the rounds. We’ve been gone for too long, the Serpents might start suspecting we don’t want them here.”
“Doubt they can even see their feet after all the bottles they drank from our wine cellar,” Uncle Maksim said.
“Then it really is time to leave, before they start throwing jade daggers around.”
Silas didn’t need to be told twice. He slapped his knees, groaned to his feet, and walked away from the garden muttering something about punch and venison.
Uncle Maksim shook his head, watching his nephew vanish into the castle. “Constantine really should have stopped at three sons.”
“Our mother pampered him too much. It’s always a risk with the baby of the family,” my father said, once again devoid of any discernible emotion. It was a fact and he loved facts. “Go after him. He’ll be looking to boost his bruised pride in all the wrong places.”
“It always amazes me that out of all my brother’s sons, you’re the only one who turned our half right.
” Uncle Maksim sighed and jutted his chin at me.
“Cheer up, darling. It sounds like we’ll be spending more days on this island than we bargained for.
It would be a shame not to enjoy our time here. ”
With his departure, the silence in the garden turned heavy. I was only two paces away from my father, our gazes now locked, and yet we felt islands away.
“Father,” I pressed. “Your plan is good, but it has too many loose ends. The Serpents will suspect foul play. They might drink themselves into a violent stupor and wreak havoc on our island. There are children and young women here–”
“So concerned with everyone else’s wellbeing.
” He closed the distance between us, and reached out, gently grasping my shoulders.
At five foot seven, I’d risen a few inches above him one summer, but with my heels, the height difference between us was even more obvious.
“You don’t have any time to fret for yourself. ”
“Why would I?” I forced a hollow laugh. “I’m fine.”
“My little ember, we both know the truth.” His grip tightened. “That rat never deserved–”
“Dad, please.” I squirmed in front of him, but didn’t move away. This was the closest I’d gotten to a hug from him since Mom had died. And I would not show weakness, not even in front of him. “We need to concentrate on Evie.”
Thunder gathered in my father’s eyes. “My dear, she is not walking off this island as a married woman. This, I swear.”
Then, he hugged me, as he hadn’t in years, holding on tightly, as if he was afraid I’d vanish. I leaned into him, resting my head on his shoulder like I did when I was young.
But the sudden warmth couldn’t thaw the knot of icy worry setting deep in my chest.
My father, the man who hadn’t so much as raised his voice since my mother’s funeral, sounded ready to burn the entire world to keep that promise. For the first time in years, I saw that Vegheara fire in him–and I wasn’t sure if it thrilled or terrified me.