98. Kat
Kat
“A nd from Dusk, Katherine Ferrers.”
The world pitched. The queen’s voice distorted in my ears, turning the other names into nonsense.
My body felt like a puppet held on a long, long string. From miles away, I told the puppet to fold its hands and mind its magic and control its expression like a good little girl, while the crowd parted.
Up the path leading to the dais, Bastian stared at me. To someone else, he might’ve looked calm and collected, but not to me.
His face was… empty.
The queen hadn’t told him she was going to do this.
That made the little puppet’s little puppet heart hammer—a silly little drum in her chest.
It wasn’t part of some plan they’d concocted together to… I don’t know… send me to Dawn to spy on them, then marry me in secret to Bastian before revealing our marriage, so they were forced to let me go home to him.
Home.
My eyes burned.
Home .
He was home.
“Approach.” A commanding voice broke through my fractured thoughts, and King Cyrus smiled at me, holding out his hand.
Someone prodded me in the back. One foot, weight forward, then the other. It was like I’d never walked before—I had to tell my body to do every part of the motion.
“Kat, don’t.” Ella grabbed my arm, but someone hissed at her to stop and Perry pulled her hands away.
Near the front, I spotted a hateful head of red hair, and Uncle Rufus gave me a wide, wide smile.
But I glided past him, strings pulling me onto the dais.
I spared Bastian only the briefest glance. If I looked at him a moment longer, I would throw myself into his arms and refuse to go.
Pathetic, but all I wanted.
Jaw clenched, I dug my fingernails into my palm.
I needed to do this. I could help assure the peace. And there would be some way to get back. Eventually.
One step up the dais. Two.
The queen’s mouth curled.
She’d done this deliberately. What better way to get rid of me than sending me to Dawn?
Hadn’t Bastian always warned me about setting foot in that side of the palace?
Hadn’t he feared what his enemies might do once they knew I was important to him?
Now everyone knew, and the queen had placed me in their hands.
The world throbbed in time with the pounding in my head. I yanked in my magic as I realised it wasn’t my pulse but that of the power around me. The last thing we needed today was for another king to get killed.
I clung to that thought—beautifully practical—as I approached the new Day King.
Eyes soft on me, his smile was almost kind, like he understood my shock and horror. His hand moved an inch higher and I blinked at it dumbly for a second before taking it.
His skin was warm and smooth, and a faint masculine scent wafted up my nose as I bent closer, closer.
Some instinct shrieked at me, but I didn’t understand the words. Alarm. Danger. That much I knew. Hadn’t I always understood those things?
The moon’s darkness slid off the sun as we entered the last phase of the eclipse. Light hit the king’s cuff, twinkling on the intricate stitches of Dawn Court’s rising sun.
As I brushed my lips over his knuckles, my breath caught.
In the embroidered insignia glittered thread made of scarlet entwined with gold.
The king’s smile widened, showing his sharp teeth. “Welcome to Dawn, Katherine. It’s going to be a pleasure to have you.”
* * *
Kat and Bastian’s story continues in A Promise of Lies .