Chapter 12
“Edith,” I gasped.
My eyes welled as I rushed toward her. I locked my arms around her, burying my face in her neck and inhaling her familiar scent of incense and warm tea, comforting and grounding.
“I was so worried,” I breathed, pulling back to hold her by the shoulders. She was wan and pale. I examined every inch of her frame. “Are you hurt anywhere? The tygress hit you hard.”
I am sorry, Rubi. Flame’s mental voice sounded crestfallen. I reacted to the pain. I would never injure one you love.
You still sheathed your claws or else she’d be dead.
“I am fine,” Edith said, her voice filled with remorse, but her mouth moved into a smile. “Barely a scratch. I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you. Gods, Rubi, I’ve been so afraid for you.”
I threw my arms around her again, blinking rapidly to keep my tears of relief from falling. She hugged me back, her grip strong. As I held her, the weight on my chest finally lifted. “I am fine. And you were amazing.”
Her voice was muffled by my hold. “I’m out of practice. And I was holding back a little, I didn’t want to hurt the tyger.”
I chuckled.
But when Edith met my gaze, grief was carved into every line of her face. “They burned it down. The whole hut. And…Rainbow didn’t make it.”
I went still.
“They what?” My voice came out strangled. “What—when?”
Edith nodded, a tear running down her face. “The king’s Tyger Warriors. They—”
I didn’t hear the rest, fury flaring to life. Not the king’s. Blake’s Tyger Warriors. A roar built inside me, white-hot and searing. My hands shook, breath sawing out too fast, heat prickling beneath my skin, dangerous.
“Did they hurt you?” My voice was deathly quiet.
Edith shook her head. “They had orders to slaughter all the livestock, but the others got away. Only Rainbow wouldn’t leave.
She was always such an affectionate chicken.
” She swallowed hard, her red-rimmed eyes glistening.
“Everything is gone. My herbs, the scarf I was making for you, our furniture, everything. I was left alone, and then, sometime later, a guard from the palace came and brought me here.”
We’d already lost so much. Now everything from my life with Edith had been destroyed as well. A rush of wrath burned through me. My vision blurred at the edges.
Flame’s phantom roar echoed through my mind, and then a violent tremor ran through me. The sound escaped before I could stop it: a single, fractured note, raw and venomous.
The fireplace in the corner of the room exploded with heat, the flames surging upward in a violent column, licking at the marble mantel. Shadows flickered wildly across the gilded walls. A crystal glass shattered.
Edith stumbled back, eyes wide. “Rubi—”
But I barely heard her. My rage was a living thing, clawing at my throat, demanding to be sung into existence.
Blake: the king’s blade. The Ambush Master. That unfilial son of a wolf. May his ancestors turn their backs on him. May every meal he eats taste like ashes for the rest of his miserable life. Turtle-born bastard with no shame or honor. Returning my ribbons and telling me to trust him. Never.
Then came a thump.
I froze.
From the shadows, a cream-and-orange soot-streaked shape slunk forward.
“Mrrp?”
My breath hitched. “Couscous?”
The moment I saw her, the magic in my throat stuttered. The humming in the air died. The fireplace’s flame calmed, though the shattered crystal was still scattered across the floor.
My sweet, timid cat padded toward me, avoiding the glass, her tail flicking. A tremor of relief shook through me so hard my knees nearly buckled.
“They didn’t get her.” I dropped to the floor, reaching for her. She sniffed disdainfully, then leapt onto my lap.
Edith let out a watery laugh. “I put her in my satchel.”
I buried my face in Couscous’s fur. “Of course you did.”
Is that a cat? It is quite a funny color, Flame’s voice whispered along my mind.
Don’t insult her.
Though she has some white between her eyes, like me. She looks like a patchwork tyger cub. She must come visit me.
As I looked at Edith from across the room, a reckless part of me felt a surge of relief despite everything that had happened. She was unharmed and whole. She was here. With me. I was just so happy to see her.
It had been a really bad twenty-four hours.
“I heard you,” she whispered with a soft smile, a finger combing through my still-wet hair.
“On my way in—it’s the only reason I stopped fighting them as they dragged me through the castle.
I was glad to know you were all right.” She must have read the warring emotions on my face.
“Though this is a bit nicer than I expected a prison cell to be.” Her eyebrow rose. “What exactly have you done, girl?”
I tugged Edith gently to sit in one of the overstuffed velvet chairs, making a plate of food to serve her. The warmth of the firelight spread through the room, casting a soft glow over everything.
“It wasn’t just a loose tyger that attacked the hut,” I started, dropping my voice. “It was their tygress queen. And she Bonded with me.”
Edith paled, her hand going to her throat. “What?”
I nodded. “I know. But they’re very angry, the king and his nobles, it seems. And now I’m to be presented to them.
I think—” My throat closed up, my eyes following soon after.
I couldn’t stop the well of fear and nerves; I felt too safe in her presence to stifle them.
“If they deem me unworthy, they will kill me. And, Edith—”
“Shh, my dear,” she breathed, pulling me into the cradle of her arms. My breathing was softer now, slowing as she soothed me.
I won’t allow it, Flame fumed.
“All will be as it should,” Edith said, pulling my face back in her hands.
“What if I—”
“Rubi Morningtail,” she said louder, “the tygress chose you. You know what happens to Azures during Bondings—and yet here you stand. You will do this.”
You will do this.
Flame’s voice echoed her within my mind.
There was a knock at the door. Surely, this time it had to be the Nelly who Blake had mentioned. Probably some elegant, bossy older woman who would look down her nose at me and sniff at the idea of trying to make me presentable for the king.
I pulled myself together, then called, “You may enter.”
To my surprise, a plump teenage girl walked through the doorway with rosy cheeks and thick tin-colored hair bound in two pigtails.
She bobbed a curtsy at me. “Pardon me, lady. I’m Nelly and I’m here to help you get dressed.”
I stared at her. “You’re Nelly?”
“Yes, lady,” she said, her cheeks flaming bright.
“The great Ambush Master’s housekeeper’s assistant is my second cousin once removed, and she’s the one who got me my excellent and undeserved position in the kitchens, even though Head Cook is extremely bad-tempered and impatient, but I’m not supposed to mention that to strangers.
Or to anyone, really. Only to myself and silently at that. ”
I hid a smile.
“How old are you?” Edith asked with a grin.
“I’m a Dog, lady.”
I did a quick calculation in my head. Every person was born under one of the zodiac animals. It was now the Year of the Dragon, and the Year of the Dog came six years later in the twelve-year rotation of animals. “Eighteen years old?” I asked.
At her nod, Edith offered her another smile. “I’m not a lady here.”
“Neither am I,” I added. “You don’t need to call us that.”
Nelly’s cheeks flushed a deeper red as she bobbed a curtsy again. “Of course not, lady. Begging your pardon. I’ll never do it again, lady.”
I dragged my hand down my face. “All right, Nelly. What do we need to do, and how are we going to do it?”
“I am here to help you impress the king and nobility, if that were possible, which it likely is not. Honestly, the Ambush Master despairs of making you presentable, and so I am his last hope, and a pathetic hope I am, too, lady.”
“Why did he pick you?”
“Yes, you must have a talent for this?” Edith said, sitting with her tea and wagging her eyebrows at me.
Nelly winced. “Actually, no. There’s just no one else at such last minute’s notice. Also, others are actually useful and important, whereas Head Cook is glad to be rid of me if only for a bit.”
“Oh?”
“I was supposed to be a lady’s maid at first,” Nelly continued.
“But I was quickly moved to the kitchens. It turns out I have extremely bad taste, with a tendency toward large ruffles sure to overpower any figure and a love of clashing colors.” Her eyes darted to the door.
“I did take the liberty of bringing along an expert. May I admit him?”
A man. I was sure it was against protocol to have a man in my bedroom while I was wearing almost nothing, but at this point, I was desperate.
I couldn’t meet the king in this bathrobe.
They’d surely find me unworthy of Flame.
The easiest thing to do would be to kill me so the tygress would be free to re-Bond with someone they found more suitable.
The food I had eaten felt like a stone in my stomach.
At my nod, Nelly went to the door and opened it.
My jaw went slack.
A child walked in, skinny with a sharp triangular face, freckles, and pale green eyes that thoroughly scanned me. Underneath his cloak, his overalls were too short for him and his bony wrists stuck out from under his rough shirt.
“This is Thyme, lady,” Nelly said. “He’s my first cousin.”
“She’s not a lady,” Thyme said. His voice was high and clear.
“How old are you?” I asked, feeling faint. I was done for. My design team consisted of an eighteen-year-old with no filter and a spindly underfed boy. I had no doubt that when I was presented to His Majesty, I would promptly be put to death.
In a bathrobe.
“I am a Rabbit.” His eyes drifted toward the low table, where the remnants of my meal remained.
Born in the Year of the Rabbit. The expert was thirteen years old.
Edith snorted but hid her smile behind her tea. I sighed and jerked my head toward the fireplace. “Are you two hungry? Go ahead and eat.”