Chapter 12
M y head jerked back with a firm tug.
“I swear your hair had animals burrowing in them.” Kalliah sighed. “What did you do?”
She yanked the brush as I watched her attacking my normally straight, fine hair. I grinned at how her face contorted as she stared down a knot I hadn’t been able to get out myself.
“Who’s overreacting now?” I teased, wincing as Kalliah grew aggressive with the brush.
When she finally got the tangle free, she refused to let me do anything else to my own hair, slapping my hands away any time I moved them close to my head. I laughed because I knew this would annoy her and she knew I was doing it on purpose to make her mad.
“So, thoughts after the other night?” Kalliah asked, as she braided my hair with a small plait on each side, leaving the remainder down, meeting in a ponytail.
I sighed, looking at her through the mirror. “Well, I was surprised to find Hale come forward. It’s been a year since I’ve seen him last. Perhaps at the celestial ball?”
“Ah, yes, the infamous celestial ball. He almost fell onto his face, tripping over himself after Andras caught the two of you making out in the rose gardens.” Kalliah giggled.
“Do you have to remind me?” My cheeks heated, and I pouted, worse than a petulant child. “We were just getting started, too. Andras ruins all my fun.”
Kalliah laughed a bit more. “Andras is a weasel, and a monster, but not the topic of this conversation. Hale wouldn’t be too bad. Not great by any means, but not terrible. Who else?”
“Lord West is only interested in my chest, and Lord Thatcher seems overly attentive there, too. Those two need to go.” Kalliah appeared as if she were ready to burst. I stared at her even harder. “What is that face for?”
“Frederich!” She snorted and cackled so much, the green ribbon she attempted to tie into my braids fell to the floor. “How is he not the first person we’re talking about? His mustache ! I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“I thought if I didn’t bring it up, perhaps it wouldn’t be real? Awful doesn't even begin to describe it!” I tossed my hands in the air.
“Well, I wouldn’t mind tempering the dreaded Frederich with Ryland Lockbane.” Kalliah arched an eyebrow and made a low humming noise. “I witnessed him duel in the King’s Challenge swordfight a few years ago,” she said. “He was delicious then and seems to be even more so now.”
I snorted. I’d overlooked Ryland while overwhelmed with some of the other things happening around me at the ball. However, I certainly did remember those piercing blue eyes now. “I didn’t believe you thought anyone was delicious,” I teased. “He is exceptionally beautiful to look at, I guess. He doesn’t seem too bad.”
“See,” she said, squeezing my shoulder.
I swallowed a lump forming in my throat. “This is what my life is boiling down to? A battle of arrogant and boring bastards, a horrific mustache, and the boy I made out with randomly at balls to pass the time?”
“You have forgotten one in particular, haven’t you?” Kalliah picked up the ribbon off the floor, and slowly lowered her head next to my own. “Kade?”
“What about Kade?” I tried to say as nonchalantly as possible.
“What do you mean ‘what about Kade’?” she said mockingly. “That dance, wow.” She shook her head, staring at me, wide-eyed. “I have never seen two people move together like that. You could practically feel the room buzzing with energy. He’s already aware of your extracurricular activities and likely wouldn't stop you in the future. Clearly, he is the front-runner, right?”
“Oh, you would have the winner be a man who has no care for me at all? Because it’s what he told me. He is here for his ‘own reasons’ and said he would look good in a crown,” I said. “Besides, we don’t know if he’d let my extracurricular activities continue. We don’t know anything about him.”
Kalliah glared at me even harder.
“What do you want me to say? Is he handsome? Yes. Is he cocky as hell? Yes. Did some sort of crazy sensation overtake me and make lust rule over logic and reason for a moment? Also, yes.”
Kalliah finally finished lacing the ribbon around my hair. “He may be a contender if you get to know him beyond what you have witnessed from the Hidden Henchman.”
“Kade didn’t mince his words. He is only here for the crown. Seems as if he would be the last person to be a real contender. A man who already has so much power, only seeking more, is a danger to me and our kingdom.”
She pursed her lips. “Well, don’t forget Ian is with you. He wouldn’t be the worst choice.”
“I will not subject him to this nonsense,” I snapped.
Kalliah held her hands up and backed away. It seemed as if she wanted to say more but refrained.
I picked up a light lip balm and rubbed it on. “All I envision is a life doomed for misery. These marriage trials are proving to be as horrible as I imagined, and they have only just begun.”
With my mind made up, the trials were proving to be a waste. There would be no contender good enough for Brookmere. Not one.
You’re a disgrace. The kingdom deserves better.
A tightening sensation gripped my chest as my cheeks flushed. The air grew hotter and stickier, weighing me down as I struggled to get a real breath in.
I pressed a hand to my cheek. Those weren’t my words, they were his. The last thing I needed right now was to succumb to this belief clawing at me. A belief that I would never be good enough for Brookmere.
I am better than this .
I am Illiana Dresden. I am stronger than the darkness within me.
The first trial began in an hour, but I needed time to compose myself.
“I’m going outside for a few moments. I will meet you at the stadium.”
I knew Kalliah noticed the panicked look in my eye, but she knew me well enough to give me space for a moment while I gathered myself.
The small balcony just past the window sitting area beckoned me, providing the perfect escape, if only for a moment. I let the cool crisp air fill my lungs. While freedom didn’t exist for me, even outside the walls of the palace, at least I could view the natural beauty surrounding me.
I closed my eyes and basked in the blazing warmth of the sun on this spring day. A whisper of a breeze played in the soft tendrils of my hair. The roses in my garden were in full bloom and their sweet scent filled the air, mixing with all the other light floral notes blossoming around me.
Soon, soaring in the cloudless sky, a familiar hawk circled above, gliding through the air in an effortless beauty. How I wished I could be free from the confines of gravity and soar through the sky like Ian.
He materialized next to me on the balcony, landing and shifting smoothly. “I just wanted to check on you before the beginning of the trials.”
“You know me too well. Anxious. Nervous. Enraged.” I choked, holding onto the edge of the balcony for strength.
“Everything will be okay, Lan. You know I will not let you down.”
We stared at each other in silence for a moment, an uncertain feeling passing between us.
A small smile graced Ian’s face. “I’ll see you soon,” he said and moved to shift.
“Ian, wait!” I fidgeted with layers of my dress, covering my dagger, before looking him in the eyes. “Please be careful today. You’re not Brookmere’s Captain of the Royal Guard right now, you are one of my best friends… one of my only friends. Even if we are fighting.” A tear threatened to escape.
“I’ll be fine. Careful as ever.” Ian offered me a quick hug, kissing the top of my head before he backed up, running toward the edge of the balcony and shifting once more to prepare for his role in the marriage trials.
A contender.
In a competition with only the Fates knowing what’s in store.
The garden was quiet, no strange sounds or stirrings. I was alone, a rarity. Not followed by guards, Ian, Kalliah, or anyone. I breathed in deeply.
My mind allowed only a second of peace before my thoughts shifted back to the marriage trials and that damn prophecy.
A prophecy I didn’t even believe in. Straight from a woman more befuddled than the village drunks. How could what she said hold so much influence over my father? Her words were revered as if they were law.
The sound of my father’s voice played in my head. He’d repeated the prophecy a thousand times in my life. On occasion, I crept to his private dining room and overheard him talking it over with my mother. Over and over, they thought about it, using it to define my entire life.
Void of magic, a heroine born,
Destiny calls, though faint and torn.
Many will come from across the land,
Yet only the strongest will win her hand.
With lover’s touch, she shall ignite,
Without it, perish from the kingdom's blight.
I refused to believe the only pathway to the prophecy coming to fruition meant I had to endure such ridiculousness as the marriage trials. There had to be another solution.
It doesn’t matter.
What’s done is done .
Right or wrong, the Fates had spoken. I resigned myself to gathering my wits about me and setting my mind right for the afternoon to come.
I adjusted the dagger on my thigh. It brought a small comfort, knowing I could protect myself should something, or someone, get too close. Marriage trials be damned, I wouldn’t be defenseless.
I exited the balcony and returned to my room, glancing in the mirror to ensure nothing had fallen out of place. I gave the mirror my practiced, fake smile as I gathered my confidence.
My father waited for me in the king's study. Per his request, I had to meet him there so we could enter the trial arena together.
A trial arena which hadn’t existed a few days prior.
“Lana, my dear,” he said. “You’re a vision before me.”
I dipped into a curtsy and crossed the room, allowing him to wrap me in a hug. A hug I so desperately needed from my father. A hug of love, because even though he condemned me to this marriage, I knew he had done so from the goodness of his heart, for his kingdom. Our people.
He’d done all of this for me, too. The last line of the prophecy caused him pain the few times I’d caught him discussing it.
Without it perish from kingdom’s blight.
In that regard, since he believed the prophecy, it made sense he kept me from the darkness, and why he wanted the trials. Although my irritation remained constant, with the prophecy promising something to ignite inside of me if I had love, I couldn’t blame him for interpreting things how he did.
Despite my reservations, he and my mother had always been overprotective, ensuring my safety.
The only time they hadn’t…
No. Not today.
I wouldn’t think about my past today. What powers kept the truth from their minds for all these years? I had left the torture behind me, even if the monster who’d inflicted it still roamed the castle halls.
“Are you ready? he asked gently, pulling back and taking my hands in his.
“Will you be upset with me if I say no?” I said softly.
He cupped my cheek. “Being a father and a king is something I never thought I’d have,” he said, his kind eyes tearing, and I softened toward him, meeting his gaze.
“None of them will be good enough for you, my heart, but perhaps at least one will prove themselves worthy of ruling this kingdom at your side.”
His skin appeared dull, and I cursed the Fates for his sickness. This thing, this disease, unnaturally aging him, despite the best healers working on him.
Even with whatever ravaged his body, he looked at me as if I made it all worth it. In this moment, as he opened up to me, it was enough to give me the strength I needed to walk out to the arena with my chin held high.
“I’ll make you proud, Father,” I said, the picture of confidence, despite the acid rising up my throat.
He moved to my side. “You always have. I know you think this is the end, but please try to keep an open mind to the possibilities which await you. May nature guide you through these trials and bless your heart for future prosperity.”
I laughed. “You are starting to sound like Vivienne, you old Fae.”
He wasn’t laughing. “Vivienne may seem strange. I know I would be, with words from the Fates constantly spouting in my head. But never forget, without her, the prophecy and perhaps your fate, will never come to be.”
“Apologies, Father,” I said. I would never need the reminder of who bore the responsibility of bringing this prophecy to life.
“Now,” He patted his purple velvet robes to smooth everything down and settle his garment into place, “let’s go meet our loyal subjects and begin.” Despite his illness over the past few months, he had an unmistakable gleam in his eye as he led me by the hand, exiting his study.
Hand in hand, we walked down the halls and out toward the trials, his guards five paces behind us at all times.
We used one of the royal exits to the large backyard gardens before ascending a set of stairs to the back of the royal pavilion. We arrived with moments to spare.
“Darling, you almost missed the starting bells,” my mother said, greeting us.
“As King, am I ever late, dearest?”
She laughed, swatting at his arm before she kissed my cheek.
The large royal pavilion allowed twenty people to mingle and sit comfortably. White-and black-streaked marble covered the floors and pillars. Sweeping curtains of vines and wildflowers formed a canopy above, while additional flowers and vines cascaded downward from the circular ceiling. With a flick of my father’s wrist, the vines parted before us.
I gasped, observing the newly crafted arena. Earth Fae had worked for several days to create a colosseum made entirely of hedges instead of stone. Behind the circular-lined field, rows and rows of seats stacked high, accommodated the hundreds of Fae attending these events.
It was breathtaking. A marvel to have been magically constructed in such a brief time.
The king moved to the front of the pavilion, my mother entering from the side, taking a seat upon her throne. Vivienne stood at the foot of the queen’s throne. The crowd bowed and curtsied as one, a hush falling over them as they witnessed me emerge with the king.
His smile grew as he gazed upon our people. All our kingdom adored the king. The reverence freely given to him was from love, not fear.
My gaze shifted toward the center of the arena where the contenders lined up before the pavilion, each on bended knee. They were dressed to impress, with their finest attire from each of their villages. Colorful robes, suits, and leathers adorned their bodies. None of them knew what adventures lay ahead. Neither did I, actually.
“Rise, my loyal subjects.” My father commanded the air to amplify his voice throughout the massive arena for all to hear. As one, they all rose. “Welcome to this blessed day. The Fates have allowed us to come and begin the marriage trials for my daughter, the Crown Princess, Illiana Dresden.”
There would be no turning back now. My marriage trials had officially begun.