CHAPTER FIVE
Lord Ashgrove's council chamber felt smaller than usual that afternoon, packed tight with scholars, guards, and a rattled contingent of Ember Reaches nobility all talking over one another until Lord Ashgrove's raised hand brought the room to silence.
"An incursion," he said, voice flat and hard, "on Reaches soil.
Two guards drained nearly to death. And the creature responsible unmade by fire and...
" His gaze flicked toward Briar, something unreadable passing behind his eyes.
"Wolf magic none of us fully understand.
This is no longer a theoretical threat. The Unbinding is not a legend for scholars to argue over in old records.
It is happening, and it is happening on my border. "
"My lord." The dragon scholar from the earlier briefing stepped forward, maps already spread across the obsidian table.
"The pattern is accelerating. If incursions of this severity are now crossing fully into Aetherfell, the fractures aren't merely weakening.
Something is actively working to force them wider. "
"Then we prepare accordingly." Lord Ashgrove's jaw tightened.
"Triple the border watch. Recall every scout from the outer territories.
And—" He paused, gaze settling on Kade with a weight that made Briar's stomach drop before he'd said another word.
"Given the instability, I see no further reason to delay the mating ceremony.
Alliances must be secured now, not eventually.
Kade, you and Sable will be formally bound within the month. "
The words landed like a physical blow. Briar felt Kade go rigid beside her, and the silence that followed stretched long enough to become its own kind of answer.
"Father—"
"This is not a discussion, Kade." Lord Ashgrove's voice brooked no argument, cold and absolute in a way Briar hadn't heard from him before, even in their worst exchanges.
"An incursion capable of draining two trained guards nearly to death crossed onto our border this morning.
Every clan in Aetherfell needs to see the Ember Reaches standing unified and strong, not distracted by whatever complications have taken root in this hall recently.
" His gaze cut, brief and pointed, toward Briar.
"I trust I don't need to elaborate on what I mean. "
"You're using a crisis to force something neither Sable nor I actually want," Kade said, low and furious, control fraying visibly at the edges for the first time Briar had ever seen in open council.
"I am protecting three clans' worth of people from a threat none of us fully understand yet," Lord Ashgrove said. "Your wants, Kade, are not the priority here. They never have been."
The meeting dissolved shortly after, plans and orders dispatched in every direction, and Briar found Kade an hour later on the same balcony where they'd first almost kissed, staring out over the tiered city with an expression carved from stone.
"You didn't fight him," she said, quieter than she meant to, hurt bleeding through despite her best effort to keep it out. "In there. You argued, but you didn't actually refuse."
"What would you have me do, Briar?" Kade turned, and for the first time since she'd known him, real frustration cracked through his careful composure, aimed not at his father but, however briefly, at her.
"Stand in open council and tell my father I won't honor an alliance that keeps three clans from tearing each other apart, in the middle of an active crisis that's already killing people? Is that the man you actually want?"
"I want the man who told me two weeks ago that he'd rather burn down everything his father built than keep pretending." The words came out sharper than she intended, old fear dressed up as anger. "Was that true, or was it just easier to say in a warded chamber where no one could hold you to it?"
Something in Kade's expression flinched, hurt and guilt tangling visibly behind the frustration. "That's not fair."
"None of this is fair," Briar shot back. "I'm about to watch you marry someone else in a month, Kade, while everyone in this hall decides whether I'm a convenient scapegoat for every disaster that happens to cross our border. Forgive me if I'm having trouble being patient about it."
"You think I'm not terrified of exactly that?
" His voice cracked, raw underneath the anger.
"I have spent every day since the archive chamber trying to find some version of this where I don't have to choose between the people my duty is meant to protect and the one person I actually want.
I don't have that answer yet. I wish to every old god still listening that I did. "
The silence between them afterward was heavy, unresolved, neither of them fully backing down, and Briar felt the sharp, unfamiliar sting of realizing that loving someone didn't make every argument disappear — that this, too, was something they'd have to learn to survive together, if they survived it at all.
"I don't want to fight with you," she said finally, some of the anger draining into something more tired and honest. "I'm scared, Kade. That's all this is."
"I know." He crossed the distance between them and drew her carefully into his arms, and though the argument didn't fully resolve — didn't disappear the way it might have in a warded chamber with nothing but heat and certainty between them — she let herself lean into him anyway, because the alternative was facing the fear alone, and she was so tired of doing that.
"I'm scared too. I just don't know how to say it without sounding like I'm already losing. "
She found Sable not long after, in the same garden where they'd first spoken weeks ago, sitting alone on the low stone wall with her composure in genuine, unguarded pieces for the first time since Briar had arrived in Pyrhollow.
"Don't," Sable said, before Briar had said a word, not looking up. "Whatever comfort you're about to offer, wolf, I promise you I don't want it from you, of all people."
"I wasn't going to offer any." Briar hesitated, then sat anyway, a careful distance away. "I just didn't think you should be alone right now."
Sable let out a short, humorless laugh. "How considerate. Shall we discuss how we both feel about marrying the same man, then? I understand you've had rather a lot of practice with that particular conversation lately."
"That's not what this is."
"Isn't it?" Sable turned, eyes red-rimmed but sharp as ever.
"In one month, I am going to stand in front of every clan leader in Aetherfell and bind myself to a man who is in love with someone else, because his father has decided my house's loyalty is worth more than either of our happiness.
And you — you get to keep being the reason his heart isn't in it, without ever having to stand at that altar and pretend otherwise in front of the entire court.
" Her voice cracked, just slightly, before she caught it.
"Forgive me if I find your presence a little difficult to be gracious about today. "
Briar said nothing for a long moment, the unfairness of it — for both of them — settling heavy and complicated in her chest. "I'm sorry," she said finally, quiet and genuine. "For what it's worth. I never wanted this to cost you anything."
"No," Sable agreed, standing, smoothing her skirts with hands that weren't quite steady.
"I don't imagine you did. That rarely makes the cost any smaller, though.
" She left without further comment, and Briar sat alone in the garden afterward, the weight of everyone's grief in this hall — Sable's, Kade's, her own — pressing down heavier than any single villain the court had yet produced.
It was in that same unsettled state, an hour later, that she encountered the sharp-featured dragon lord leaning against a corridor wall, watching her approach with lazy, assessing interest.
"Rough afternoon."
She opened her eyes to find a tall, sharp-featured dragon lord leaning against the corridor's far wall, watching her with an expression of lazy, assessing interest that made her skin prickle with instinctive wariness before he'd even introduced himself.
"I don't believe we've met," Briar said carefully.
"Malric Voss." He pushed off the wall, unhurried, every movement carrying the particular confidence of someone who had never once doubted his own welcome anywhere in his life.
"Third house of the Ember Reaches. My father sits on Lord Ashgrove's council.
" His gaze moved over her, slow and cataloguing, lingering in ways that made her want to put more distance between them.
"I've heard quite a bit about you, Briar Vale.
The wolf who cracked the training yard. The wolf who apparently helped unmake some manner of ancient horror at the border this morning, if the rumors already circulating are to be believed.
" Something cold and interested flickered behind his eyes.
"You're rather more remarkable than anyone gave you credit for. "
"I try to keep busy."
"Clearly." His smile didn't reach his eyes. "Kade's been keeping you rather close, hasn't he. I confess I find that curious, given his upcoming ceremony. Careless, even, for a man who's spent his whole life being anything but."
Briar kept her expression carefully neutral, old instincts from Sable's earlier warnings sharpening into full alertness. "I don't see how that's your concern."
"Everything in this court is everyone's concern, Briar Vale.
That's rather the entire point of a court.
" Malric's smile widened, thin and cold, and he inclined his head in a mockery of courtesy before turning to go.
"I look forward to seeing more of you. I suspect we'll be crossing paths quite a bit, given how...
central you've apparently become to this household's affairs. "