Chapter 35 Ariah
ARIAH
One of Queen Evies’ ladies-in-waiting, Glanya, helps detangle my hair and applies oils and creams that absorb right into the curls. It’s much needed after weeks out at sea—all the salt drying out my hair and skin.
Iann’s parents have been kind and much too gracious. They even sent guards to the border of the kingdom to meet my family.
The servants wait on me every day like I’m some kind of princess. If it were up to Iann, I would be.
It’s a foreign life that doesn’t feel like mine. There were small perks of being a Fox but never quite like this. Not to mention, the vast difference between rulers.
“I’m going to go get you a few options for ribbons, ma’am.” Glanya squeezes my shoulders and then steps out, closing the door behind her.
In her absence, I finish getting myself ready and move to the bed where she placed a new dress. It’s far too pretty to be worn casually, but at the moment I don’t have any other options.
My hand glides over the blue tulle and the tiny hydrangea flowers sewn into the material. Iann must have selected it, knowing the blooms to be my favorite.
I slip it on and dance my way to the mirror. My body riddles with giddiness. It’s hard to do anything but smile, this is the best I’ve felt in months.
“It’s a bit pretentious don’t you think?” A familiar voice stills me. The sound ices my blood and my head spins wildly.
Behind me, in a dress black as night that constricts her upper body and then puffs out below the hips, is Queen Cayleen.
My eyes shut, trying to blink her away, but when they open, she’s still before me. “This isn’t real.”
“My body may not physically be in Saden, but I assure you this is very real.” She doesn’t move, only deepens the glare she pins me with. “You and I had a deal.”
“You were going to kill them.” I back up and collide with the mirror. Cold glass smacking into my skin. “Morrena told me of your plans.”
“Morrena knows better and trust me she’s being dealt with.
What’s it to you if I kill a few princes?
Their family destroyed mine. Would you not do the same to save your own?
” She looks me over and then around the room, stepping forward for the first time.
“Is that not what you did with your parents? Tried to pluck them out of Haymel before I could reach them?”
There isn’t much courage in it, but I straighten my stance. “What do you want?”
“My men caught your parents in a village near the Saden border.” There is a sudden strain around my heart. “Along with your sister, her husband, and their child.” My heart is thrown from a cliff. “They also found Luna, Morren, and her parents.” My heart falls and splatters on rocky ground.
“You’re lying.” My head shakes violently. Her lies ignite my rage. “The King’s guards are on their way to retrieve them.”
“A waste of a trip. They won’t find them.”
My anger has me thinking irrationally. I pull a dagger tied up near my thigh and rush the Queen before she has time to think. Reaching for the material of her dress my hands come up empty and I fall right through her.
Her body spins to find me lying on the ground, the dagger landing on the wood with a thud, spinning a few times before stopping.
“You still have fight in you. You’re going to need it.
” She walks forward, her body towering over me, shadowing my being.
“As I said before, you owe me a debt. You and my other Foxes, have until the stardust moon to eradicate the Saden line. If you refuse, your families will pay for your failure.” A sheen waves over her body as if she’s fading away.
“Let this be a reminder: there is nowhere you can run, no distance you can go, or anything you could possibly do to escape, until all you owe me is paid.” She holds up four fingers.
“Four cold bodies by the stardust moon.” She fades away as if she was never here, and I’m not certain she even was.
Four fingers for four bodies.
King Marcel II.
Prince Marcel III.
Prince Deean.
My eyes sting—the thought of the next name alone releases a river of tears, which flows down my cheeks and lips before soaking into my dress.
And Prince Iann. My Iann.