Chapter 39
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
ASHLYN
Iwaited for hours in my chambers—to hear the plan from Fyn. Waiting was excruciating.
A forceful knock sounded at the door. “Princess Ashlyn.” Lord Remus’s voice carried into my chambers.
“You may open the door.” I rose from the sofa, clasping my shaking hands in front of me. He knew what I brought with me.
He placed his hand on the hilt of his sword, standing in the doorway like crossing would cost him everything.
“You may enter,” I said.
“You have been summoned to the council room.” He looked past me.
“May I ask what this is in regard to?”
“King Harlan will discuss the nature of your meeting when you arrive, Your Highness.”
“Lord Fyn and Lord Vaden, will they be present as well?” I peered down the empty hall.
The guard fell in step beside my chaperone.
“Everyone who needs to be present will be there,” Lord Remus said.
That wasn’t reassuring. “Very well, then.”
Every truth he uttered somehow was more threatening than the way Eva lied—the way Soren did.
I didn’t dare ask where Fyn was. If he wasn’t in the king’s study, maybe he would be crafting the plan. He didn’t need me drawing attention to it.
With every step further into the center of the palace, I reminded myself I only had hours more to endure. Then this all would be nothing more than an awful memory that I would tell Aelira and Cora about.
We’d sip tea, we’d laugh—and the fae would go back to staring at me like I’d never belong, but maybe none of that would matter, because I would be free.
The door to the king’s study had already been pried back. An overwhelming silence flooded the hall.
Lord Remus followed behind me as I entered.
Fyn wasn’t there. Vaden wasn’t either.
“You sent for me, Your Majesty?” My pulse quickened faster than I could say the words.
King Harlan gestured to an empty chair. The knot in my stomach tightened as I sat beside Soren.
“It seems you have not been honest with me.” He slid my leather satchel across the table.
The glass vials jostled inside.
Soren grabbed the satchel and tugged at the closure until the leather loop snapped. He reached in and pulled out a vial and rolled it back across the table.
The king tilted the vial, until the purple liquid flowed. I thought I was going to be sick from watching them all stare at it.
“Why would a princess be carrying a fae tincture to keep herself from being with child?” King Harlan asked.
The truth was too dangerous. I braced for the starlight’s punishment as I lied. “I only wished to give my future husband and I the choice if we wished it.” I would buy myself whatever hours I needed, until Fyn and I could escape.
“She is lying.” Soren looked past me to the window.
He hadn’t seen my body recoil—the surge of a sensation that had already become too much to handle. I hid it all, even when the pain seized me.
“I will see that they’re destroyed,” Kilan said. “Then we can all move forward with the matter behind us.”
It was private. It should have been my choice. They would take everything from me.
Soren’s nostrils flared when he finally looked at me. “It’s not enough. The damage has already been done.”
“This bag is full of them, save the one Remus took.” Kilan tilted it toward him. “The threat has been handled, Soren. How you choose to get your wife’s compliance is now up to you.”
“It is not enough.” Soren pressed his fingers into the arm of the chair as if he would mangle it if it were pliable. “The pact should have been nullified. I won’t marry her.”
I turned toward him, shocked that this man could give me the freedom I thought he would deprive me from. “Nullified?” Even when softly spoken, it gave me so much hope.
“There is no longer a reason for the marriage not to proceed. You shall have what you wish from her,” Kilan said.
“You will both fulfill your royal duties without further resistance.” The king pressed his hands into the desk, slowly rising from behind the chair. “You don’t need to like your wife, son. I never liked your mother much—but here the two of you are.”
“And her betrayal. You expect me to overlook what happened between her and the fae lord?” Soren asked.
A chill overtook me. It hit me faster than I could name it.
“If she falls pregnant—how will I know the baby is even mine?” Soren’s words shook. “What will you tell the court if our child has ears like the fae? You said it yourself, Kilan, the bag is still full.”
No one was there. No one should have seen us. “I don’t know why you think you could imply such a thing, but whatever you’ve been told—”
“I saw you, Ashlyn. I saw you kissing him this morning.” Soren’s words knocked the air out of me.
“The tradesmen who journeyed with you confirmed that they only met you at the border. That he escorted you and that you were staying with him alone. And then I find you sneaking off with him after you were promised to me.”
“It is a good thing we require you alive. Women have been discarded for far simpler things in Estlen,” Kilan said.
They couldn’t have any reason to blame Fyn. Nothing could stop our plan. “It was only a kiss. Nothing else. I swear it.” I needed to get him.
“We will postpone the wedding.” The king sat back in his chair. “Until after she bleeds.”
My rage left me shaking. They were talking as if he had done so much more than kiss me. It was far too dangerous to let them think he had. “I can assure you that is unnecessary.”
“Father, you can’t let a scandal unfold like this in your court. A bride who is sneaking off with the Lord Chancellor of Nythrel. She has mocked me and this court. It is time we found a more suitable bride before the rumors spread,” Soren said.
I held onto hope I shouldn’t have even carried. “I understand if I’m no longer a suitable choice.”
“No one will speak poorly of you for it, Ashlyn. I will assure the truth is buried.” Kilan probably possessed the power to do that. If he could easily command their silence about something so appalling, there was no telling how he’d use his influence.
“The sudden delay in the wedding will be extremely noticeable. How could you possibly stop what they will say about it?” Soren asked.
“There are sure to be rumors, but none that will be aimed at you or your bride—only garner sympathy for the couple before you wed. And the delay is a natural circumstance considering the situation. You know it’s been done before.
” The king’s crooked smile flashed across his lips for only a heartbeat.
“He will not be a concern of yours anymore.”
“No. You didn’t.” The flicker of fear that held Soren terrified me. “Father, what have you done?” Soren sucked in a harsh breath.
“Saved you and your bride from political ruin. You should thank us, really,” the king said. “The Lord Chancellor was arrested.”
My vision blurred as I clutched the table.
It had to be a lie. I waited for the starlight to strike me, but it didn’t. I needed it to.
“Violating a woman is a very serious offense in Estlen. His transgressions will be dealt with.” The king almost sounded annoyed.
Violating.
He didn’t say it was an affair or a betrayal.
No, he stated it as if Fyn had attacked me.
They could do anything to him with that accusation.
He needed to go free. It would have to be without me.
“He did no such thing. Please, you have to release him. He would never hurt me.” My eyes burned as I blinked.
“Do you see how she’s pleading for him? How am I supposed to carry on with a bride who is in love with someone else?” Soren rose from his chair, his eyes wild, as he glared at me.
“I will do whatever you require. Please let him return to Nythrel.” I would trade my freedom for his.
“You don’t make it very believable that nothing happened between the two of you,” Kilan said.
“He will remain imprisoned here until you prove that you’re not carrying his child. Only then will he go free. And the fae king can handle him however he wishes.” The starlight flared the moment the king said he’d go free.
Soren stormed out of the room while I remained frozen.
“It is a shame you are so much like your mother, Ashlyn. I had hoped you only carried her beauty.” The king’s words struck me until I quaked.
“It would be best if you made your husband believe that you can commit to him. I fear Soren has little patience for you—as do I.” Kilan gestured to the door.
I didn’t look back at either of them as I fled the room. Soren was already beyond my reach. As he strode further down the hall, I darted after him.
“How could you do this?” I reached for his arm, but he pulled away from me.
“Me? I am not the one who went and—” He gritted his teeth as his voice flooded the corridor.
“He didn’t do anything to me. Please, you have to believe me.”
“I knew you didn’t want to marry me. And to be honest, I don’t want to marry you.”
Stunned didn’t even begin to describe how I felt.
I recalled everything he had said in his father’s study. “You truly wanted them to break the pact, didn’t you?”
He grabbed my wrist and yanked me further down the hall. “They can’t hear us like this.”
“Let me go.” I tugged myself free.
“Stop fighting me. And come with me. Now.” Hatred gleamed in his eyes.
“No. I don’t trust you.”
“You need to.” He stepped closer to me, lowering his voice. “If you love him like I think you do—”
“You knew…”
“The two of you were never subtle about anything,” he said. “Yes, I knew. Everywhere you went, you were watched. Come with me. I will not ask it again.”
I followed him down the hall. When we reached the sitting room, he pulled the door back. “We won’t be disturbed here.”
Everything in me told me it was the worst idea to enter that room with him alone.
But what choice did I have anymore?
When the door slammed shut behind us, Soren gestured to the sofa. “I said what I said to free us from the pact. It should have worked.”
“I was never your choice, was I?” I knew I wasn’t the picture of a beaming bride or a dutiful princess. Every experience had made me rough and even more difficult to handle.
“You are the Princess of Bailoc, the only true daughter of King Ardyn. You are the sister of the powerful Queen of the fae. It was a logical choice.”
“A marriage between us makes Estlen untouchable.” Lioran would never act out against them while I was here and my brother wanted whatever they would trade. “But you hate me…. and I don’t exactly like you.”
His hoarse laugh cracked. “What a pair we make.”
“What do we do?” I wanted him to tell me there was another way—that we could be free of it. It didn’t matter that he had just proved there wasn’t.
He sighed heavily as he leaned back into the chair. “We do nothing. We marry. We pretend that we don’t want to stab each other.”
“I need to see him, please.” It was a foolish request. One he’d never entertain. The man cared little for me. “If there’s anything you can do. I just want to know he’s unharmed and that he will go free… and then I will do whatever you wish.”
His forehead wrinkled as he considered my request. It would be so easy for him to say no to me. “Has he bedded you?”
“No.” I couldn’t admit the secret I would always keep. That if he had just left us alone for hours more, Fyn and I would have left together. “I didn’t come with the intent of deceiving you.”
“You could have fooled me.”
“I only wished to return to the human realm.” It mattered little now. I was here. I had no choice of going anywhere else. “I didn’t expect what it would reveal when I did.”
He nodded as if he understood. It was the first bit of sympathy I had seen from him. I didn’t think he was capable of it.
As much as I didn’t want to admit it, Soren was my only hope. He was Fyn’s only hope. If he softened to me a little, even if he just tolerated me, maybe I could get him to work with me. Maybe he would do what I asked if I had something to trade for it.
With the king’s lie, I worried I’d never see Fyn again.
My compliance was the very thing he wanted most. He’d never have to hear the ramblings in my head if I gave it. I’d behave if it meant Fyn’s freedom. No matter what that cost me, I would give it. “If there is anything you can do to protect him, I will be forever indebted to you.”
His eyes darkened as he glared at me.
I felt sick as I thought about it. “Please, Soren. I promise to be the bride you need me to be—if you just ensure he goes free.”
“I don’t believe you are being honest with me.” There was an edge to his words I couldn’t ignore.
I wiped away a stray tear with the coarse edges of my sleeve. “What can I do?”
Soren rubbed his temples before letting out a sigh. “I will go visit him and offer your sympathy. It is all I can offer you.”
I would take it, even though it wasn’t enough. “Thank you.”
“I will walk you back to your chambers, and then you must stay in your room,” he said. “It will be best if you’re not seen while word spreads through this court of what happened to you.”
That would be easy to do.
I didn’t want to be around anyone.