17. Zarek
Zarek
MARITAL ADVICE
I’m sinking my dagger into the cork of my third bottle of wine when an armed, scowling royal guard finds me. Fair. I’m sitting on a stool in the middle of the hunting lodge’s kitchen while the people who actually belong here look at me like they’re trying to determine if I’m going to bite.
It’s not like I’m trying to hide.
“The prince wants to see you,” the guard says.
He raises his eyebrow as he says it, as though he’s not quite sure what the prince could possibly want with a piece of shit like me. Hells, he’s got a point there.
“Just a minute,” I say.
I narrow my eyes at the pulsating cork, then slide it out of the bottle. There’s a satisfying pop. I bring the bottle to my lips and then stagger to my feet.
“Great,” I say. “Let’s go.”
The guard leads me back upstairs, to exactly where I was before my entire world went to shit. I tell myself not to look, but since I’ve never listened to myself before, I ignore my own advice and glance out at the little porch.
And she’s gone. Of course.
I follow the man into the room at the top, where the prince is sitting next to his bride. They both come to their feet as I approach. Elrick narrows his eyes at me like maybe he was expecting someone else.
“Are you drunk?” he asks.
I glare at him, this idiot who has so little strategic sense that he let his heart decide who he was going to marry. Hells. His sister already hates me. I don’t have any reason to try to impress this asshole, or anyone else in this shitty place.
So I take a long pull from the wine bottle as what’s left of Marion’s leadership stares at me. It’s not particularly good wine, but it beats the shit out of the bitter ale at Bertha’s pub. I wipe my mouth with my sleeve, then give the prince a polite little bow that makes the room spin around me.
“No,” I lie. “But I am working on it.”
“Maybe this should wait,” he replies.
“Oh, no, no,” I say, waving my bottle at him. “Please. Don’t leave me in suspense.”
The prince touches the dagger in his belt. I snort; it’s so fucking obvious he’s uneasy around me. What an idiot.
“This might be a little, um, sensitive,” the prince begins.
I drink again, then cross my arms over my chest.
“What?” I spit. “Are you going to ask me for some marital advice?”
The prince and his wife look at each other, then back to me. Cute. Real cute. The prince opens his mouth. Closes it. Clears his throat. Opens his mouth again.
“Your, uh, marriage,” he begins. “To my sister.”
I raise an eyebrow.
“I’ve been led to believe it can be annulled,” the prince says.
“Suck me,” I reply.
“Right,” he says.
The prince looks at me like he can’t believe he has to waste his time talking to me. I look at him in the exact same way. Beside him, Anura huffs.
“Your marriage is unconsummated,” Anura says. “So, legally, it can be annulled.”
“I don’t see how the consummation of my marriage is any of your business,” I snap.
“You spent your nights in the Golden Rose brothel,” Anura snaps back. “And I was with Lilias for the entire unity tour. You two never shared a bed.”
I open my mouth to say she wasn’t there for the whole tour, at least not that last morning in Detec, and then I think better of it.
“So fucking what?” I sneer. “Why does the great prince of Marion give two shits about my marriage?”
“Because that means a marital alliance with Ethiria is still possible,” the prince says.
My whole body goes cold.
“If Lilias is interested—” he begins.
“You soft, spoiled son of a bitch,” I growl, cutting him off.
The scowling guard who brought me here drops his hand to the short sword on his belt. I ignore the idiot.
“Did you talk to Lilias about this?” I ask.
The prince shakes his head. He and his wife exchange another glance before he turns back to me.
“We thought we’d start with you,” he admits. “We didn’t think you’d be so—invested.”
“You can suck the sweat off a dead dog’s balls,” I reply.
His eyes widen. Good. I hope he’s offended. I hope that’s the nastiest thing anyone’s ever said to this royal piece of shit.
I bring the bottle to my lips, finish it, and then glare at him as the room sways around me.
“Did it even occur to you,” I say, “just once in your pampered fucking life that your sister is a godsdamned human being? That she can make her own decisions? Or that maybe, just maybe, she’d like a say in her own fucking life?”
The prince blinks.
“You did it, you asshole,” I growl, pointing the empty bottle at Anura. “You got to make your own choices. And did you stop to think about how Lilias is going to feel if you tell her you’re going to sell her off like a piece of fucking meat in the marketplace?”
I take a step closer to the prince, then scowl at the guard standing in the doorway with his sword halfway out of its sheath.
“You waste of bone and blood,” I tell the prince. “You’re too good to marry a godsdamned princess yourself, huh? No, you’ll just package your sister up instead, and to the nine hells with whatever it is she wants to do with her own life!”
I’m shouting. I shut my damn mouth and realize I’m shaking. The room swims around me.
“Shit,” the prince mutters.
“You are in love with her,” Anura says.
I flinch like I’ve been hit. The floor tilts alarmingly under me.
“Fuck you!” I snap. “Fuck you both!”
I throw the empty wine bottle at the wall. Disappointingly, it just hits the wall with a dull thud and then rolls to a stop against the closest bedroll.
I storm out of the room before that damn woman can say anything else. I run past the little balcony, past the room where I once told my wife we could annul the bonds between us, and down the stairs. They pitch and tilt beneath me like I’m on a ship in rough seas.
I’m a problem here. I’m a problem for what’s left of the Kingdom of Marion, and I’m one hell of a problem for Lilias. They’d be better off without me.
She would be better off without me.
I run my sleeve across my face and stagger out into the darkness.