Chapter 15 - Little Rabbit
By the time Brietta and I had arrived back at the palace, the Hyton daughters were already entering the dining room. Each of the beautiful, blue-eyed women were dressed in dark fabrics with fine embroidery, wearing tiaras studded with gemstones corresponding with their names.
I quickly counted the women. Amethyst, Emeralda, Garnet, Sapphira, Rubia, and Pearl were all there. No Annalisa.
Derrick was chatting with Amethyst when his eyes met mine. He left his sister and quickly stepped over to us. Before he even had a chance to say anything to Brietta, she turned and entered the dining room without so much as a blink.
Derrick ignored the rebuff and smiled at me. “You look splendid.”
My cheeks heated and I ran my hands down the front of my bodice. “You mean underdressed?”
“Nonsense—this is just a normal dinner.” He took my hand in his. “I have to enter with my father, but find me after. We have much to discuss.”
He gave the back of my hand a soft kiss and left.
A normal dinner. As long as I leaned into my years of etiquette training from Ashmore, no one would suspect that a sorceress was at their table.
I clasped my hands, my thumb tracing the warmth that lingered on the back of my hand, and entered the dining room.
The dining room was silent as all the women stood behind their chairs. Apparently, I was to sit at Freya’s left and Brietta would sit at her right.
I quietly took my place.
Rubia and Sapphira glared across the table at the empty spot between Pearl and I—Annalisa was nowhere to be seen.
Freya entered the dining room dripping in regal splendor. She glided across the room with flawless poise to her place at the end of the table. Her eyes were cold and clear, as if her breakdown at tea had never happened.
She smiled. “What a delight to have all my kittens in one place.” Her eyes flicked to the empty chair. “Well, almost all of you.”
I tightened my hold on my hands. I was not a kitten, I was a serpent in the herd of Hyton bulls.
The door to the dining room opened again and Derrick entered. He gave me a quick glance and a warm smile before taking his seat at what would be the Duke’s right-hand.
General Hyton entered the room, the candlelight skating across his white hair as he stood at the spot across from Derrick.
A gleam of gold caught the corner of my eye and my back stiffened—the Duke had arrived wearing the golden crown of Lycaster atop his greying hair and gold chains studded with gems across his chest. I turned to face Alastar Anders Hyton as he entered the dining room but then my stomach dropped. He was not alone.
Next to the Duke was my mother, wearing a simple Hyton Blue dress with her dark hair swept up on top of her head. Duke Hyton’s hand was on her back as he led her to the table. Her dark, heavy lashes veiled her eyes.
My chest caved in like I had been punched. Since Duke Hyton had stripped Father of the Baronage of Ravenwood as punishment for high treason, Mother was no longer Baroness Ravenwood.
Even though she had been bought and sold, she did not even have the dignity of a title. Nothing separated her from a common whore.
My mother was just a Hyton whore.
Mother silently took her place between General Hyton and Garnet. Duke Hyton sat and the rest of us followed, the carved chairs groaning as we all took our seats.
Servants went around the table and filled our goblets with wine, but no one else dared to move as Freya stared knives across the table at her husband.
I glanced past my mother to look at General Hyton and I could still see bits of Riyan in his face. My mind crafted an image of Riyan as the size of a normal man replacing his father at the end of the table. His long honey-colored hair was neatly combed and a Hyton Blue cape draped across his back.
The imaginary Riyan tugged on the too-tight collar of his doublet and gave me a wink, silently beckoning me to abandon the dinner and meet him in a dark hallway.
My thumb stroked the back of my hand as I bit my tongue.
The dining room door creaked open and then slammed shut, banishing my fantasy. Footsteps pattered across the floor before Annalisa plopped in the chair next to me. Her hair was still piled on top of her head and her hands were speckled with paint.
Rubia took one glance at Annalisa’s dusty blue dress and wrinkled her nose.
Sapphira scoffed. “Cannot even show up on time.”
“Or dress properly,” Pearl added with a sneer.
Annalisa leaned back in her chair and folded her arms, countering Sapphira with a frosty glare.
Duke Hyton stood up and held out his golden goblet. “A toast!”
I wrapped my hand around my cup and lifted it. Duke Hyton’s horrifying blue eyes found me amongst the forest of raised goblets.
“To the newest member of the House of Hyton.” His eyes swept to my mother’s, who returned with a tight painted smile. “And to dear Serafina’s safe return.”
Bile rose in my throat, but I forced it back down. Duke Hyton brought his cup to his lips and the rest of us followed, some mumbling “to Adalia,” and “to Serafina.”
Just as the edge of my goblet touched my lip, Duchess Hyton gave Brietta a pointed glance. They both pantomimed swallowing a mouthful before setting their goblets down.
I did the same.
Plates clinked as the servants brought out the first course—some sort of stew. My eyes swept across the table as Derrick’s sisters dug into their bowls. I gently stirred my spoon as I watched the others take mouthful after mouthful. Even Brietta and Freya slowly picked at their stew, so it must have been safe to eat.
The thick gravy was warm on my tongue as I swallowed a spoonful.
Mother accidentally took a drink from General Hyton’s goblet and laughed it off, replacing his wine with hers before getting back to her own stew. The General gave her a small half-smile.
I had seen Mother and the General speak before, but something about that small exchange seemed…friendly. I did not think either of them was capable of being friendly.
Duke Hyton folded his hands. “Are my precious gemstones enjoying the stew?”
“Yes, Father!” Pearl beamed.
“Absolutely wonderful,” Rubia added with a bat of her eyelashes.
Emeralda tipped her goblet back but gurgled in assent.
Duke Hyton smiled. “Can any of you guess what the meat is?”
The spoon became cold in my hand. I did not like this dinner game.
“I know it is not beef,” Amethyst said as she patted her pregnant belly. “My Tadpole would force back up if it were.”
“Is it venison?” Rubia asked.
“Duck?” chimed in Sapphira.
Garnet remained pointedly silent.
A sly smile crept up Duke Hyton’s lips. “No.”
My stomach turned. Were we eating rats? Bear cubs?
Duke Hyton glanced in Derrick’s direction. “It is rabbit.”
Oh, rabbit was not bad.
Derrick leaned back against his chair and let out a tense breath. General Hyton snickered.
Freya put her spoon down with a clatter. “Really, Anders?”
Emeralda leaned forward with sleepy eyes. “What? Am I missing something?”
“Oh, so you have not heard that my heir earned a new name at court?” Duke Hyton shot Derrick a pointed look paired with a wicked smile.
Derrick’s cheeks reddened and he stared down at the table like he wanted to disappear beneath it.
Freya’s hands balled into fists. “Anders, do not—”
“Since Derrick made such a spectacle of himself at the ball last week with his fast performance, ” Duke Hyton boomed, “everyone started calling him Little Rabbit Hyton!”
My hand clapped over my mouth. Derrick and Brietta had left Annalisa’s ball and reappeared in what seemed like a blink, but was it really that fast to notice?
General Hyton burst out laughing. Mother’s chest rose with tense breaths as she stared at her stew. Annalisa cursed under her breath. Brietta’s cheeks flamed and she shrunk down. Derrick’s older sisters squealed in disgust except for Garnet, who had her nose stuck in a book.
“Stop it, Father!” Derrick hissed. “You are embarrassing Brietta! And Serafina should not hear—”
“She should be embarrassed!” Duke Hyton shouted as he gestured to Brietta. “The whole damn Dukedom knows her husband can only last one minute! ”
Brietta covered her scarlet face with her hands. She had not remembered anything that happened between her and Derrick that night, and for the Duke to bring it up in front of everyone…
My hand left my lips and curled into a fist under the table.
Freya put her hand on Brietta’s shoulder and spat venom. “Of all the disgusting stunts you have pulled over the years—!”
Duke Hyton slammed his fist on the table. Everyone other than the General flinched. “Damn it, Freya! We are in a family crisis and I will address it as such! All the Barons now believe the sole heir to the House of Hyton is an impotent little pup! You know what that means for the rest of us!”
Pearl slammed her hands over her ears the moment her father said “impotent,” Garnet slipped another book from underneath the table and passed it to Emeralda, and Rubia and Sapphira shrieked in disgust.
“Father!” Rubia cried. “Stop talking about our baby brother like that!”
“I am going to throw up,” Annalisa growled.
I could practically feel Derrick’s burning embarrassment from the other end of the table. Duke Hyton reached for Derrick and made fast, stabbing motions like he was poking him in the chest.
“You. Are. The. Heir. Damn it!” he shouted. “If the Barons are not convinced that you are a virile bull, they will think you are weak—they will think all of us are weak!”
It was exactly as Freya had told us—the Alastar trials never ended. Just as the Duke had to constantly prove himself worthy, so did his entire line.
But Duke Hyton’s entire line was just Derrick.
Sapphira pushed up from the table and bared her teeth. “Stop it, Father!”
Duke Hyton ignored his daughter. “Until you start producing some heirs, you will continue to be a pathetic joke!”
I forced myself to look at Derrick. His eyes were down, even as his father held him by the collar. His chest rose and fell, but he stayed firm.
My white flame surged in my chest. Derrick was not pathetic.
My hands curled into tight fists beneath the table as the magic awoke in my veins. I should have grabbed my crystal from Brietta before we got back to the palace. I could not lose control of my power in front of the entire House of Hyton!
Duke Hyton leaned in close to his son and a growl shredded his throat. “Hate me all you want, boy, but this is only the beginning of the torture you face.”
Amethyst threw her arms around Derrick’s shoulders. “Enough, Father! Leave Der-bear alone!”
Der-bear? My white flame quieted from the secondhand embarrassment plunging through my chest.
“Let go, Amie,” Derrick grumbled through his teeth.
Amethyst planted a big kiss on his cheek that he tried to resist. “We love you and think you are perfect!”
Rubia, Pearl, and Sapphira agreed, adding sweet words and “Der-bears.” Emeralda sloshed wine out of her goblet and started slurring praises. Even Mother shot him a pitiful glance and a smile.
Annalisa twisted the tines of her fork on her plate, making skin-crawling squeaks. “Derrick, Derrick, Derrick,” she mocked. “Everything always has to be about Derrick. ”
Sapphira snapped her head toward her youngest sister. “What was that, Anna?”
Shit. I had endured enough Ashmore dinners to know what was about to happen.
Before I could stop her, Annalisa threw down her fork. “You have your own sons you could fawn over, you know. That is, if you ever stepped away from the gambling halls, Empress Sapphira. ”
Sapphira slammed her palms on the table so hard her cutlery rattled. A brown curl popped free from the tight braid around her head. Annalisa did not even flinch.
“Little Annalisa, always acting out for attention.” Her blue eyes shot over in my direction. “Did you ever wonder why she is the only one of us without a gemstone name? From the moment she was born, even our mother knew she was just a worthless little crybaby!”
Annalisa’s chair flew out behind her and she was on her feet. Metal flashed in the corner of my eye and I turned—Annalisa held out her knife.
“I could do all those rebels in your crumbling empire a big favor right now and end you,” she growled. “Call me worthless one more time. ”
I placed my hand on her forearm. I could not risk trying magic, but I had to intervene. “Anna, calm down.”
Rubia gasped as Sapphira picked up her own knife. Her chest heaved as her mouth twisted in a predatory snarl.
“Worthless. Little. Anna.” She leaned on the table, the knife gleaming under the candlelight. “Last-selected. Married to a nobody. You are not even a Hyton any longer, you Thornebow rat. Enjoy the rest of your life with those traitorous, useless, Thorn—”
Annalisa lunged onto the table with a scream. Sapphira followed. Goblets flew out and bowls toppled over as they collided on the table.
Freya cried at them to stop. Sapphira snarled and held her knife in the air just before Rubia grabbed her wrist and knocked the knife away. Pearl grabbed the hem of Annalisa’s skirt and I grabbed her ankle as she thrashed with her knife.
Emeralda threw her book at Annalisa and missed. I tugged Annalisa’s leg and she slid back on the table before Sapphira could punch her in the head.
I heaved her back one more time before an arm wrapped around my waist and forced me to let go of Annalisa.
With a quick spin, the arm released me and my palms found the papered wall before my face did. I whipped my head around just as Derrick grabbed Annalisa by the laces of her dress and yanked her off the table. He threw her into the wall so hard that it shook.
I gasped and stepped away. Annalisa’s skirt flew up as she kicked him, but Derrick held her in place with his forearm against her chest. He forced the knife out of Annalisa’s hand and it clattered on the floor.
“The hell is wrong with you?” he shouted.
Brietta’s hands found my shoulders and she led me out of the dining room. I glanced back to see Rubia, Emeralda, Pearl, and Freya holding nearly-feral Sapphira against the opposite wall. Duke Hyton disappeared through another door with his arm around my mother’s back.
My chest heaved as rabbit stew ran down the front of my bodice. Amethyst rushed past us, crying that the fighting was not good for her growing baby.
Just a normal dinner, Derrick had said.
I did not want to think about how true that statement still was.
I rested on my back on Annalisa’s bed as I mentally traced the veins on each colorful leaf she had painted on her tree. Brietta had given my Nordingaard crystal back and it rested securely against my leg.
After that horrible dinner, it was nice to feel calm again.
I smoothed my nightgown over my belly. I had already… taken care of those aching feelings that had plagued me all day. I could have just stayed in my own bedroom, but I did not want to leave volatile Annalisa alone after her whole family went into a frenzy at dinner. She might even light the palace on fire if someone were not there to talk her down.
The door unlatched and I sat up. Annalisa trudged in, her curls a mess and her blue dress smeared with dark splotches of rabbit stew. A few red scratches marred her face, but I found no evidence that she had received a kiss from the empress’s blade.
Instead of greeting me with an insult or complaint like I expected, she yanked her unfinished painting off the easel and ran to her window. Before I could stop her, she threw the window open and hurled her canvas into the night with a scream.
“Anna! Why would you—?”
“It was awful!” She whipped around, tears streaking down her cheeks. “Horrible! Grigory deserves better—”
A hard knock echoed on the door. Annalisa stomped over to answer before I could take a single step.
She yanked the handle but only left a crack in the door. “What?”
“Is Serafina there? She was not in her bedroom.”
I furrowed my brows. The voice belonged to Derrick but it did not sound like him.
“Everyone has had enough of you for one day,” Annalisa snapped.
“I need her.”
Something about his clipped words sent a shiver down my spine.
“Go away, Derrick!” Annalisa shouted, slamming the door in his face and locking it.
Her whole body clenched and she screamed behind her teeth. She stormed over to her window and gripped the windowsill. Her curls danced in the gentle night breeze.
I quietly joined her and gently pulled on the loose laces of her dress. Camille and Dinah usually fawned over Annalisa after a spat with one of her sisters when we were in school, but now I was all she had.
Annalisa complied as I slid off her bodice and then untied her skirt, but she just stared into the night as the waves crashed against the cliffs below.
She seemed so…hollow. I had to fix it.
I placed my hand on her shoulder. My crystal radiated a gentle warmth against my leg as my magic activated—maybe she would let me in. “You are not worthless, Anna.”
She let out a shaking breath, but did not respond.
I kept my hand on her shoulder and joined her at her side, letting the soft sea air kiss my cheeks. “You are the most talented artist I know. You are brave and honest, even when no one wants to hear it.”
I was only honest because magic forced me to be.
I leaned my head further out the window so I could look into her eyes. “ Never underestimate the freedom honesty gives you.”
Annalisa’s lip trembled. “‘Der’ was my name for him. ‘Lis’ was his name for me. We had our own made-up language.”
She choked on her words as her eyes brimmed with tears. I stroked my thumb on her shoulder and rain fell in my mind again.
She let me in.
“He is my twin, the other half of my soul…but now he hates me too.”
The rain fell harder and my vision swam. I closed my eyes and over the sound of the rainfall I heard two small children giggling and stomping in puddles.
“ Race you to the bull statue, Lis! ” A small boy called over the rain.
Annalisa turned and I let go of her shoulder. I opened my eyes as the magical connection between the two of us broke. Annalisa had just sent me a memory, but she did not seem to realize she had done anything.
She crossed the room where a thin castle tower painted on the wall stood guard near her dressing table. A long vine of rainbow flowers curled up the tower.
Annalisa traced a blue flower on the vine with her finger. “Emperor Orlon is twenty-five years older than Sapphira. He bought her when we were still in school.”
Her finger dropped to a crimson flower. “Two princes had a bidding war over Rubia when she was a child.”
She turned her attention to a bright green flower.
“Emeralda gets passed around the nobility of her kingdom. She drinks to forget about it.”
A purple flower.
“Amethyst is thirty years old and she has been pregnant eight times. All of the pregnancies have failed.”
A white flower.
“Pearl’s kingdom drained their treasury to buy her, but she has not given her prince an heir yet. The king beats her with a rod when her cycle starts.”
Finally, a deep wine-colored flower.
“Garnet has not spoken a single word since she was sent away.”
My heart ached. I never knew what happened to the Hyton daughters once they graduated from Ashmore…but I never could have imagined such horror.
Even with all I knew about them, not a single one of them deserved it.
A gentler hand knocked on the door and I answered. Merri was on the other side, a silver tray holding two cups of spiced cream in her hands. Annalisa hiccuped as Merri gave her head a pat and her cheek a kiss.
I filled my belly in silence as I reflected on the memory Annalisa had sent me. In her worst moments, was Derrick what she thought about? Was he truly the other half of her soul?
The bigger question was why was my magic only responding to the sadness of those around me? Divining the secrets of Ilsa and braiding that knowledge into a scourge would be much more useful.
Why was my heart’s desire to be sympathetic instead of productive?
I swallowed my frustration with the last of the warm drink. As much as I hated to surrender to fickle emotion, I had to follow my magic’s direction to win Riyan’s freedom.
Annalisa put out the candles and we slipped into bed. As I rested on my side, looking at the mural of the tree behind us, I counted two of every animal Annalisa had painted. Two ravens, two foxes, two fawns…
…every animal had a twin.
Annalisa pulled the blankets tighter around her, her arms and knees tucked in close to her chest. She had been mean in school, but had she only reached for knives so she would not constantly reach for what she was missing?
Maybe I could help her find what she needed to be complete again.
My white flame slowly danced around my heart and my crystal warmed against my leg. I had ended the day no closer to freeing Fraleigh than when I had arrived at the palace, but maybe the path to liberation did not begin with the destruction of the House of Hyton.
The Hytons were doing a fine job of destroying themselves without me, anyway.
My eyes rested at the bottom of the mural, my eyelashes fluttering closed at the image of two little rabbits.