Page 47 of Their Witch Bride

But I won’t. I have more foresight than to anger my future husbands.

“It was exhausting. That’s a lot of terrain to travel, and the Deadly Passage was very intense.” I chance a look at Prince Arlys. Our gazes catch, but he quickly turns away.

Lady Scarlet joins our conversation, sitting at Prince Drogo’s side. “Prince Arlys told me about the Valknut you created with your magic at the Deadly Passage. Wish I could have seen it!”

I smile sheepishly. “I wish you could too.” I don’t want to talk about my magic at all here. I’m here for peace, not for magic.

“I’ve heard that witches have magical specialties. What is yours?” the king asks me.

For a second time, the room silences. Do I lie? Should I claim to be some powerful Battle Witch? No, they’d learn the truth sooner or later; best to be as honest as I can be.

“Um…” I clear my throat and take a sip of my water. “I worked a lot with the blacksmith back home. Metal is my specialty, I guess.” I quickly pick up some broccoli and shove it in my mouth to buy time before answering follow up questions.

“But she can do more than that,” Lady Scarlet gushes. “She fixed my dress.

A few men seem to hide laughs behind coughs. Okay, yeah, I know that’s not super impressive, but it’s not laughable.

“Did you do that in the castle?” Prince Drogo asks gruffly, his brown eyes full of anger.

“No, I did it in the lake,” I tell him, before I can stop myself.

He glares. “There’s no way in fuck you should be doing magic in the castle–”

“Drogo,” Prince Arlys says, a warning in his voice.

“What? Witches don’t just fix dresses. One minute it’ll be the dress, and the next she’ll be setting us on fire.”

“Is that how you’d like to go out?” I ask him sweetly.

His eyes widen and anger rolls off of him in waves.

Prince Rinan laughs beside him. “Would you calm yourself? She fixed a dress, not burned the castle down.”

“It wasn’t a big deal,” Lady Scarlet says, irritation in her voice.

The king surprises me by speaking, his voice low and commanding. “You are welcome to do magic here, Princess Tara, but no Battle Magic. Do we understand each other?”

“We do,” I tell him easily.

Our meal resumes. Prince Drogo eats his meal like he’s trying to punish it, and I try to focus instead on Prince Arlys, who eats like, well, a prince, and Prince Rinan, who eats like this is his last meal ever. I have to force myself not to smile. Who knew watching people eat would tell you so much about them?

“What do you know about the peace treaty?” the king asks me, and my focus returns to him. That intensity is back in his eyes.

I answer honestly. “I don’t know much. I just know that I’m your Peace Bride. At least that’s what my mother so carefully explained to me right before the princes walked in the room, married me, and walked out.” I suck in a quick breath and lower my head. I don’t think I was supposed to say it like that, regardless of if that’s exactly how it happened.

A few of the men around the table chuckle, while others quiet down and look at me with concern. Scarlet squints at me. I bet her mom never would have sold her off to be a peace bride.

“We expected you to be told more,” the king tells me gently. “We knew you wouldn’t have long before the marriage, but we expected… more empathy than that.”

“From my mother?” I ask, lifting my brows. “She’s a great queen, but she’s not exactly the picture of empathy.”

The king gives a small smile. “Our warriors are different off the battlefield. I guess we expected the same for your people.”

I don’t know what to say. Are shifters nicer than witches? No way. Right?

The king opens his mouth to say more, but a series of coughs shakes his body instead. He uses his arm to cover his cough, but everyone at the table seems to shrink inside of themselves every time he coughs.

He clears his throat after his coughing fit subsides and speaks. “Now that peace has been struck, I guess the passage won’t be called the Deadly Passage anymore.”

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