Page 44 of Fragile Oath

I tried to decipher Galina’s features, but aside from the initial widening of her eyes, they revealed nothing.

“You’re free to do as you wish,” I told her, stepping closer and pitching my voice lower.

She blinked, and I tried not to think about the reality of what I was offering. About the fact that she might take me up on it, and I might never see her again.

Or that she might stay, which felt…complicated, in its own right.

“I already spoke with the thieves about escorting you,” I explained in as neutral a tone as I could manage. “Rowan says she’ll meet you on the other side of the tunnels, or you can go to your uncle in Chridhe, or–”

“No,” my uncle interrupted me. “Her uncle is already on his way to Lithlinglau, and we have things to take care of there. All of us.”

He shot me a pointed look, and I surmised that someone in my family had let slip to him that Galina was my only alibi. The last thing I wanted was to force her into one more thing on the grounds of duty or obligation, especially when the lairds weren’t likely to believe what my former Socairan fiancée said anyway, but my uncle had no such compunctions.

“She’s free to do as she will after, but for now, the lass needs to come with us.” Though his emerald eyes weren’t unkind, he spoke in his king voice, as Rowan and I had dubbed it.

And there was no arguing with that tone. Not for any of us.

ChapterTwenty-One

GALINA

We were switchingto horseback for the return journey to Lithlinglau. One of the thieves had retrieved my trunk from the carriage, but I wanted nothing to do with any of the items in it.

The night before, Fia had offered me a nightdress that I took gratefully, ripping off the dress I was wearing and all the memories that came with it. After a moment’s hesitation, I had taken my bracelet off, too.

This morning, she had brought a fresh gown for the day shortly before the trunk arrived. The hem was a bit short, but otherwise the fit was workable.

My bracelet weighed heavy in the deep pocket of the dress. Part of me wanted to leave it behind with the dress where I would never again have to feel the edges of a charm biting into my wrist and see Alexei’s ghost bastardizing yet another thing my people had held dear.

But I couldn’t quite force myself to part with it. Neither could I put it back on, though my wrist felt as empty as the rest of me. So instead, I tried to forget about its existence entirely.

Reluctantly, I crossed over to the trunk to pick dresses for the road while Davin and Gallagher were readying their horses. The idea of changing back into one of the dresses that Alexei had chosen for me made me feel like centipedes were crawling on my skin, burrowing straight through to my insides.

I wasn’t sure if Fia could tell by my expression, or if she liked the idea of trading, but before I could be forced to open the trunk, Fia appeared once more.

“Here,” she said, holding out a pair of riding boots along with a satchel. Inside were two more wool gowns. “These will likely be more suited for the weather than that thin gown you were wearing yesterday.”

When I didn’t respond right away, she added, “If you’re really attached, I can always send the trunk—”

“No,” I said quickly. I wish I had asked them to burn it yesterday, along with Alexei’s body.

She met my gaze, tilting her head as if she could hear the unspoken thoughts in mine.

“Noted,” she said with a dip of her chin. Then she ordered the man to take the trunk to her cabin before offering a small salute as a goodbye.

We rode hard through the day, stopping well after dark. My body ached and my lungs burned from the cold, but all of it was preferable to another stint in that storms-forsaken carriage.

Still, whatever respite I had managed to find in the forest dissipated like the hazy puffs of steam from our breaths by the time we finally stopped for the night at the inn.

Perhaps that was only the looming threat of seeing my uncle, or the way that the smoke from the pyres had still been burning when we rode out this morning. Or perhaps it was the secrets in the glances between Gallagher and Davin and the king, questions I couldn’t ask without answering some of my own.

So I didn’t try, instead losing myself in my own complicated feelings about heading back to Lithlinglau when I had no idea where things stood with Davin and me.

Even now, he was framed by the black smoke that plumed high into the sky, the remnants of everything that towered between us. I had married someone else, and he had ignored my request not to interfere, then all but told me to go home. Where the hell were we supposed to go from here?

Would I have taken him up on it? I had been so shocked when he suggested it, the idea that I was finally free from Alexei’s reign of terror. My uncle would likely forgive me to save face. My parents missed me. I could go home.

The problem was that home no longer felt like a colorful castle nestled in a snowy mountaintop village. But somewhere in Davin’s distant gaze and his icyfree to do whatever you wish, I wasn’t sure what my other options were.

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