Page 14 of Fragile Oath

Meeting the woman’s eyes, I let her see a small bit of the desperation that I had been keeping at bay. “Please, I’m so sorry to push, but this could be important. Is there anything else at all that you can remember?”

She considered the questions for a moment before shaking her head. Her hands trembled as she sat her glass down on the table, an apology tumbling from her lips.

“I’m sorry, My Laird. All I could tell you was that she was tall. I could hardly see my Roger’s face over her head. He smiled at something she said, and then, that same day, he was dead.”

She burst into tears then, and I ran a hand through my hair. It could have been Galina, or it could have been a brothel woman turning on the charm.

I got to my feet, thanking her for the few details she had been able to share. Once I made sure she had someone coming to help her take care of things, I set a small stack of coins on the table, despite her protests. If she was on her own now, with funeral expenses to cover and a future to sort out, she would need this and more.

The woman’s gaze followed the motion of my hand as I set down the silver, lingering on my signet ring, and something sparked in her eyes.

“She was wearing jewelry,” she said, her face scrunched up like she was trying to remember. “A bracelet.”

I froze. “Do you remember what it looked like?”

“I just remember the way the morning sun caught it when she moved her hand. It was silver, with tiny little baubles hanging from it. I’d never seen anything like it.”

My heartbeat thundered in my ears.

Baubles. Orcharms.

Of course the woman had never seen anything like it. They weren’t common here, but all of the ladies in Socair wore them.

And Galina never took hers off.

ChapterSeven

GALINA

Somewhere in theback of my mind, I had held on to an unreasonable belief, a small shred of hope that Alexei might change his mind, that I might find a way out of this.

But there was no one to rescue me this time, and certainly no way for me to rescue myself from three Socairan warriors. It wasn’t an option anyway, not with Alexei’s leverage.

So I walked with my head held high from the carriage to the tiny, tucked-away building where I would forever bind my life to Alexei’s. He trailed behind me, his hand protectively on his sword.

The driver walked in front of us, stopping at the door to deliver a sharp rap. A man’s face appeared in a small opening in the door. He raised an eyebrow, and the driver sighed, yanking at the collar of his shirt.

Just above his heart was a brand, a mark carved into his skin of a snake coiled around a broken crown. I hadn’t seen anything like it before, but I had seen Davin sketch it out when he and Gwyn told the story of the assassin who wanted to kill me when I first came to Lochlann.

It was the mark of the Uprising.

The man on the other side of the door grunted some form of approval before closing the small square and opening the door for us to enter. No one in our party seemed surprised or bothered by this interaction or the brand on the driver’s chest.

Almost as if they’d grown used to it. Expected it.

A shiver ran up my spine, dread pooling in my stomach as the realizations dawned on me. Why it was so easy to get me out of Lithlinglau. Why Alexei wasn’t worried about our safety. How there were so many people willing to betray their own kingdom – not for a random Socairan and a bag of gold, but for their precious Viper.

Alexei was working with the Viper.

Just being here, in the room with men who sanctioned the murder of innocent Lochlannians, felt like another betrayal to Davin, even if I had no control over this one. Even if it paled in comparison to the vow I was about to make.

“Yer the magistrate?” the driver asked once the door shut.

The man nodded, gesturing to the small podium on the other side of the open room. My chest was hollow, and stars lined my vision. This was it. Where I would forever bind my life to Alexei’s.

Everything I had risked and done and worked for the last few months had culminated in this, my wedding to the very man I had tried to escape. It almost felt fitting that it was here, in a room that smelled like mildew, dusty curtains blocking out any trace of sunlight while surrounded by traitors and murderers.

Alexei grabbed my arm when I hesitated too long, dragging me down a makeshift aisle. I blinked and imagined a starlit sky and candles on a lake. Then I was standing across from Alexei, my knees barely supporting my weight.

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