Page 140 of Kingdom of Briars and Roses

“Careful, darling. Your people are watching,” I said.

Callan opened his mouth, clearly ready to blast me with some sharp threat, but he never got the chance. A second later, the music cut off, and the room buzzed with voices. I glanced at Callan and was surprised to see his expression flash with a look of sheer panic that mirrored my own. Then, he blinked, and it slid away.

His confidence—a thin veneer, I realized—returned.

“Come,” he said, taking my hand and tugging me toward the center of the room. “It’s time.”

Standing in the middle of the now-empty dance floor, I forced myself to remain steady as the murmurs died down.

Duron strode out to join us. “Where are the other emissaries?” he hissed.

“I don’t know, Father,” Callan said quietly.

“They said they’d come,” Duron grumbled. He turned to glare at Callan. “You said you’d convince them.”

“As you know, I need to make physical contact with them for that to happen.” Callan’s tone had gone brittle.

Duron sneered at him. “Your gift is useless to me if you can’t do what I asked.”

Gift?

“I have done plenty,” Callan said defensively. At Duron’s lifted brow, Callan added, “I got her to Grey Oak, didn’t I?”

I reared back, reeling.

“You were supposed to persuade her to give up her magic willingly,” Duron snapped.

Wait. What? “You compelled me?” I demanded.

Every one of their heads swung to me. Duron sniffed dismissively. Callan’s cheeks burned, whether with anger or embarrassment, I didn’t know. Nor did I care.

“Persuasion,” he corrected.

“Isn’t that the same thing?” I shot back. “You convinced me against my will to come here. To agree to marry you.”

Callan didn’t answer.

My head spun as I thought back to all the casual touches between us. His hand on mine in the carriage. At dinner with his father that first night. The kiss he’d given me at Sunspire. Had all of thosetouchesbeen to keep me under his thrall?

I hadn’t even noticed.

Then again, compulsion—or persuasion as he insisted on calling it—hadn’t been gifted by the gods in centuries.

One of the king’s advisers strode up. Koraz. “Your Majesty, we can’t wait any longer, or we’ll lose the audience we already have.” He eyed me, clearly still unhappy with the decision to bind me to the royal family.

That made two of us.

“Fine,” Duron grumbled. He looked at me. “When this is over, there’s work to be done, persuaded or not.”

Callan didn’t bother to contradict him.

Duron turned to face the crowd, his smile as radiant as it was fake. “We celebrate together tonight because my son and heir has finally chosen a mate,” he said, his voice booming over the room. “Even more joyous is that his betrothed is noneother than the lost princess of Summer, Aurelia of Sevanwinds.”

The room clapped and cheered.

Nali whistled loudly from the back. I caught her eye, thrown off by her sudden change of heart about my engagement. Then I remembered. Callan had taken her hand in greeting. A new horror spread through me. The reason he’d been so confident the courts would ally with us tonight. He planned to compel them all. It had already begun to work on Nali.

And I had no way to warn her.

---