Page 86 of Kingdom of Briars and Roses

“It’s a rune.”

Her eyes met mine, the pale blue blazing with curiosity. “What kind of rune?”

“Vorinthian.”

Something flared in her. Acknowledgment. She knew something about that damned mark. But she said only, “Vorinthia hasn’t existed for a thousand years.”

I hesitated, knowing if I pushed her now, it could backfire. But if she bore that mark, she deserved to know where it came from. “What do you know about the Midnight Court?”

Her laugh was bitter, humorless. “For one thing, they’re cowards.”

My hands clenched at my sides, anger curling in my chest. “Why would you say that?”

She made a sound of disgust. “When Heliconia invaded Concordia, they refused to help. Entire mountain villages—women, children, elderly—all slaughtered because the midnight fae couldn’t be bothered to care about anything beyond their own borders.”

Anger coiled tighter, but I forced it down, shoving it beneath the mask. “You know nothing about the people of that court or their reasons, and yet you judge them so absolutely.”

“What reason could possibly be good enough to do nothing while innocents are killed on your own doorstep?”

I shrugged. “What reason do you have to sell your soul to Duron?”

Her breath caught before she spat, “Go to Hel.”

The corner of my mouth tugged into a dark grin. I stepped closer still, closing the space between us until the faintest scent of roses reached me. It made my voice low, rough. “Sweetheart, I’m already there.”

She didn’t move, didn’t blink. Just stared at me with those blazing eyes, daring me to say more. I had the distinct impression that, if I tried, she’d run me through with her blade and smile while doing it.

But then she turned, her sword flashing as she resumed her training, each swing more precise, more determined than before.

I stayed a moment longer, watching her, then slipped back into the shadows where I belonged.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Aurelia

For the next three days, I met with the dressmaker, the royal jeweler, a stylist, a wedding planner, a party planner, and four different candidates for the position of second maid—despite my protests about even needing the latter. Vanya quickly became a welcome source of help as I navigated each appointment, especially since I barely saw Callan at all.

He’d been distant since that dinner with Duron, claiming he was busy with meetings involving the strategists and captains who guarded Autumn’s borders in the north.

“Heliconia won’t like being rejected,” Callan told me after dinner that night. “And she’s bound to learn the identity of the one I’ve chosen instead. We need to protect ourselves. And you,” he had added hastily.

“We should go see that oracle you mentioned,” I’d suggested.

“Of course,” he’d assured me. “As soon as you’re settled in.”

And while I’d left that dinner more determined than everto get to work on breaking the curse, three full days of being pampered and cared for and fully entrenched in the administrative duties that came with being royal had derailed me.

I’d forgotten what it was like to be a full-time princess. And even though Rydian’s accusation had gotten under my skin, I couldn’t help enjoying meals I didn’t have to cook myself, walks in the garden in the afternoon, and basically any day that I didn’t have to worry about the wards being breached or an Obsidian jumping out at me.

My thoughts drifted constantly to Sonoma—to everything she’d told me before she’d crossed over. To Rydian’s cryptic remarks about my tattoo. A rune. From the same lost and fallen kingdom Amanti had suspected held precious answers, no less. I thought of Lesha and Amanti, who’d gone to Vorinthia to look for signs of magic and maybe found their own horrible end in the process. And sometimes to Lilah, though that hurt too much to think about for long. I owed them more than sitting around playing pampered princess.

I trained alone every morning at dawn. I told myself it was out of responsibility to the people counting on me and not because I was hoping to glimpse a certain second-born prince again. I’d half-expected him to interrupt me again. Twice, I’d sworn the shadows that gathered in the pre-dawn light were his, but three days passed, and he didn’t make another appearance.

Even so, I kept the door on my magic firmly shut.

At dinner the third night, which I ate alone in my room, I’d had enough sitting around. Heliconia knew I’d survived. She was out there, likely plotting her second attempt to kill me. And she was clearly getting stronger if the last batch of Obsidians were any indication.

I couldn’t afford to waste any more time.

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