Page 29 of Fated or Knot

Tormund said something through a tight jaw and blew out a plume of smoke from the side of his mouth. He stood, stomping toward the stairs. “He is going to pack,” Kauz said, putting his palms up. “Nothing to worry about.”

“It is our honor to buy her the newest and best items that Ilysnor has to offer,” Fal added smoothly, having recoveredduring the distraction. “Perhaps we can entice you with a gift of coin to buy yourself and your daughter something as well?”

This melted any of Cymora’s lingering protests. Her face lit up at the prospect of free things.

11

LARK

“Kauz, will you accompany Lark into the city while I finish speaking with her charming family?” Fal invited. Cymora and Lark both smiled at the flattery.

The winged Unseelie stood with a relieved sigh. “It would be my honor.”

I made to stand too, just for Cymora’s hand to band around my forearm. “Before you do anything else, go retrieve our bags. We had to leave them outside the cottage while we went looking for you.” Her melodious voice didn’t have its usually acidic edge, but there was a gleam of malice in her eyes.

I swallowed to keep from frowning, since I saw the order for what it was. It’d take me ages to find the cottage from here and return with our bags. No time for the princes to buy me anything if I was kept busy. With no other choice, I bobbed my head in agreement. “Yes, Stepmother.”

Marius also stood, shrugging on his cloak and his merman illusion as he went. “I have errands in the city,” he said, sparing my stepfamily a brief glance before striding out.

Kauz offered me his arm, and we walked out together. I didn’t release the pent-up breath I was holding until the inn’s door shut behind us. Stars, it wasn’t a complete disaster, but now my stepmother had a chance to influence the events to follow. My mind buzzed with all the implications of what could happen next.

“Hey. Are you all right?” Kauz asked, resting his free hand over mine. He drew me to the side of the inn for a bit of privacy.

“I don’t know.”

I didn’t even know if I could answer the question. An honest fae response would prompt a negative comment about my stepmother, something she’d forbidden me from doing years ago.

“I know they’re family to you, but we could trick them into boarding a different train tonight,” he offered.

I pictured it, especially Cymora’s face when she realized that she’d been fooled halfway to the wrong destination. I giggled, and Kauz laughed with me.

“No, really,” he said.

“My stepmother is too smart for that. She’d notice,” I said, even though it felt like pouring cold water over the moment. I sounded distant even to my own ears. Over the years, I’d found her next to impossible to fool and considered whether Iwas a simpleton for thinking my trick at the masquerade would end any differently than this.

Maybe if I’d managed to board a train to Zemosia earlier today. Then I’d be out of her grasp for good.

“I have to go get those bags,” I said, letting reluctance bleed into my voice.

“Are you truly in the habit of being such a doormat?”

I startled at Marius’s gruff question. He crowded the little alleyway we’d ducked into and stopped before me, face hard and expression probing.

“Doormat?” I repeated meekly.

“Marius,” Kauz said, a warning in his tone.

“You were there. You saw it too,” the kelpie said to him before his yellow gaze returned to me. “You allowed that beta to belittle and talk over you in front of your potential pack, and all you did was take it. Why?”

My cheeks stung as my mouth parted, but try as I liked, I couldn’t get more than a few sounds out. I couldn’t tell him the truth, that I’d been a foolish, heartbroken child once who’d rushed to promise, thenvowto her stepmother that she’d be good and do everything she was told.

Cymora had implied that if I was disobedient, I’d be heading for an orphanage with “all the other unwanted brats,” and I’d bawled at the implications. I’d given away my freedom for the chance to avoid the truth: I’d been unwanted from the moment my father died from a sudden heart attack and left me in the hands of his second mate. In the years that followed, I’d taken a lot worse than what they’d seen at that table.

But again, I couldn’t tell Marius any of that. All I could do was break eye contact and hunch like a good little servant. Kauz freed his arm from my hold and wrapped his wing around me. He switched languages, the earthy Serian rising and falling in a furious cadence.

Marius snorted like a pissed-off horse and replied in kind, his accusing yellow eyes now locked with Kauz’s starry ones. They were definitely arguing about me, and Kauz’s wing only tightened around my shoulders as their words grew more heated.

It felt like an eternity before Marius switched back to Theli. “Fine! Where is this cottage?” he demanded.

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