Page 10 of A Storm in Every Heart
Oh no.I stride across the entrance hall and through the dining room, already sure I know what this argument is about.
“We have other more pressing things to deal with first,” Daemon’s low voice replies, the annoyance so obvious in his tone that I can picture his scowl.
“What could be more important?”
“I didn’t say more important, I said more pressing. Please, Mother, not now. Alix and I have to go?—”
“Fine, fine! Just tell me a season, then?” Aunt Beatrix replies. “Alix, please! Just consider the time it will take to plan!”
Before anyone else can speak, I push open the door to the large kitchen and all eyes swivel in my direction.
Aunt Beatrix is standing by the kitchen window, glowering, her dark hair pulled back in a tight bun and her flour-coated hands on her hips. She’s wearing a frilly purple apron and in front of her on the counter is an unfinished pie crust. It looks as if she’s ambushed Daemon and Alix on their way out the door, because Alix is standing in the open door to the back garden, one foot inside and one out, and Daemon is right behind her, carrying an enormous stack of papers and craning his head over his shoulder to talk to his mother.
“What’s going on here?” I ask, forgetting my anger for a moment as my gaze darts around the busy room.
Alix’s face splits into a grin and she leans around Daemon to talk to me. “Oh good, you’re back!” she says brightly. “I was just going to ask a servant to look for you.”
“Come on, Peaches. We have to get to the meeting,” Daemon grumbles, cutting me off as he ushers Alix further outside. He glances back over his shoulder at me. “Come to the barracks with us, Dessa. We’ll explain on the way.”
“Wait!” Aunt Beatrix squeaks. “I’m not finished.”
“We’ll discuss this later, Mother,” Daemon growls, jerking his head for me to follow them.
I sigh, and shoot my aunt an apologetic glance before trailing across the kitchen after Daemon and Alix.
“What was that about?” I ask, momentarily distracted as the door swings shut behind us.
“We got a shitload of letters from the other courts,” Alix answers, gesturing at the pile of papers in Daemon’s arms.
I crack a smile. “Is ‘a shitload’ a technical term?”
“It is now,” she huffs. “I have such bad mail anxiety this is like torture, but until we can appoint an emissary we have to go over every letter ourselves.”
I nod. By “we” she means the semi-official council of Vernallis. Herself and Daemon, me, Kastian, Fox, Jett and sometimes Aurelia, when she feels like turning up to the meetings. We meet at least three times a week, but today isn’t a usual meeting day, and Jett isn’t even in the country.
“I don’t mind an extra meeting, but that’s not what I meant,” I say as we exit the garden and trek back across the courtyard I just crossed to reach the house. “What’s wrong with Aunt Beatrix?”
“She wants us to pick a wedding date,” Alix answers with a sigh.
I glance between the two of them. “Well…you have to admit, it wouldn’t kill you to choose a date.”
Daemon glowers. “We’re bonded. That’s better than getting married. We don’t need to have a fucking wedding to prove that.”
I narrow my eyes. “I mean, you do if you want to secure Alix’s position as queen. She can’t officially hold the title until you’re married, even if she’s doing the job already.”
Alix rolls her eyes. “He knows that. Don’t listen to him, we’re definitely getting married. I just don’t want my wedding ruined by some invasion or uprising or some shit like that.”
My brow furrows. “Is that likely?”
She looks pained. “No idea. I never realized how hard it is to run a country—I mean, obviously I knew it was, butwoof.There’s so many tiny disasters all the time, and with the mess that Thorne left us…I just want everything to be more stable first so we can enjoy ourselves and not spend the entire wedding worrying that the guests from Thermia will murder the ones from Solistine.”
“Is that what this meeting is about?” I ask. “Thermia and Solistine?”
“No. The King of Hydratta sent another damn letter this morning,” Daemon replies grimly. “And at least half this stack is from him.”
I groan. There are four Fae kingdoms on the continent of Ellender, and although there hasn’t been any major inter-court conflict in centuries, all four courts have their own internal problems.
Thermia, the snow-covered kingdom to the north, is notoriously isolated from the rest of the continent. Barely anyone goes in or out of the country, so it’s hard to know how seriously we should take the rumors that no one has seen their queen in years.
