Page 59 of Chivalry in the Meadow

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It was like he was a man performing the idea of affection, instead of feeling it.

The owl’s warning echoed again.Roses without roots.

Sir Cedric had given her a rose.

She paused near his tent, hearing something. Inside, voices murmured. One familiar, one not. Quietly arguing.

“You’re playing too close, Cedric. You’ve been warned.”

“She’s useful,” Sir Cedric said. “The owl’s chosen her. If we play this right…”

Mia’s breath caught. She didn’t hear the rest.

“You forget yourself,” the second voice hissed. “This isn’t courtly games Not your bedroom playground.”

“Come now,” Sir Cedric said. “A dalliance does no harm and gets me closer to the girl.”

“If the girl awakens the bond, she may not be stoppable.That’s not what the Master wants. He would be angry.”

Sir Cedric sighed. “She’s falling forhim, anyway. The brooding one.”

“Ha! Sir Alaric? He’s broken. Still mourning that Isolde girl. He’ll fail again. He can’t protect her.”

Mia stepped back, twig snapping underfoot.

Silence.

The tent flap lifted. Sir Cedric’s face emerged, golden, smiling.

Too late, she stuffed the feather into her pouch, as he saw her.

“Mia,” he said smoothly. “Out for a walk? Not going back to the ball?”

She forced a nod. “Just… went shopping to clear my head. But they expect me back.”

“Let me walk with you,” he offered, taking her arm. “We will clear your head together.”

The glamour shimmered around his face, but now shesaw it. A faint distortion.

A shimmer like the heat over a fire. A flicker behind the eyes.

She brushed her hand against her pouch. Inside it, the feather hummed.

When she touched it, his smile faltered, just for a breath.

And behind the illusion, she caught a flash of something older. Sharper.

Something not quite human.

And he was now guiding her away from the ball, not toward it.

She pulled away and took a step in the other direction. “Actually… I think I’ll head back to the ball. They expect me and will come looking.”

He watched her with narrowed eyes. “Be careful in the dark, Lady Mia.”

“I always am,” she said.

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