Page 8 of House of Embers
“We’re trying to make them like him,” Wynter reminded him. “Marrying a half-Fae will not make them more amenable to Fordham’s throne. No offense.”
“None taken,” Kerrigan said. Wynter was only being pragmatic.
“They will if she does her new party tricks at the ceremony.”Dozan drew a rainbow above his head like a banner. “Think, Kerrigan controlling some dark shadows. A new portal opened at her behest. A live beheading of the former queen.”
“Dozan,” Kerrigan growled.
“Come on, princess. I know you want to show off, get back in the ring.”
“This isn’t the Dragon Ring.” She clenched her jaw and turned her back on Dozan. That wasn’t the problem here. She’d been one of Dozan’s best fighters in his fighting pit. She was still one of the best fighters and had only improved in her gladiatorial endeavors, but that sort of thing wasn’t going to win a war. “We need to focus on what’s ahead of us. If the wedding will do that, then sure, let’s get married. If not, then we need something else to win people over. Because we cannot beat the Society alone.”
That was the crux of the problem. They had to cater to the House of Shadows, because how else were they going to stop an all-powerful dragon-rider government? They held all the cards.
“Will a wedding fix it?” Kerrigan asked Fordham. “With all the bells and whistles?”
He paused as if contemplating the idea. “Do you want to get married here? I always thought…” He sighed. “I always thought you’d want to get married back home in Kinkadia or at Waisley.”
Her heart constricted. She hadn’t put much thought into her wedding day. She’d believed that she would be forced to marry her betrothed, Lord Ashby March, until they had sidestepped that with Fordham outranking him. He’d been a welcome casualty the night the Society fell to the Red Masks. So the idea of a wedding had always felt like more nightmare than anything to her. The idea of marrying Fordham? Well, that was something else entirely.
Now that he had her thinking…what did she want? Waisley was her home in Bryonica. She’d adored the estate as a child, but Kinkadia was where she had grown up. She knew the streets like the back of herhand. Would she give either of those dreams up to marry Fordham inside the cold Ravinia Mountain to satisfy his people?
Yes.
If it worked, she’d do it.
“If I get to marry you, then it doesn’t matter.”
He frowned at that assessment, as if he didn’t like that she was giving up a dream for him. As if hewasn’tthe dream.
“I’ll do it,” Fordham said, turning away from Kerrigan. “The coronation.”
Kerrigan blinked. “But I thought you didn’t want to.”
“I’d rather that than sacrifice our wedding for their depravity.”
“A white knight,” Dozan drawled lazily.
“What is so bad about this coronation anyway?” Kerrigan asked. “Aren’t they just going to put the crown on your head?”
Wynter winced. “It’s a bit more involved than that. They do it the old ways.”
“Meaning?”
“Kathiria e sendera,” Wynter declared.
Dozan met Kerrigan’s gaze, and they both shrugged.
“My ancient Fae is a little rusty,” Kerrigan said.
“A denouncement,” Fordham said. His gaze lifted to the room as he squared his shoulders to go into battle. “A contention of my right to the throne and a fight to the death.”
A fight to the death might have been fine six months ago, before Domara. Fordham was a weapon. He’d slain people on battlefields before she was even born. But since his enslavement, she didn’t want to put him in that position.
They were at war. Death was a necessary aspect of that. They weren’t going to walk away from this unscathed. But that didn’t mean he had to kill his own people in the process.
“Ford,” she muttered.
He pushed away from the table to knock twice at the door. Itswung open to reveal his chief attendant, Adelaide. “How may I assist you, Your Majesty?”
