Page 58 of Knightfall
I sighed. “I don’t want her to go.”
Ryan clucked at his horse and then turned to join the conversation. “She’ll have to leave at some point, Bloss. There isn’t a crown here for her. And it’s not like princesses abound, she’s one of what—three eligible in the next decade? There will be a lot of suitors visiting. Hell, she might even start a war.”
The war comment prodded at me and I blurted out without thinking. “I would rather have trusted you all to take care of her.”
Declan stopped his horse. Ryan pulled his horse up beside mine and grabs my reigns. “What’s that mean?”
I stared at Ryan’s deep brown eyes and worded my statement very carefully. “It means my mother went to an awful lot of trouble to ensure she had two female heirs.”
“Why?”
The geas wouldn’t let me answer.
Luckily, Declan stepped in. He wrangled his horse clumsily until it was next to mine and Ryan’s. He waved the guards near us on and waited until they were out of earshot.
Declan grabbed my hand. “She thought she’d need the spare.” His eyes searched mine. I couldn’t respond, couldn’t confirm or deny. I simply squeezed his fingers as tight as I could. It was the best I could do to let him know he was on the right track.
“Is this the riddle, Bloss?” Declan whispered.
I squeezed his hand again.
“Can you squeeze my hand once for yes, twice for no?”
As soon as he asked that, the geas locked my limbs. I couldn’t move. Shite.
“What’s wrong with her?” Ryan reached over and pulled me off my horse, onto his lap. He pulled my stiff limbs into his warm, hard chest and rubbed my back, then gently tried to uncurl my frozen fingers.
Declan held the reigns to my mount, keeping her steady. He looked at me and then met Ryan’s worried gaze. “I think she’s under a spell. And I don’t think she can say what kind.”
* * *
The rest of the ride was somber as Ryan and Declan fell back and held a whispered conversation. They refused to let me be part of it.
“You just lock up. You’ll end up falling off your horse,” Declan shushed me and sent me up to the front.
Ryan made several guards ride near me and make small talk. I’m certain it was as uncomfortable for them as it was for me.
I cursed myself for saying anything. My mother had given my husbands an out with the dragon hunting cover story. If something happened to me, nothing had to happen to them. But what if I died publicly? And dragons couldn’t be blamed? Or what if the people waited a decade for me to return from dragon hunting, but grew impatient? What if they rebelled? A million other negative scenarios flooded my head. The last thing in the world I wanted was for my knights to have to follow me into death.
Maybe I should just divorce my husbands, renounce the crown publicly, and then hand them all over to Avia. But Connor’s smile flashed through my mind. Ryan’s dark eyes as he said dirty things. Declan’s thoughtful gaze. And Quinn, on his knees, gripping my ankles, begging me not to go. The last image startled me. It wasn’t what I’d expected.
Are you in my head?
No one answered.
I shook my myself out of my reverie and smiled at one of the younger guards. Shite. I was getting paranoid. Sard that. Today was supposed to be about Declan. Not me or my problems.
“Who wants to race to the first farmhouse?” I called out. I spurred my mare to a gallop before anyone else could respond.
By the time we reached the farmhouse, all serious and somber thoughts were gone. At least from my mind. The guards, Ryan, and Declan seemed to have scolding thoughts on their minds.
I laughed as I dismounted on my own.
“Let’s go talk to Terri, the local burgmaster.”
Ryan stomped next to me, still in a bit of a pout. His horse had lost, by a lot. Of course, it had a lot of extra weight to carry. “You know Terri?”
I grinned. “Spent a whole summer in his corn field.”
