Page 26 of Bound to the Shadow Queen
And Shard Mother bless him, he did so without judgement.
“So, has our long day of being scrutinized by both clans convinced you to swoon over our alliance yet?”
A dry laugh slipped past my lips, but cut off as he moved to sit next to me on the log. He refilled his glass as well, before resting the bottle between his boots.
“It isn’t that simple,” I said carefully.
“Try me,” he said with a wink.
I took another long sip of shadebloom while collecting my thoughts.
“I still don’t even understand what you really want from me,” I sighed. “Or why would you marry someone your clan—your brother—hates, who has no mana to protect your people?”
He let out a low chuckle, grinning down into his cup before meeting my eyes again.
“Well, you did make a rather fetching image in your stockinged feet with your abominable hair all askew,” he said with a twist of his lips.
I rolled my eyes, but something tugged my attention toward the western skies. To the auroras that were an entire world away.
This banter between us should have been easy, but the weight of the firelight and Kaelen’s closeness made it feel heavier, somehow. He studied me for a long moment, shifting on the bench so that his wings blocked out the nearest eavesdroppers, the crackle of the fire swallowing the space between us.
“Fetching enough to alienate your people?” I finally asked.
The corner of his mouth tugged upward, his gaze lingering a moment longer than was polite. But then it shifted outward, past the circle of flames, as though measuring the village itself.
“Our clans have been warring with each other for centuries,” he said at last, his voice low and deliberate. “Stars, that goes for all of the Unseelie clans, but Skaldwings in particular. All that blood, all those grudges, and for what?”
I arched a brow, letting the corner of my mouth twist.
“And you think marrying a half-Seelie bride will solve that? Perhaps you’ve had a little too much of my uncle’s ‘good drinks’ for one evening,” I said, dramatically snatching the bottle of shadebloom from where it rested in front of him.
His lips twitched again, the barest ghost of amusement.
“No,” he said, tipping his cup as though in mock salute, then his tone turned more serious. “But it would be a start. You aren’t just a half-Seelie. You were crowned on a Seelie throne.”
Images flashed through my mind. A haze of moving portraits. Draven’s eyes glowing as bright as the starlit sky. The blade of ice that sliced through our palms and the mana that encompassed us, that bound his soul to mine. The reflection of my glimmering crown shining through his emerald gaze.
I cleared my throat before taking another sip from my cup.
“Barely,” I muttered. “With my wings a secret, and under duress from all sides.”
“It doesn’t matter. You are still a symbol, even if the people are too angry to see it,” Kaelen responded evenly. “Let alone that the other Seelie Courts would hesitate before attacking someone who was attached to the Frostgrave King in any capacity.”
That was true enough. I didn’t imagine any of the Seelie Courts would risk Winter’s wrath that way, but that didn’t mean anything if Draven felt differently.
“The king might very well kill me himself when he finds me.” I wasn’t sure if I believed it, but I wasn’t sure that I didn’t.
“I can’t speak to that, but I don’t deal in delusions.” The humor drained from his voice as quickly as it came. “Winter is crumbling. Everyone can see it. Right now, the Unseelie are rejoicing because he’s distracted by the frostbeasts, but we both know that won’t last.”
The words fell heavy between us, mixing with the snap of the fire. Kaelen wasn’t wrong. I still didn’t believe that Draven would let the Unseelie taking his bride stand, but even if he did…the monsters were getting worse.
Images flooded through my mind of frostbeasts prowling too close to villages, the wreckage I’d seen with my own eyes. Tar- and blood-stained snow.
They were getting worse because, whether by birth or circumstance, their promised savior had been defective.
“And when Winter falls,” he continued, steady now, “the monsters won’t stop at the mountains. They will pour into the Wilds, into every Unseelie stronghold. You know it as well as I do. War will come, or an invasion. Either way, divided as we are, we will break.” He stopped there, fixing me with a pointed stare before continuing.
“But with some breathing room from the Seelie, with someone who could rally our people in the long run, and uniting the two strongest clans in the Wilds…Together, we might stand a chance.”
