Page 148 of The Courting of Bristol Keats
Her skull squeezed painfully tighter with each new thought, and she stumbled along, not paying attention to her path.
I didn’t want to stab him.
He was going to kill your mother.
Tyghan knew who her mother was. Who her father was.
They all did. It was a vast conspiracy that began all the way back at the Willoughby Inn. Her eyes stung with fury.
She reached out, using a pillar to steady herself.Her mother.Bristol had felt so betrayed that her mother left their family without explanation. Bristol was the one who had to put the shattered pieces of their lives back together and she’d been so concerned about her father’s broken heart, she couldn’t address her own. There wasn’t time for her to grieve.Do you love her?When Tyghan asked her that she couldn’t even bring herself to say yes. A sob tore from her throat and she pressed her cheek against the cool marble.My mother.Her chest twisted with misery and she pushed away from the pillar, wiping the sting from her eyes.
Only a second later she turned a corner and ran into Cully. He moved to the center of the path, blocking her. “Get out of my way,” she ordered.
He widened his stance instead. “I’m charged with escorting you—”
“I don’t need an escort—”
“You were missing. Where were you?” he asked, like she was late showing up to the training grounds. Bristol was not a recruit anymore.
“Where I go is no one’s fucking business.”
His shoulders pulled back, like he was trying to salvage some scrap of his authority. “You stole the king’s horse. That makes it his business.”
“As you can see, the king’s horse is back, so get out of my sight!” she hissed.
“But—”
She drew her knife because he was as complicit as the rest.He knew.“Now!” she ordered. “Leave. Me. Alone.” Her voice broke on the last word, which only made her rage burn hotter.
He put his hands up in surrender and backed away.
She continued down the path, not certain where she would go. Not certain that it mattered. But she was certain Cully still tailed her from a distance, ever true to his duty.
Her mind jumped to home. She had all but promised Harper her happy ending. Guilt gripped her, and she bent over, hugging her stomach. She wanted so badly to hold Cat and Harper, she couldn’t breathe.
What was she even doing here? It had been so clear once. But now she was in a Boschian nightmare, painted onto a canvas of monsters and demons, and her mother was one of them.
She forced air into her lungs and slowly straightened, finding herself at the top of the grand staircase overlooking Sun Court. It was empty, most fae still resting before another night of carousing. It was a lonely sight when deserted, a lethargic behemoth waiting for a spark of magic to bring it to life.
She looked past the palace grounds, to the city and distant mountains, this world she had thought she was beginning to understand. She came to Elphame only wishing to find her father and answers. She had found both—and more things than she ever wanted to know.
“Hey there!” Sashka surprised her from behind, looping her arm through Bristol’s and tugging her down the steps. “How’d you sleep? We’re meeting at the buffet tables. The others are already there. We’re starved!” Bristol stumbled on a step, but Sashka was quick and caught her. “Are you all right?”
Bristol looked at her, not sure how to answer. “I didn’t sleep,” she answered.
“No wonder you look so dazed. We’ll get you coffee. Ivy makes sure there’s always a fresh pot there just for us. She has a lot of sway around here. At least Cully thinks so.Ivy this, Ivy that.You would think she was queen. Well, I guess in his eyes, she is. But . . .”
Sashka continued to chatter, but Bristol’s mind was still mired in the last two hours, trapped in a hideous maze created by Tyghan and her father, worse than any maze at the training grounds.In a split second I had to choose between two people I loved.
An impossible choice. But if he hadn’t made the choice he did—
“There they are! Looks like we have the whole court to ourselves.” Rose, Hollis, and Avery were tucked into an alcove near the buffet tables. As they arrived, Julia walked up from the other direction to join them. Her normally well-coiffed hair hung in a tangled mess around her shoulders.
Sashka winced. “What happened to you? Were you out riding one of those mad-ass horses again?”
Julia startled. “No, just out for a walk.” She quickly tried to comb back the tangles with her fingers. “I ran into a cloud of sprites. You know how they love hair. What’s all this?” she asked, pointing at the table.
It was already loaded with berries, sweet pies, and teapots. “Sit!” Hollis ordered, still in her silky pink pajamas.
