Page 1 of Feathers so Vicious

ChapterOne

This is adarkfantasy romance, containing situations that might make some readers uncomfortable. Your mental health matters!

ChapterTwo

Galantia

Past, Tidestone

Ikilled my first Raven the day my brother died in his cradle.

That morning, Mother’s deep-throated groans echoed from her chambers along the balcony of the inner sanctum. They carried through the door and into my room, like they had all night, turning my belly. How much longer would she labor? Would my little brother have my hair, creamy like the cut oats in the larder?

“Galantia…” Risa straightened in her pale green robes, my nursemaid ever so displeased with my wandering thoughts, and shoved a strand of brown hair interwoven with gray back under her bonnet. “Why did our good King Barat—may the gods keep him and Dranada safe—declare war against the royal House Khysal all those years ago, and eventually attack the city of Valtaris?”

“Because the Raven King, Omaniel of House Khysal, had kidnapped King Barat’s human betrothed many years prior.“ I looked down at the painting of the offender in the book before me, his long black hair braided back, his breastplate engraved with the sigil of his house: a raven sitting on a skull. “He’d forced her to marry him for—” My eyes snapped to the door. Had Mother just screamed? “Political… political gains.”

A subtle cough. “What political gains?”

“Lands.” My ears pricked at each hurried footstep behind the oak, each murmur of hushed voices. Was my brother born? “Or strongholds.”

“Galantia…”

My spine straightened, but my eyes remained on the door, ever so disobediently. “Armies, maybe.”

“Or perhaps all three.” Risa sighed the way she often did when I was too excited, which was as perilous as running. “Galantia, will you—”

“How much longer? Can I visit Mother now?” My legs tingled as if they wanted to run.“Do you think the baby is here now? Do you think it’s a boy, like the healers say?”

“Gods be good, they better make it so, and finally place an heir in that dusty cradle.” Turning the page in the book, Risa shook her head, her forehead lined with deep frowns. “Your lord father needs to secure his line and allies now more than ever. It’s the only thing that’ll keep those Ravens in hiding from another uprising.”

Outside, a scream echoed.

High-pitched. Gargling.

“He’s here!” I jumped to my feet and ran toward the door, the green skirts of my dress fanning out behind me. “My brother is here!”

I lifted the bolt, opening the door just wide enough for me to squeeze through the gap and out onto the balcony. My feet slipped each time I pushed against the tiles damp from fog. I wouldn’t let that stop me.

“Galantia!” Risa shouted behind me. “Come back here at once! Your mother does not permit you to run!”

Oh, but how could she be displeased with anything on such a day? I hurried along the carved stone banister and columns that supported the roof, following the wails of my brother. Only a boy could scream so loudly! The future Lord of the House Brisden.

But his cries grew fainter the closer I came to Mother’s chambers. By the time I stood before the tooled wooden door, there was silence.

Belly-churning silence.

Why was it so still?

I wanted to grab the handle, but my arm wouldn’t lift. What if my brother was dead like my little sister? Risa had told me that Mother had lost two babies after me. I didn’t know how many she’d lost before me. Enough to put her aside, Father once scolded her, making Mother cry.

Against the ache in my belly, I pushed down on the handle. The large door croaked on its heavy iron hinges, but only until I snuck inside and pushed it shut. What was that smell?

A strange sweetness wafted around my nose, the air inside Mother’s chambers otherwise stale and depleted. Maids scurried about the room, changing sheets, scrubbing drops of blood from the floor, wringing out cloths over a water basin that stood on a stool beside Mother’s bed.

My chest lifted.

There she sat, the fine golden hairs at her temples curled and clinging to her damp forehead. A smile as big as none before lined Mother’s lips, making all my fear go away. She gleamed down at the baby she cradled in her arm, hushing and rocking the bundle in its woolen blanket.

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