Page 95 of Shadows so Cruel

Your mother-in-law

Elnora

A tear ran down my cheek, curved away from my smile, and dropped onto the parchment. I wiped it off on my shadowcloth dress, folded it, and carefully placed the letter into my sleeve. The others, I returned to the box, and rose with it clasped in my hands.

“We should give these—”

Malyr leaned in the doorframe, one hand in the pocket of his breeches, the other thumbing the silver buttons on his black vest. “Did you gain anything?”

Yes, a third mother, or so it seemed.

“We found farewell letters that I thought you might want.” I walked over and reached him the box. “I’m sure there’s one for you in there.”

He took the box, looking over its intricate carvings for a moment before his eyes found mine. “I was hoping you would come to the parlor with me. The dressmaker is waiting there for us.”

“A dress for…?”

He pulled his hand from his pocket, reached it up to my face, and wiped away a tear that I must have missed. “That coronation you feel so uneasy about.”

I let my eyes trail over that utterly crooked braid I’d put into his hair this morning, but he seemed to carry it with pride, regardless. “A coronation I can’t refuse.”

“You can.” Malyr stepped closer, looking down at me with a tenderness that put tiny flutters into my chest. “But you won’t.”

I scoffed, “How very bold, granting agency with one sentence, only to strip it away with the next.”

Hetsked.“I’m coming to you with a proposition you cannot resist.”

That caught my interest. “Oh?”

“Agree to sit beside me as our queen for all of Vhaerya to see, and in return…” His fingers pulled a blonde strand from my braid, which he twirled around his fingers, the tip of his nose giving a little stub against mine. “I will allow the humans in our kingdom to remain here, unbothered, if they so choose and—”

“I’ll do it!” I blurted in a burst of pure relief and… yes, joy. “I’ll put that crown on right now.”

It looked beautiful, the way he chewed away his grin, chomping his face back into something princely. “There are conditions. From now on, they will pay tenancy. Thirty percent of the food they produce will go to our granaries, which is slightly higher than what Ravens are to contribute, and their right to remain here will be relinquished if they sell their produce to anybody who is not a citizen of Vhaerya.”

“Sounds fair.”

Malyr’s eyes twinkled, reflecting both relief and a happiness so pure, it seemed to emanate from him like a soft glow. Carefully, as though I were a fragile piece of glasswork, he leaned down to me and his lips met mine, moving with an attentive sweetness I hadn’t known he possessed.

“I don’t want there to be discord between us,” he whispered between featherlight kisses. “I’m no easy man—I know this—but I am irrefutably yours, heart and soul, left with a lifetime to strive to walk in your light.”

Warmth spread through me. No, no more discord. Hate, lies, deceit… it all lay behind us now.

When he finally pulled away, he gifted me one of his smiles that wasn’t quite so rare anymore and took my hand into his. “Come. I have a surprise for you.”

“Another surprise?”

Malyr handed Tjema the box, gesturing for her to follow behind us onto the corridor and back toward the more formal rooms. “The mines are being worked. The first tenancies are coming in. Raven artisans and merchants from all over the realm are returning to Valtaris. Nothing’s holding me back now from spoiling my mate a little.” Malyr led me into the lavish parlor, a stately sitting room filled with a sense of grandeur, yet imbued with warmth. “You remember Darien, I presume?”

“My future queen,” Darien said with a deep bow, the dressmaker once more donning a fine gown of black shadowcloth, woven with parts of a fox pelt. “I hope you can forgive our last encounter. That red-haired thing never looked good in that black gown… not much of a waist, while yours is just right! Too pale a complexion and too stark a contrast to her hair, too. Downright sickly. But you…”

As if I didn’t know that he’d merely acted on orders. “All is forgiven, but you better make this gown the most fabulous.”

“Nothing else will do!” he said with a flamboyant wave of his hands that shoved the long black strands off his shoulders. “And how rare a beauty it will be, created together with my new apprentice. David, how did we practice you would greet your future queen?”

A scrawny blond-haired boy wearing lovely white robes stepped out from behind Darien, bowing so deeply, he stumbled forward, having to paddle his arms to regain his balance. “Your Highness.”

I looked back and forth between Malyr’s strange smirk and that boy’s big blue eyes, not understanding any of this. “Apprentice?”

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