Total pages in book: 222
Estimated words: 210715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1054(@200wpm)___ 843(@250wpm)___ 702(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 210715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1054(@200wpm)___ 843(@250wpm)___ 702(@300wpm)
“I will become a knight of Selva.”
“Is that what you truly want?”
He nodded. His face turned somber. In that moment he was a mirror of Reynald, hard and slightly mournful. He looked like a boy with two dead parents who had been abducted by slavers, sold to a knight order, and then had to pretend to be content and dutiful to survive.
“My father trusted His Grace,” Matheo said quietly. “When he was backed into a corner, he went to ask him for help because of a promise made over a decade ago, and Everard honored it. I want to know what kind of person he is for my father to have trusted him that much. I will learn from him and if his cause stops being just, I will find someone else to follow. But right now, he has my loyalty.”
He reached into his jerkin and handed me a small velvet pouch. “He left this with the sword for you.”
I took the pouch. “Thank you.”
“I’m going downstairs to get some pastries.”
And that was the perfect teenager for you. I will devote my life to the Sleepless Duke, but first I will get some pastries.
“I’ll be right behind you.”
He nodded and ran down the stairs.
I opened the pouch. There was a note inside and something else. Something metal. I held the note to the lantern and unfolded it. On it, in Everard’s strong hand, was a single sentence:
I’ll see you tonight.
Right. With Sauven’s guards watching his house like they thought it would catch on fire any second. I seriously doubted it.
I put the paper down, reached into the pouch, and pulled the metal thing out. A beautiful hair ornament with three simple white flowers. They looked like little forget-me-nots, with five petals and a tiny spark of a golden gem in the center. Around the flowers, slender silver branches held small triangular leaves. Each leaf was a bright breathtaking green crossed by bands and swirls of darker and lighter shades . . .
I almost dropped it. This was the hair clip Ramond’s father gave his mother on the day of their engagement. The flowers were cut from the white opal that was a sister to the one in Selva’s crown and the leaves were malachite from the throne in Wilkair. It looked simple, but it was anything but. I was holding a priceless treasure passed down through the Everard Family. A crown meant to go into the hair of Selva’s duchess.
That fool. That epic fool.
He couldn’t possibly mean it. It would be ridiculous. And he was coming here tonight. What the hell was I going to do?
I would have to give it back to him. That was the only . . .
A soft melody made me pause. It floated around me, suffused with magic, enchanting, seducing, captivating, like a soft mirage that faded in and out of existence. The male voice that sang it curled around me, caressing my skin.
Ice drenched me.
I turned. Clover stood at the edge of the wall. She held very still, and her eyes were oddly blank.
Silveren stepped out from behind her. He was walking on his own. He didn’t seem pale or injured. His eyes were cold and vicious.
How?
“Hello, Mother,” he said.
Fuck me.
I took a step back.
He hummed, and Clover stepped onto the stone rail bordering the wall.
I froze.
“Good call,” he said. “What’s in your hand?”
I made my mouth move. “A hair ornament.”
“Show me.”
I raised my hand.
“I like it,” he said. “Put it in your hair.”
I slipped the flowers into my hair, locking them in place.
“Lovely.”
“How are you alive?”
“No thanks to you, clearly.”
He flicked his fingers. A big dursan plunged down and landed on the wall, straddling it.
“Get on the dursan, or I will sing her off the wall,” he said.
All the advice I’d ever heard about being assaulted started with “Do not let yourself be transported to another location.”
“I can just jump off the wall instead and save you the trouble,” I offered. “It’s a long fall, and I’ll break my neck.” I would survive it.
“Where would be the fun in that?” He hummed a note.
Clover tilted forward, one foot over the edge.
“If you jump, she will join you. If you break my hold on her, like you’ve done with your guard, she will lose her balance and plummet.”
I jerked my hands up. “I’ll come with you. I won’t fight or try to escape. Please make her step back to safety.”
If I told him to let her go, he could drop her over the wall for laughs.
Silveren hummed again. Clover stepped back off the wall like a living doll. His Exultant Call was way more powerful than his father’s ever was.
He nodded at the dursan.
I took a step toward it. The huge beast held still. I took two more steps and hesitated. “I don’t know how . . .”