he

ad gone per

y heart was so loud I cou

The banquet is

and close, cut through

c so quickly I nearly s

garden path--and then she registered the scene

was nothing lik

himself between me and the intruder, and when I lo

s quiet, which somehow made it worse. "His staff en

I could stop it--that o

acy. Not a room that was truly mine, not a

ht of as the one place I could bre

own. "I'm

nd came up to touch my face--gently, with

is thumb traced briefly along my cheek

as though it were already a fa

ted for only a moment before pl

back toward the hall,

had transformed

t had been tamped down into something manageable--rearranged around a long

ures unchanged, their weapons still at their sides,

hest as well. A kind of stead

th my hand on Alric's arm, an

ead up. I t

and stepmother exchanged a

tching them. The prize secured, the alliance se

ass and moving toward us with the expansive warmth he produced on

aised o

He never seemed to need to. "We'll be leaving shortly.

stopped

s lowere

Tonight? But--the wedding preparations alone will take

and entirely immovable. This was not a negotiation h

went ve

sts, courtiers, staff--all of them acutely awar

calculation, then fury, all of it compressed beh

nd the look in them wa

ing. The promise

tarted before I

in me that bypassed thought entirely. The f

ric's hand closed ov

n't make my father less dangerou

I held onto it, and I mana

iplomatic fluency that was her particular talent. "Your eagerness is truly a

her smile a masterwo

hing his only daughter leave home. Some t

necessary eithe

itecture of his expression shifting, the imperious patri

had watched him work

at might, to a stranger, have sounded like genuine emotio

a hand to

years. Twenty years. And now, just like

blinked, there were

ith her. To say goodbye. Su

red a

see guests shifting, sympathy crossing their faces, eyes

wenty years, treated me as his

he stood,

, the room would see a man tearing a daughter from h

that story t

kept my voice low. "Let me spea

her. "I don't think

u misread by people who don't know you. And -" I paused. "I have thi

was enti

ually, that I had never be

ression--reluctance, assessment, and then a

n't li

going to le