“You asked Amryssa’s tutor to investigate her betrothed?”
“I did.”
He closed his eyes and stabbed at his lids with thick fingers. “Zephyrine help me,” he muttered. “I knew letting that woman abscond to Hightower would bite me in the ass.”
I spluttered. “Abscond?A sweet old woman who’s served you faithfully for years finally flees the nightmares, and you call thatabsconding?”
He dropped his hand and attempted to shear me in half with a glare.
I cleared my throat and folded my hands.Play nice. “I mean... I just needed to know what kind of man you were tying Amryssa to.”
“It’s none of your concern.”
“It is.” My tone turned strident, already escaping my control, and I clutched at my dagger.For the love of all that’s holy, grant me patience with this asshole. “I’ve spent the past nine years keeping her safe. Of course I needed to know who you were saddling her with.”
The seneschal glared. Silence coiled between us like a wound spring.
Amryssa leaned in, breaking our stand-off. “Father? You can’t possibly intend to marry me to this man, can you? Not now?”
His fierceness softened, if only by half. “I have to, my sweet. This union is critical.”
“But...you didn’t know, did you? What he’s really like?”
Olivian made a sound like stones grinding, then offered his hands over the desk for Amryssa to take. “I’d heard rumors, pet, but they’re only that. Rumors. And I have ways of keeping you safe. Trust me when I say we need this marriage.Oceansgateneeds this marriage.”
Amryssa recoiled. I’d known this was coming, but still, the betrayal on her face gutted me. Filleted me open from neck to navel.
“But...what could possibly stand to gain?” she said.
Olivian hesitated. “Lawmen. For one.”
I frowned. In the almost-decade since the nightmares had begun, the bulk of Oceansgate’s populace had trickled away, including the entirety of the police force. Now, only our most reckless citizens remained, along with a group of lawbreakers who lived in the forest and apparently considered recurrent psychological torture a fair price to pay for lack of legal oversight. With our patron goddess lost to her divine slumber, Olivian’s territory had devolved into chaos and anarchy, and without a police force at his disposal, there was very little he could do about that.
“But Oceansgate doesn’t have any lawmen,” I said. “Not anymore.”
Olivian grunted. “Not at themoment.”
A pause. Pieces clicked together in my head, and I gaped.Thiswas what he’d sold his daughter for?
“So you intend to barter me?” Amryssa bleated, clearly having reached the same conclusion. “To buy lawmen off the king by joining me to his son, knowing full well what this man will do to me?”
“There’s...so much you don’t understand,” Olivian said. “So much youcan’tunderstand, my sweet.”
My molars grated, my palm itching for my dagger. Seven hells, if he started rhapsodizing about the deficits of the female intellect, I really would stab someone.
“As your father”—Olivian’s fingers flexed, straining toward his daughter—“I’m asking you to trust me.”
“I thought Icould.” Moisture pooled in Amryssa’s eyes. “But perhaps I was mistaken.”
Silence. The seneschal reclaimed his spurned hands with visible reluctance. He seemed not to know what to say.
My breath fled, but I would not, under any circumstances, sayI told you so. “Private ceremony,” I prompted Amryssa gently. “Remember? You said that’s what you wanted.”
“Right.” She pinned her gaze to her lap, her voice leaden. “I’d like a closed wedding, Father. No guests apart from Harlowe. No other witnesses to this...forced union. You can grant me that, can’t you? At the very least?”
Olivian shot me a thunderous look, as if to say,This is your doing. I shrugged, but my heart knocked against my ribs with such ferocity I swore the whole manor would hear.
If he refused...
