Chapter
Twenty-Six
Galantia Present Day, Deepmarsh Castle, gardens
urn to your left,” Cici instructed, then released a sigh longer and deeper than the other that had“T come before. “Your other left, Galantia!”
I quickly spun the other way, only to bump my knee into a stone bench that couldn’t possibly have been there before, the white-shelled pathway crunching beneath my uncoordinated steps. “This makes no sense! There is no pattern to it that I can see. It’s just a wild tangle of holding hands, turning, and stepping in ten directions at once!”
“It’s agile, lithe, and graceful.” Sebian folded his arms beneath his head where he’d been nodding on the bench to my far left for the last hour, his black hair sprawled open and hanging shiny from the white marble. “Like us.”
Above him, on the naked branch of a young birch, his anoa flapped its wings as if in agreement.
Sebian did that a lot, sending the bird away for a while so he could rest his senses.
Cici brushed a red maple leaf off the train of her forest-green dress, taking Sebian in with an arched brow. “You are, as always, a picture of grace, Sebian.”
He snorted, eyes firmly shut as rays of sun poked through the clouds and into the castle gardens played across his tan face. “What I am is tired.”
Because he took his new assignment very seriously, keeping an eye on me at all times now that I had moved to large, opulent personal rooms. Even at night.
In my bed. Right beside me.
He’d practically moved in.
“Yes, I can only imagine how tired you must be. Rumor has it that you no longer sleep at night.”
Cici’s green eyes found mine before she added in a cheeky mumble, “At least, not in his own chamber.”
My tongue pressed against the roof of my mouth as if to keep from saying something that would give away this strange… arrangement I’d tumbled into.
Cici, however, must have taken my silence for a confession, and merely grinned as she added quietly, “Look at you, shattering the hopes of all the poor, heartbroken ladies who pined after this one.”
My mouth turned dry. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Oh please, it was easy enough to figure out, but not for lack of discretion, if that calms your nerves,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper, likely indiscernible to Sebian without his anoa.
“When the most notorious Raven stops frequenting the local bed chambers and turns those ladies knocking on his door away, one must wonder… What brought about this change in the biggest rake the court had even seen? What indeed, weeks after your arrival? I’ve never seen this Raven so…
devoted.”
Devoted.
My belly fluttered for all the wrong reasons. That Cici knew should concern me, but instead, a comfortable warmth settled in my core like it did every night when Sebian pulled my head onto his chest, wedged my toes beneath his calf, and stroked his fingers through my hair.
We hadn’t been intimate since the night Malyr had spanked me. Too much turmoil with the sudden turn of events, leaving me so exhausted, I basically fainted into bed at night. And yet, he seemed perfectly content with just holding me, that scoundrel whose reputation was crumbling. Why?
I looked up to his anoa. The beast ran its beak through its wild fluff of feathers, exposing a bald spot on its neck that made it look like a chicken that had barely escaped plucking. Not an impressive specimen by any stretch of the imagination. With Sebian’s mate out of the picture, could his devotion ever grow into love? Was that a silly thing to long for? For him to want me, desire me, love me?
Yes, because I was fucking betrothed to his friend, which made my next swallow go down like dry oats. “It’s not what you think.”
“It’s exactly what I think.” She lifted her pointer and tapped the air three times, one for each syllable. “Im-pres-sive. No lady had managed to catch Prince Malyr’s interest for marriage, just as none had managed to claim Sebian’s undivided attention. Pray tell, however did you manage to snatch both? I might yet learn from you.”
The only thing I could possibly teach was how to create a mess of epic proportions. I needed to fuck Malyr, and instead, he’d let Sebian fuck me. Add to that Lorn, who had attacked me over said betrothed I hadn’t even fucked. An impressive mess indeed… I thumbed the ribbon on my wrist, something that had quickly grown into a habit whenever I needed soothing. “I’ll tell you if you teach me how to seduce Malyr before our wedding night. Often.”
Cici’s bosom stopped lifting for a fraction of time, no longer than it took her gaze to sweep down to my stomach, and to the old oak at the center of the gardens before us from there. “Like I told you
once, I’ve never managed myself into his chambers. You’re on your own.”
My ears pricked at her undertone, suddenly reserved where it had only ever been friendly. “You loathe me now, too, don’t you? Like all the other ladies. It’s not like I want to marry Malyr, you know.
I have no choice.”
“Do you know why Father and I took residence at the Court of Ravens instead of staying at Hanneling Hold like my ancestors? Because Prince Malyr took it from my family and gave it to some newly-ascended Raven, Lord Baradur.” She took a deep breath, then looked straight at me. “None of us ladies have a choice; it comes with the title. If we did, we would spend our days sipping wine and gossiping about handsome stable boys that bring twice the fun but none of the miseries of marriage.
Now do it again.” Cici pointed at her feet as she repeated the beginning sequence of steps with light- footed grace, making it clear this conversation was over. “You have to be on your toes for this one, Galantia, and quite literally.”
I followed along, wiping a thin layer of sweat from my forehead, which I had worked up even through winds promising winter’s first snow. “It’s the handholding and consecutive turning that always gets me since the steps change.”
“It’s the most important part,” she said. “When a raven courts another, they fly together and playfully touch their wings in flight. Here it comes. Hold my hand. Good, now turn and step to the ri —your other right, Galantia!”
One second, my legs twisted around each other, and the next, I landed with my ass on the ground.
“I’ll make a fool of myself tomorrow, and that’s exactly what he wants!”
“Ah, but only until I steal the show with my graceful movements!” Sebian rose from the bench and walked over, yawning and stretching his arms overhead, then stopped before me with a wink. “You’re too stiff. Just… move your body any way you want. Step backward. Sway your hips. Throw your hands up. Flap your arms. Be playful, sweetheart, like this.”
He grabbed my hand and pulled me up against his chest, humming a tune as he guided me into something barely resembling circles. His fingers intertwined with mine, lifting my arms up and down like wingbeats.
“Flap your wings. And one, two—” Releasing one hand, he spun me around my own axis, only to let go of me entirely in favor of waddling around me like a duck as he clucked and croaked, ripping a giggle from me. “Be silly, be ridiculous. That’s what courting is about. Having fun. Being playful.
Taunting each other. Come on, show me!”
Memories invaded, reminding me of that day at the beach when I’d spotted seagulls fighting over a dead crab in the sand. How they’d flapped their wings, hopped about, and shook their heads until their feathers fluffed up, making themselves look bigger, more intimidating.
A happy memory, which made something tingle in my core. Before I knew it, it spread into my limbs. Grinning from ear to ear, I strode in a circle with the long-legged grace of a crane, flapping my arms and shaking my head until my hair whipped my heated cheeks.
Cici burst into a laugh, but she quickly regained her continuance and shook her head. “This is ridiculous…”
“Ridiculous, yes, but so much fun!” The gods knew I hadn’t had much of that lately. “Besides, nobody is looking.”
Until I turned, sensing all heat dissipate from my cheeks at the sight of Malyr. He leaned with his shoulder against a stone column wearing a fine tunic, looking all sorts of wrong.
Because he was smiling.
But only until our eyes met, which caused his smile to die at the sharpness of his narrowing lips,
the joyful expression quickly replaced with his cold, somber stare.
Whatever energy I’d felt fizzled away. Something Sebian was unaware of, who waddled and clucked around me just as Captain Asker walked up beside Malyr. He exchanged a few words with the prince, only for Malyr to nod and take his leave. Then, Asker walked toward us. “What are you doing?”
Sebian’s spine snapped straight at Asker’s rough baritone, bringing a dead-halt to his dancing.
“Having fun?”
“When having fun interferes with more important matters, it is called being irresponsible.” Asker bore his stare into Sebian for another moment, the air between them strangely cool, then his attention drifted to me as he hinted a slight bow. “Perhaps you will allow me a few words as we walk the gardens? I shall very much like to try for a new vision.”
“Of course,” I said and followed beside him along the sea-shelled path that wove through small trees, evergreen shrubs, and moss-covered statues.
I glanced over my shoulder at Sebian, offering him a smile as he followed at a brief distance behind us. His features remained hard, telling me these two didn’t get along. Why not?
Asker gave me a side glance, his salt and pepper hair tightly braided along his scalp, his beard rather coarse. “You must find this strange that I am seeking you out now.”
“I wish you’d done it sooner.” It might have saved us a great deal of frustration and embarrassment. “What is it you need me to do to help you gain another vision? One a little more accurate than the last, if you please. Clearly, I haven’t shaped up to be quite the treasure you first assumed.”
“Not every treasure sparkles at first glance,” he said, lifting those bushy brows that seemed to coil in whichever direction they pleased. “My visions are a capricious thing, often triggered by something so utterly unassuming, we might as well exchange our opinion on how best to tie the laces on boots. My mate, Marla, has an easier time with hers.”
“She’s a fate as well?”
“Yes,” he said, slowly striding beside me around a stone fountain that prattled next to the old oak, the flowers around it wilting from the night frost. “But where I get glimpses of what lies in the future, she sees what has happened in the past.”
“I read about that.”
“Have you?” That rise on the corners of his mouth wasn’t exactly a smile, but I could tell he approved that I tried to learn all that had been kept from me… all I had ignored. “Many of our written accounts had been destroyed on the order of King Barat. Ignorance breeds lies, and lies breed wars.
But this wedding? It will mark the beginning of a new era, a better era. There is power in this union.
House Khysal and Brisden united in deed, Raven and human united in love.”
Hardly, but my wish for love in life seemed as foolish as my worldview. “Yes.”
Giving me another side-glance, Asker pouted, probably well aware that there would never be love between Malyr and me. “What other insights did the books provide?”
“I mostly read up on your magic,” I said. “I focused my reading on voids. Why are they so rare?”
“Because we killed them,” Sebian said from behind us. “Ravens are smart and all that…”
That slowed my steps as we passed a group of congregating females, snickers and mumbles now replaced with curtsies and false smiles as if I couldn’t tell how they all hated me for getting something no sane woman should want. “Killed them?”
“A tale from our darkest times, when our own kind slaughtered each other like animals.” Asker crossed his hands behind his back, letting the crushed seashells shift beneath the weight of his steps.
“Equally dark was the Raven whose actions gave birth to said tale. A man with the gift of void, but so strong, not only was he capable of absorbing other’s gifts, but to steal them forever and adopt them as his own. We call this—”
“A thief,” I said. “The shadows killed him.”
“Yes. Yes, exactly. A sin, his son and heir called it, for one Raven to amass such power. He ordered to have every thief killed, so history would never repeat itself. Many echoes and voids were wrongfully accused of being a thief and were put to death. Others went into hiding,” Asker said, and that certainly explained why they were so rare. “It was King Omaniel who tried to do away with the stigma voids had burdened for much too long, especially after his mate revealed as an echo. It’s a bloody stain not easily washed from the cloth of our wrongdoings. Marla has seen it all, told me about how voids have—” He stopped and turned to face me, his eyes narrowing. “Gallows on a cliff, with the sea stretched out behind it. A golden-haired woman’s body dangling from a noose, drowning
beneath salty waves.”
A vision.
Ice-cold shivers climbed my arms, rising the fine hairs. I knew that place. Had seen it once or twice when I’d managed to lean out of my window far enough to glimpse the gallows behind Tidestone. The cliff there hung low, where the waters were the roughest, pounding against the rock with such force, waves shot up and coughed down on whoever twitched at the end of the rope.
“The gallows behind Tidestone, on the northwestern cliff.” I crossed my arms, rubbing them in search of warmth. “Whose body?”
“I cannot say.” He sighed and stared at the gray sky above us. “I must contemplate on this, and why the goddess wished me to see it.”
At that, he was gone, flapping upward and away to disappear behind the roof while my heart gained speed. Malyr and I had agreed that I would travel to Tidestone to free Marla in a little over a fortnight. Why was I getting the feeling that, perhaps, I hadn’t secured my future, but my death?
