*Maddy*
I hadn’t realized what changes had taken place in the city outside the castle since I first came to stay there. Even during my last trip into town to be fitted for a wedding dress with Ella, Rosie, and Hannah, there hadn’t been this many… people. Warriors, all of them. Some are so young they look barely old enough to be leaving their mothers, let alone going to war.
Isla sits between me and Ella in the backseat of the car as we drive toward the castle through the city center. She holds our hands and stares blankly out at the window at the armies gathered in camps in what looks to be a stadium of some kind with a wide, grassy plain out front now covered in tents. Even Ella’s in shock, her eyes glued to the window and her mouth slightly parted.
“There’s so many of them,” she whispers, turning to her mother.
“Your father and brother have been busy the last few days,” Isla murmurs with a hint of annoyance, but her eyes betray her casual demeanor. “These warriors are from the nearest packs. They would have arrived this morning shortly after we came to the temple.” Isla’s voice wobbles, losing that queenly edge as she looks away from the window and stares blankly at the back of the driver’s head.
I wonder if she has ever faced a war of this size with all of the packs in the kingdom united against a common enemy. Based on the stale, nervous energy in the car, I doubt it.
I’m feeling all kinds of out of sorts. First, from the temple. I try not to think about what the High Priestess said about Isaac and me, even if it is theoretical. I can still feel the water she dusted over my face–cold and slightly oily–and how strange I’d felt standing under a spray of sunlight being prayed over.
I’ve never been particularly religious. My parents never dragged me to temple or prayed to the Goddess during her holidays. But we had celebrated the Winter and Summer Solstice and attended the massive feasts and parties that took place.
A rush of childhood memories only adds to the suffocating feeling in the car. I glance at Isla, noticing her stone cold expression as the castle finally rises in the distance. I want to ask her about the old woman. She’d seen her, obviously. Seen her clear as day, just as I had. What were the odds the same old woman I’d helped back in Mountain Spring had been the same woman I’d seen only half an hour ago? Isla had acted like she recognized her.
I slump into my seat and close my eyes against the rush of tan canvas tents, too overwhelmed to think clearly or formulate the questions I have buzzing through my brain. Excitement to return to the castle builds to a peak as we near home, however. I haven’t seen Isaac all day, and I desperately want to see him.
In fact, the thought of seeing again cuts through my mental fog and I straighten my back, eyeing the castle gates. More guards than usual, of course. The car speeds through the gates and comes to a stop, allowing us to exit.
“I’m so glad to be home,” Ella groans, rubbing her eyes. “I’m exhausted.”
“I wonder why,” Isla teases, a glint in her eyes. “I’ll have the healer bring us something to help you sleep.”
Ella rolls her eyes and walks ahead of us into the castle.
“Is there someone else here for the wedding?” I ask, remembering the guard who’d mentioned someone had arrived at the castle.
Isla stiffens mid-step and quickly brushes the wrinkles from her clothes before turning to me and taking me by the shoulders, turning me from side to side. Suddenly, I’m under the impression whoever is here is very, very important.
“Perfect,” she mutters to herself through a smile as she gently touches my cheek, turning my face from side to side. “You’ve gained weight. Your cheeks are rosy. You have a glow about you–”
“Who’s here?” I laugh as she brushes my hair over my shoulders. Beyond us, the sky is starting to turn from a pale, clear blue to something deeper, the first inklings of the sunset beginning to break through the clouds.
Isla gives me a look I can only describe as apologetic. I have the sudden sense that something is up and eye her nervously as she turns and motions for me to follow her into the house.
The first thing I see is… nothing. The foyer is empty save for a guard standing at attention as Isla and I walk inside. But there isn’t silence like I expected. A shrill, high pitched screech cuts through the foyer and I flinch, clutching Isla’s arm. Isaac and Cassian’s voices pitch as they yell back at the mystery voice still lifted in an ear piercing racket.
“Who–” I begin, but a second voice breaks through the fray and sends a chill through my blood.
Elodie and Lousia. They’re here. Upstairs.
Fighting with Isaac.
“Oh, Goddess,” I breathe, my throat closing in sudden terror. Every memory involving them and their torture flutters through my mind as I subconsciously start looking for a place to run and hide. I lurch forward, taking several steps toward a window with a particularly thick curtain I can easily hide behind when Isla gently clasps her fingers around my forearm and shakes her head, pulling me to a stop.
“They can’t hurt you here.”
“Why are they here?” I’m panicking. Did Reginald tell them where I was? Was he able to get word to them from whatever prison he’s currently rotting in?
“Maddox and I extended invitations to whatever living family you had,” she replies with a hint of mischief behind her blue eyes. “For the wedding, of course.” She steps closer to me, pulling a few locks of hair over my shoulders. “And to pay for their crimes.”
“It’s not a crime to beat your servants in Celestoria,” I say shakily, closing my eyes at the sound of Isaac’s furious voice drifting down the stairs toward us.
“It’s a crime to torture and sell the Luna of any kingdom to known criminals,” she says over the arguments now filling into the second floor landing above our heads.
“I’m not the Luna yet.”
“No, but–”
“Your king demanded her presence three years ago, and you brought her instead!” Isaac’s voice is like a knife, sharp and lethal, as his figure appears at the top of the stairs. “You defied a direction order from your king.”
“He asked for my daughter, and I sent her to him,” Lousia’s shrill voice says sharply in reply, cutting through the air just as brutally as Isaac’s had. “I didn’t defy a single order, and you are not my king, and therefore I will be taking her. She is my property and not eligible to be wed.”
Isaac laughs low in his throat. “Oh, Lady Lousia, she will not be going anywhere with you, or anyone else for that matter. I could have you hanged, you know.”
Lousia appears at the top of the stairs, red in the face, her eyes laser focused on Isaac. “Hanged? Under what jurisdiction? I am a citizen of Celestoria–”
“The man you sold my fiance to was not, and you’re an accomplice.”
The redness clouding Lousia’s features fade to a sickly cream color. “Your Highness–”
Isaac turns to face us, his stone-cold expression shifting to grim amusement as he walks down the stairs. “Mother,” he says with a nod at Isla, who is doing her best to hide her grin. He turns to me and bows, taking my hand, and brushes a kiss over my knuckles. “Darling.”
“Darling?” I whisper, choking back a laugh as his eyes meet mine. He cocks a brow, a look of mischief identical to his mother glinting in his eyes.
Above us on the landing, Lousia gasps as Isaac suddenly carrasses my face and plants a quick kiss to my lips before storming off into the throne room. Cassian, at the top of the landing, gives Louisa a deep, mocking bow before snorting with laughter and hurrying after his king.
Speechless, I look at Lousia, who is gaping down at me with a murderous expression on her face before she turns sharply and walks out of sight. Somewhere deep on the second floor, a door opens and slams shut.
“Well,” Isla says. “They must be staying in the guest rooms on the second floor–”
“I don’t want them here,” I cut in.
“You’re safe.” Isla motions toward the throne room. “Isaac won’t let anything to happen to you.”
“I never wanted him to–I don’t want him to know them.” I swallow, my throat tightening around the words. I don’t want them anywhere near this family, or this castle, of this kingdom for that matter. I know Isla mentioned how she’d been bullied and threatened, how people never saw her as Luna material, and how she proved just how worthy she was but…
Louisa is different. Her malice goes to extremes, and Elodie is the same, if not worse.
“I should go introduce myself,” Isla says before starting for the stairs. I open my mouth to protest, but nothing comes out.
A sucking silence chokes the foyer. I glance over my shoulder at the guard by the door, who is doing his best to pretend like he hadn’t witnessed the entire thing. If Ella overheard, which I believe she did, she isn’t making her presence known.
With a sigh, I run my fingers through my hair and walk across the foyer to the throne room. It’s empty save for the thrones, the curtains half drawn, and upon entering I lean against the heavy double doors to close them.
Isaac is sitting in his throne in a very casual manner, one ankle resting on the opposite knee.
I look away from him and resist the urge to wipe that possessive, performative kiss on my lips.
“You’re upset,” he states.
My eyes narrow into a glare as I stare at my shoes. “Why were they invited?”
“Because I wanted to see the woman who sold you like cattle for a few gold coins.”
I hear him rise and begin to walk in my direction, but I refuse to look up at him until he comes to a stop in the center of the room, a great distance between us.
“What were you talking about just now? About her summons to the Alpha King of Celestoria?”
Isaac’s stoney expression falters, a rosy tinge of color touching his cheeks. “I told you I looked for you after the ball.”
My heart thumps against my chest as I peer at him through the locks of hair falling over my face.
“I asked everyone about you. I eventually found out you were the daughter of one of the noble women who’d been invited from Celestoria, so when I became king, I reached out to the Alpha King of Celestoria and asked if he would interview those women and find out what he could about you.”
I straighten up. Shock ripples over my skin. I hadn’t realized how far he’d gone to find me, how desperate he must have been to ask a favor of another Alpha King.
That favor being to help find a woman.
To find me.
“Elodie was at the ball,” he says, beginning to walk toward me, each step careful and slow. “You were seen walking with her a few times. Louisa, that wretched bitch, was summoned to the king with instructions to bring her daughter, you, before him. She brought Elodie.”
I remember that happening. Louisa had been sure the Alpha King, who had a Luna of his own, wanted Elodie in his wife’s court, or better yet, as a mistress. Louisa had been beside herself with excitement and had even allowed me to have a real plate of food from the dinner table, not the leftover scraps.
But when they returned three days later, Louisa beat me senseless, giving me half of the scars I now wear on my back, and had packed up my parents’ old house and moved us to Mountain Spring less than a day later.
“I couldn’t find you,” he says low in his throat, his voice nearing a growl. He clenched his hands into fists. “I was so close, and I–I let you–she hurt you and sold you–”
“This isn’t your fault,” I say as a rush of emotion shreds through whatever grip I have left on my resolve. “Isaac, you didn’t even know my name. You couldn’t have helped me.”
“I could have tried harder–”
I push off the door and go to him, taking his fists in my hands. I gently unfurl his fingers, which is quite impossible based on his strength. I knit my fingers in his and place our joined hands over my heart, looking into his eyes. “Isaac,” I say, not bothering to hide the whisper of desperation in my voice. “You looking for me was enough. I was alone for years. She did hurt me. She did sell me. But I thought–I thought that whole time that no one was looking for me, that no one cared. You did.”
Isaac steps closer and leans down as if to kiss me, but something shifts in my body, something cold and painful.
I step away from him and reluctantly let go of his hands. This isn’t right. This closeness between us. This feels like… heartbreak. Yes, that’s what this heavy feeling in my chest is. This situation between us is just business. We’ve said that so, so many times.
He looked for the girl from the ball.
But that was three years ago, and I’ve changed. I’m not the innocent spring blossom I was back then. I’ve been beaten and abused. I’ve been saved, and given the opportunity of a lifetime. Isaac needs me, but I can’t let myself love him.
Because if he dies at war, I’ll be alone, ruling as Luna until a successor is found to take his place, and mine.
Unless I’m pregnant, of course. I drop my hands to my stomach on impulse. One time. We’ve only slept together one time—
“Maddy–”
“No!” I drop my hands and look at him, tears welling in my eyes. “No, Isaac. This is too much.”
“Having them here? They don’t have to stay–”
“Not them. I don’t care about them!” I’m too overwhelmed to form the words I’m trying to say. That I’m falling in love with him. That I’ve been in love with him since the moment I saw him walking toward me at the ball, and now everything I ever wanted is coming true, only for him to be torn from me in a matter of days. “This is supposed to be just business!”
Isaac takes an unsteady breath, his eyes searching mine. “Maddy, we’re past that–”
I whirl away from him and pull open the doors.
“Maddy!” he shouts, but I’m already running as fast as I can toward the stairs, stumbling several times before I make it to the top.