He nodded, a muscle feathering along his jaw.
“Why?” I breathed. “You were just a child—how could he do that to his own son?”
For a moment, it looked like he might respond, but just as he had done so many times before, his steely mask settled in place, and his mouth pressed closed. All my hurt and anger began to resurface. I moved to pull away.
“Wait.” His hand shot to mine. “I want to tell you…”
“But?”
“But… that story is long and difficult, and not one I wish for many to know. And if you haven’t noticed, we have a rather eager audience.”
I glanced to the dungeon stairs. There was a flurry of shuffling and sudden chatter as the others scrambled to pretend they hadn’t been scrutinizing our every move.
I stifled a laugh. “Fair enough. Another time, then.”
He let out a long exhale, the tension relaxing from his posture. “I’m sick of keeping things from you. I want you to know everything. Every secret I have is yours.”
I struggled to hold his gaze as I thought of the Guardians and the role I’d played in helping them. “I’ve kept things from you, too. Things that might make you look at me differently.”
Luther crooked a finger under my chin and gently nudged it up until my eyes returned to his. “There’s nothing you could reveal that would change how I feel about you.”
My heart thundered.
“No more secrets, then. After the Challenging, we come clean about everything. Brutal honesty.”
“Brutal honesty,” he agreed.
Slowly, so slowly, as if he dreaded letting me go, he took his hand off mine and reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out a letter.
“This arrived for you this morning.”
My brows drew together as I pulled a folded note from the envelope and instantly recognized the simple, blocky lettering. My frown deepened as I read.
D,
Good luck tomorrow. I’ll see you soon. Remember, whatever it may look like, we are on the same side.
-H
“Is something wrong?” Luther asked, craning his head to peer down at me.
I sighed. “It’s from Henri.” I winced before continuing. “He came to the palace again. Just after my father’s funeral.”
“I know.”
I looked up in surprise.
“A guard saw you fleeing the canal leading to the royal dock.”
My eyes went wide. “Did he see Henri?”
“No, only you, but I had my suspicions as to why.” Luther smiled, though it was tainted with sadness. “The canal is how all the Corbois sneak their lovers in without being spotted. The bloodlocks shifting to your family line has put a significant dent in all the cousins’ love lives.”
Not all of them, I thought with a secret smile as I remembered my brother’s earlier visits to Lily.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked.
It was a pointless question. I already knew a thousand explanations he could provide.
Because you weren’t speaking to me.
Because I was trying to win your forgiveness, and you would only have yelled at me.
Because you were meeting with the man you’ve chosen over me.
“Because it wasn’t my place,” he answered.
I read the letter again, my mind tumbling over the lines, then folded it up and tucked it away. I had let the situation with Henri spiral too far out of control. He deserved honesty from me, too—and soon, I intended to give it to him.
“I heard you were meeting with the Houses,” I said.
Weariness settled over his features. “I’ve done all I can. I made every promise I can keep and offered everything that’s mine to give. I pray it will be enough.”
“What did you promise them?”
He worked his jaw and looked away. The ominous cloud that hung over us seemed to thicken, darkening his expression.
“Luther, I told you, I don’t want to sell off preferential treatment just to—”
“It’s nothing like that.”
He still wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“Tell me.” I stepped closer, his body so close that his woodsy musk filled my nose. “Brutal honesty, remember?”
He closed his eyes, and I watched as his features slowly hardened. His armor of indomitable resolve took hold, and when he finally returned my gaze, it was not Luther who stood before me but the cold, brutal Prince. He glanced briefly to the others, then his voice dropped low, meant only for my ears.
“House Hanoverre agreed not to come after you if I make a bonded bargain to marry Iléana.”
My hands flew out on reflex, latching to his forearms to steady my spinning head. “Luther. No.”
“House Hanoverre is your greatest threat. If I have a chance to keep you safe from them, I have to take it.”
I shook my head frantically and grappled for words. My vision blurred at the corners, the world sharpening in on him and him alone. “Luther—please—please, tell me you didn’t enter that bargain.”
He fixed me with his penetrating stare, and I thought my fractured heart might explode and level the world to ashes all over again.
“Luther, no,” I choked out.
“I told them I would give them an answer by sundown—”
“Thank the gods,” I groaned, slumping against him.
“—but I’ve already made up my mind to accept.”
I blinked up at him. “You can’t be serious.”
“I promised you I would not let you die at the Challenging.” His expression turned pained. “I know you no longer have faith in my promises—”
“I do,” I insisted. “I shouldn’t have said what I did. I was angry and grieving, and I took it out on you. I’m so sorry, Luther. I know you did everything you could. You don’t have to sign your life away to that witch to earn my faith—you have it already. You never truly lost it.”
His mask flickered, and a blinding ray of brilliant, soul-warming happiness shone through, then quickly disappeared. “If I deny them, they may Challenge you out of spite alone.”
“Then let them Challenge me.”
“If you had more time to master your magic, I would have no doubt you could defeat anyone, but—”
“The godhood came to me when I needed it in the past.” I shrugged. “Maybe it will do so again.”
“And if it doesn’t?” His voice began to rise, his tone growing hot as the air rippled with his aura. “You expect me to watch Jean Hanoverre take your life? I would marry every person in that entire wretched House before I’d let that happen. You cannot ask me to stand back and do nothing.” His hands gripped at my waist. “I will not let you die.”
“I’m not asking you to do nothing. I’m asking you not to do this.”
He glared at me, gaze swirling with the stars and shadows of his mighty power. His fury was a fearsome sight, the kind that could make even the bravest of warriors weak-kneed and wary, but I did not wither. This deadly, uncompromising rage was not at me, but for me.
“Marry her if you love her,” I said, the words almost too painful to speak aloud.
“I don’t,” he growled. “I l—”
I gently placed a finger on his lips to silence him. His features tensed at the gesture, then softened.