Heart in her throat, Reina ran to stop him with her sword raised. Even as a wicked inner voice told her she was going to be too late.
“Stop right this moment!” Do?a Laurel’s voice ruptured the yard, hard and commanding, earning her the attention of all three. Javier’s outstretched sword hand stopped in midair.
Do?a Laurel stepped closer, pointing at Javier. “You would wound your niece?”
He regarded her with dark, glaring eyes. “We are sparring. It is part of the game.”
“A game?” Do?a Laurel blurted out, outraged.
Celeste scampered to her feet with one hand shielding her bleeding arm. The blood coated her fingers and spilled onto the cobblestones, joining Reina’s splatters.
“You cut her,” Do?a Laurel said.
Javier shook his sword to get her blood off it, his face scrunched in disgust. “Yes, it’s what happens when warriors train. You wouldn’t know it, since your role is to breed.”
Do?a Laurel diminished the space between them, and the air was infected with that same heady energy that filled Do?a Ursulina’s lair. “You will not disrespect me in my own home,” she hissed.
Javier waved at the air around him. “This is also my home.”
“For as long as I allow it,” Do?a Laurel bit back.
“No?” Javier grimaced, petulantly.
Reina limped to Celeste, her gaze lingering over Celeste’s lips as they parted to allow a huff of pain.
“You cannot cast me out of here!” Javier yelled. “This land belongs to Mother. You did nothing to gain it or grow it. You have no claims to it. Just because you walk around like you own the place doesn’t mean you have any real power over it!” He turned to the archway leading back to the manor. His retreat.
“I own this home, and I am this close to banishing you from it, forever,” Do?a Laurel said, pursuing him into the dark passageways of the manor.
“People only endure you because they fear Enrique—but that’s all they do, endure you.” Javier’s voice carried into the yard.
Reina turned to Celeste, even if her chest was achy and apprehensive at the quarreling masters. If it stung Reina to hear it, she couldn’t imagine how Celeste could cope with the constant bickering of her blood family. Celeste offered her an uneasy smile and allowed Reina to guide her back to the armory, where they kept the cleaning rags and ointment when training went a little too far.
“This is why I don’t like it when mi mamá watches me spar,” Celeste admitted as she claimed one of the wooden benches and cleaned her cuts. Reina settled on the bench as well, at the other end. They cleaned their wounds superficially, then wrapped themselves with fresh bandages. Reina stole a glimpse at Celeste, noting her slender neck as she bent down to swab at her ankle. It was dotted in pretty brown moles.
“She doesn’t understand that I’m not fragile. How am I supposed to learn anything if I’m constantly coddled because of her?”
“It’s not about you. Javier was not being fair.”
The apprehension of watching him get closer to Celeste with every swipe resurfaced. It angered Reina, that Javier would treat Celeste with such contempt. For no reason at all. Celeste didn’t lash out unfairly at him or anybody. She treated the staff like the friends she had known her entire life. She welcomed Reina, ignoring the differences other people would so easily latch on to.
Celeste made a pout of disagreement. “Javier can’t hurt me, even if some instinct deep within him wants to. It’s fine—I’m glad he doesn’t treat me like a princess. It’s suffocating.”
“Do?a Laurel was worried about you today.” Reina, too, had been worried.
Celeste shrugged. She gave Reina a long look, as if debating something with herself. Then she left the bench and offered Reina a hand up. Her fingers were warm and soft, unlike Reina’s scarred palm.
“She has no say in the matter. Mi papá knows this is what it takes to be someone in this world.” Celeste beckoned Reina to come with her.
“Power?” Reina inquired, following her on the gravel path leading into the surrounding woods.
“Our legacy was forged by spilled blood,” Celeste said. “I have a big name to live up to. My grandmother became a legend.”
Reina nodded. Even in Segolita, people told tall tales about Feleva ?guila. She was the Liberator’s ally during the revolution; her iridio and armies played a key role in ousting Segol, an empire with the income of many colonies to quell any uprising.
They entered the grove’s shadowed canopy, where moist ferns licked their pants and prickly undergrowth crunched beneath their bootsteps. Reina stopped before the forest could swallow them completely. She was without her sword, even if it was a blunt, useless thing, and the memory of what lived up in the mountains made her hesitate. Creatures hungered for iridio.
“Where are we going?”
Celeste let out a small laugh. When she smirked, Reina saw her resemblance to Don Enrique and to Javier. “I want to show you… a secret. Besides, I think you’re ready for a better sword than what they’re letting you use. Don’t you want a proper weapon to tell Javier to back off?”
Reina was stunned. She tried not to think too hard about the way Celeste’s eyes shone in kindness and expectation, with the idea of a secret to be shared. For she was nozariel, and this was the lady of the house.
“Okay,” Reina said feebly. They continued.
Dewy ferns and moss crowded their path as they hiked farther up the mountain.
Celeste led the way. “So, back to my grandmother: She was ruthless and ambitious. You know those antlers in mi papá’s study?”
Reina knew exactly the ones. They hung next to the boiled-leather map where delicate cursive, along with illustrations of caimans and troupials, demarcated the cities and landmarks of Venazia and Fedria.
“They were the antlers of a valco who fought for Segol during the revolution. Mi papá told me she bested him and scalped him of his antlers. She kept them as a trophy.”
Reina swallowed hard, her gaze surfing Celeste’s stunted pair. Surely Don Enrique, Javier, and even Celeste had it in them to do the same.
“There’s a story about her that started her infamy. Mi papá says the caudillos of the Llanos tell it to their children to stop them from ever thinking they can antagonize us. Maybe you’ve heard of it.” Celeste paused dramatically, giving Reina a hand over the boulder blocking their path.
“I don’t know. Tell it to me.”
“Once upon a time,” she said, shooting Reina a coy smile. Giggles bubbled out of Celeste as Reina returned it. “Actually, years ago, on an estate much like ours, a lord was hosting the quincea?era of his firstborn daughter.”
Reina nodded for her to go on.
“People from all over the land traveled to the Llanos to see her, because the girl was kind and smart, but most importantly because she was very beautiful. After dancing her vals, the girl fluttered from one group of people to the other, charming all with her beauty and wit.”
They continued along the path, their hands brushing due to their proximity. Reina moved hers away, her fingers curling.
“She had particularly charmed two men, who fell head over heels for her honey-colored curls. One was a self-made man, who’d built his fortune by hunting down outlaws and catching runaway enslaved nozariel for the governor. The other was a rancher with a large inheritance and an award-winning bull. Each argued they were better suited to be her husband. And each offered a mighty prize to the lord for his daughter’s hand. But the lord was a just man, and he declared she should be the one to choose her future husband.”