The next morning Piper and I came down for breakfast and there was an urgency in the air. Lucien was shouting commands at a guard and the palace staff were running around in a frenzy. My mind went into panic mode. After getting to my room last night I’d written a letter to my elvin friend to arrange a stay for Lucien’s father discreetly. I had given it to one of Lucien’s guards to deliver. Had it somehow caused an issue?
“What’s happened?” I asked.
Lucien spun when he saw me, his eyes looking a bit frantic. He reached for the crook of my elbow and dragged me into an alcove away from the rest of the staff. “For a few weeks now some Winter Court fae have gone missing.”
I nodded. “Same with Fall. We assume they ran off to Cinder Mountain.”
When a person wasn’t happy with their lot and wanted to leave, they always went to Cinder Mountain in Embergate. It had become a safe haven of sorts for all the different races and hybrids.
Lucien shook his head. “A week ago, one of my most powerful soldiers went missing. Then Raife, the elf king, showed up here saying that the Nightfall queen had a device that stripped a person of their magic.”
I gasped. The human queen and her stupid devices! They were awful, but stripping a person of their magic? It sounded impossible and especially evil.
Lucien shook his head. “I didn’t put it together until my missing soldier showed back up this morning, bloodied and half dead. Without his magic.”
Another gasp escaped me. I was in shock, unable to speak. “That’s dreadful, I’m so sorry for your soldier. You must be close.”
Lucien looked positively beside himself with worry. The winter king swallowed hard, leaning in closer to me and holding my gaze. “I do feel bad for Dominik, but that’s not what has me so concerned.”
I frowned. “What is it?”
Lucien’s skin drained of color, which seemed impossible since he was already so pale. “Dominik said that he witnessed the Nightfall queen consume his power after it was taken from his body.”
The room swayed as panic washed over me. “Lucien, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying…” Lucien leaned in even closer to me. “…that it appears the Nightfall queen now has Winter fae powers and whatever else she has… collected.”
I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted to ask him if this could somehow be bad information. But in the same moment, I also knew it was true. The Nightfall queen was hailed as an inventive genius. Her machines ranged from flying contraptions to mimic the dragons, to flame throwers and shooting projectiles. I even heard that she had created horseless carriages! This was entirely plausible, and it caused chills to run down my spine.
“What do we do?” I asked him.
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I think I need to go and speak to the other kings of Avalier. We should join forces with the others against Queen Zaphira.”
I swallowed hard. “Go to war?”
It was everything Sheera and Marcelle had accused him of.
He opened his hands wide. “Do you see any other way? The Nightfall queen could have wind power, fire, ice! She could heal like an elf, spit fire like a dragon, and even have razor sharp claws like a wolf.” His words were terrifying. “And if she can do this, what’s to say her army can’t? If we allow too much time to pass without action, we could soon be fighting a war not against humans but against… counterfeit magic users!”
He was right—as terrifying as it was, he was right. If we allowed the queen to bolster her army with these… magical infusions, we would soon be fighting a war we might not win.
“Do you think the other kings will join with us?” Together with the elves, the dragon-folk and the wolven, we would not fail.
Lucien sighed, looking tired. “I know they will.”
“How can you be sure? Cockiness will get us nowhere,” I chided.
“Because Raife came to see me with his new wife last week and asked if I would join him and the dragon king in a war against Zaphira.”
My entire mood brightened. “Wonderful, what did you say?”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I said no and then punched him in the face.”
“Lucien!” I scowled.
We might have only been in a courtship for less than a week but already I felt comfortable scolding him.
Lucien shrugged. “He bedded my… look, it doesn’t matter. While you and I were in Spring Court, Raife returned with the dragon king, I presume to ask me again.”
My whole body tightened. “And?”
“And my guards were instructed to bar them entry into the realm,” he admitted.
I groaned. “This is not shaping up to sound like a good partnership.”
Lucien grinned and I couldn’t fathom what was funny about this.
“What is worth smiling about right now?”
A chuckle rose from the winter king’s chest. “What I wouldn’t give to have seen the look on Raife’s and Drae’s faces when they were turned away.”
I smacked his chest and he caught my hand, pulling it to his lips to kiss.
“Do not worry.” He held my gaze. “They are my oldest friends, and although we have had our trials, they will not deny my plea for help.”
I raised one eyebrow. “So you’ll ask for help?”
Lucien scoffed. “No. I’ll wait until they ask, pretend to think about it, and then join forces with them.”
I grinned. That sounded like Lucien.
I knew the four princes of Avalier used to go on a yearly retreat when they were younger, something their parents set up to keep the magic races of the realm close. But rumor had it the retreats fell apart when the elf king’s family was murdered by Queen Zaphira.
I sighed. “And so I guess this pushes our wedding further out.” As a royal, you were never done sacrificing for your people. That was something I was about to learn the hard way. No one got married during a war. It was unsavory, spending money on a lavish wedding while men were dying in the fields. It would be at least a year now.
Lucien grasped the bottom of my chin and tilted my face up to look at him. “Go back to your home, gather your things and your family, and come back tomorrow. We will wed immediately. Before the declaration of war.”
I gasped, my heart pounding in my chest as a lightness spread throughout my limbs. “But… tomorrow isn’t enough time for a proper royal wedding. You’re king and—”
“And I want my queen, not a seven-course meal and a cake taller than I am. Whatever my staff can put together will be fine with me. The Winter courtiers will be there as witnesses, and whoever else from your court you want to come. I don’t need a big show. I just need you.”
I just need you. Those words crept into my very heart and filled it until it was overflowing.
I prided myself on being able to conceal emotions well. Something I learned when training with my powers. Emotion and power were linked, so controlling emotions meant controlling power. But in this moment, I could not control the tear that slipped down my cheek, nor the gust of wind that rattled the windowpane outside.
It was the realization that Lucien loved me in a way I’d always dreamed of being loved. Without reservation. Without a care for what others thought, or reputation.
He reached out and swiped the tear from my cheek.
“I don’t read women very well. Is this good crying or bad crying?” He looked down at me with concern.
I laughed, wanting to reach out and kiss him, but in a room full of people I couldn’t. “Good tears. I’ll see you tomorrow for our wedding.”
It was early morning. If I rode fast now, and packed quickly, I could get back here with my family tomorrow afternoon.
There was a fire in his eyes now. “Until tomorrow.” He pulled my hand to his lips again and kissed the top.
PIPER LEFT all of my things in my rooms at the Winter palace. There was no sense bringing them to Fall Court just to have to bring them back again. We rode fast on horseback knowing we would be lighter without the carriage. Lucien insisted on sending a soldier with me even though we were in my own realm, and I obliged in order to keep him happy.
The snow gave way to orange and yellow trees, and as we passed through the Fall Court village I waved to the workers at the market stalls. By the time we reached my house, I was sore and hungry but I didn’t care. I was the most excited I’d ever been. Though a war loomed on the horizon, so did my happiness.
I jumped down from the horse and asked Piper and the soldier to put it in the barn for me. Then I ran for the small Fall Court palace that I had lived in all my life. I couldn’t wait to tell my mother and father of the upcoming wedding. They would be a little shocked about the quickness of it, but, ultimately I hoped, happy for me. We all knew the Nightfall queen had been silent for too long, and now that we had evidence of her stealing fae powers and absorbing them I knew my father would agree with Lucien that we needed to join forces and strike quickly.
There was a strange carriage in the front yard with over half a dozen men who all wore gray traveling cloaks. My father often had visitors from the realm as he was the acting leader in these parts, and in charge of everything that happened here, but… these men gave me chills as I passed. They kept their faces hidden, and the carriage had a blanket over the door, covering the insignia.
Turning the handle to the front door, I slipped inside past a few of the palace staff and went right for my father’s study.
I could hear murmured talking inside of it, two male voices, one my father’s, and the other…
I yanked the door wide and snarled, “Marcelle.”
The Summer prince spun wearing a deceitful grin. “Hello, darling.”
My father jumped a little at the sight of me. “Madelynn, you’re home.”
The winds had changed in the room and he was doing the nervous tic he always did when he played cards, flaring his nostrils.
“What’s going on? Why are you here, Marcelle?”
Marcelle’s eyes glowered at me and the use of his name without title.
“Prince Marcelle…” My dad stood and stepped away from his desk. “…is here to offer his hand in marriage so you don’t have to marry that monster King Thorne, as you put it so aptly last week.”
Hand in marriage? What? His words drew my eye to the contents of his desk. There was a small treasure chest like that you would use to pay a dowry standing on top of a signed document.
My heart hammered in my throat. “I’m already promised, Father. I just rode around the entire realm announcing my betrothal to King Thorne, who I am happy to report is not a monster.”
Marcelle moved out of the way, behind me as my father approached me from the front.
“King Thorne has not paid the dowry yet,” my father said, unable to meet my gaze. “So I am well within my rights to take another offer.”
“Of course he hasn’t, because you pay on the day of the wedding!” I shrieked, pulling wind from the cracked open window in my father’s study.
Marcelle grasped my wrists from behind suddenly and then something pinched them, biting the skin. I gasped as a painful burning worked its way from my hands to my chest and the wind I’d pulled turned into stagnant, unmovable air. When I yanked my hands before me to see what he’d done, I whimpered.
“Castration cuffs? Marcelle, no.” I pulled for my magic but was met with resistance and then nothing, as if reaching into an open void. “Daddy!” I screamed in panic.
A sob ripped from my throat. Castration cuffs were for those convicted of crimes. It inverted their magic so that they were rendered powerless.
My father stared at the Summer prince wide-eyed. “Marcelle, what the Hades are you doing cuffing my daughter like a criminal!?”
“She attacked me once before, only days ago. I could not afford it again. She’s very powerful. I will take them off once she calms. You have my word.” He used a syrupy sweet voice and I snapped out of my shock and fell to my knees before my father.
“No, please, Daddy. Don’t do this. I love Lucien. There is war coming and siding with him is the only way!” I clung to his leg like I used to as a little girl when he would get home from a long week away.
Reaching down, he tipped my chin up to look him in the eyes. When I did, I was frightened beyond repair. He wasn’t going to change his mind. I knew that look, that finality. “Marcelle has gone to the Nightfall queen and brokered a deal. She will leave Fall, Spring, and Summer Court out of the upcoming war if we separate from Winter and do not join the fight to come,” he said. “I have to think of our people. Of your mother and sister.”
I gasped, standing to my feet so fast that I nearly knocked him over. “Traitor!” I screamed in his face. “Coward!” I yelled as tears streamed down my cheeks. “You’ve sold us to the queen! You’ve sold me to Marcelle!”
My father winced with each word and I was glad for it. I hoped it stung like Hades and he never slept again.
Marcelle’s arm hooked under my armpit and he yanked me backwards. “I will keep her safe. She will want for nothing. She will be a cherished wife for as long as I live,” he told my father.
Lies. The lies coming from his mouth were enough to drive me insane. I bucked against him but it only made his hold tighter. My father had checked out. He was just staring at the wall in defeat. I wanted to smack him in the face.
“Where is Mother?” I demanded. “She would never stand for this.”
Marcelle pulled me from the doorway. “I arranged for your mother and sister to have tea in town while I spoke to your father. They are with my most trusted housemaid.”
“Father, I beg you, do not accept this. I choose Lucien. He can pay double whatever Marcelle is asking.”
My father sighed, again not meeting my eyes. “It’s not about the money, Madelynn.” His voice was broken and I didn’t understand until Marcelle spoke: “Good man, you’re doing what is right for your family and people.”
I glanced up at Marcelle then, my mouth agape. “You told my father you wouldn’t sign the deal with the Nightfall queen unless it included me as your wife.”
Marcelle smiled then, a sickening smile that made my stomach roil. “You always were so smart.”
My father was so afraid of war that he sold his own daughter to avoid it. Little did he know that war would come for him eventually. It would just be on a day not of his choosing.
“I forgive you, Daddy.” It was the last thing I said to him before Marcelle dragged me out the door, then my father wailed like a little boy. I didn’t want to leave him on bad terms. I hated him right now, but I also still loved him. He was hoodwinked and confused and he would regret this, I knew it.
As Marcelle marched me through my home, my brain was running a mile a minute. How could I get out of this? With my powers bound I couldn’t fight. Could I talk my way out of it?
“This isn’t legal,” I told him calmly.
“It certainly is. Your father can negotiate many dowries, and only until it is paid is the deal done,” Marcelle stated.
Was that true? I’d never bothered to read dowry paperwork. But it wasn’t done like this. “Lucien and I have already paraded our courtship around the entire realm. The people will wonder—”
He cut me off. “The courts will be told King Thorne mistreated you. Not hard to believe. And then when the treaty with the Nightfall queen is announced, no one will care what King Thorne does. We won’t be part of Thorngate anymore. He can do as he likes with his Winter soldiers and leave us out of it.”
Panic rose up inside of me because the more he spoke, the more I realized that his plan was believable. Pulling my engagement ring from Lucien off my marriage finger, I slipped it into my pocket for safekeeping without Marcelle noticing.
“The dowry is paid on the day of the wedding.” That, I knew, was a legal rule.
He nodded. “And we will be married today. Right now in fact.”
He yanked open my front door and then his men pulled back their hoods, showcasing the Summer Court insignia. The Winter Soldier Lucien had sent with me was unconscious on the ground, and I whimpered thinking of Piper, who was nowhere to be seen.
The blanket was ripped from the carriage and I was shoved inside.
“My things!” I shouted.
“Will be brought to you by my staff.” He had an answer for every question. It drove me mad.
When I stepped into the carriage and saw a priest sitting next to a Summer courtier, my stomach dropped out.
Married now as in now. In a carriage?
Marcelle slipped into the carriage and pushed my shoulder down, forcing me to sit. He then looked at the priest and made a gesture indicating he get on with it. “Remember, Madelynn’s father stipulated that I marry his daughter and keep her safe, otherwise he wouldn’t join us in our separation,” Marcelle told the priest.
“Lies!” I yelled.
Marcelle leaned in then, whispering in my ear. “Cooperate or I would hate for little Libby to have an accident.”
My entire back went rigid, the fight going out of me in an instant. He had my mother and sister at the teahouse in town. He wouldn’t hurt them, would he?
A tear slid down my cheek as I resigned myself to my fate. Nodding, I gave him a panicked look.
The priest began to read the wedding rites, and bile rose into my throat.
This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening. It was like my soul left my body. As we rode away from town, I nodded my agreement to the priest and relented to marrying Marcelle. When I looked out the window to say goodbye to my childhood home, I saw a flicker of hope.
Piper was running into the woods around the back of the house, towards the secret hunting trail that led to Winter Court.
