Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92476 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92476 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
But no one asked me if I wanted to be married to the Unseelie Prince. The decision was made for me and I have been given no say in the matter.
If the issue was simply my father—the King of the Summer Court—trading me away to a warrior from the Dark Realm, it would have been bad enough. But it is so much worse than just an arranged marriage to a man I do not know.
For you see, the Unseelie warrior I will be marrying today—Prince Liath Blackthorn of the Shadow Throne—is the man who killed my older brother.
And for that, I will have my revenge.
1
“How can you do this to me?” I demanded of my father, when he first informed me of his decision and the impending nuptials. “How can you give me away to the one who killed Quillian?”
“It is true, Quillian is gone while you remain.”
My Father’s voice was bitter and he looked at me with resentful eyes. He was tall and kingly and the Sun Crown made him look even more regal, casting its golden glow upon his royal person which was always draped in the finest of silks and satins.
Behind him on a high dais was the Shining Throne, a wide chair which was actually more of a couch, carved in mystic and magical symbols upon which only those of the royal blood of the Summer Court may sit. My father had sat there alone since the death of my mother—for which I knew he still blamed me.
“But you’re giving me to his killer!” I protested again. “How can you, Father? How can you reward such treachery—such evil—by giving Liath Blackthorn your only daughter? By giving him me?”
“You will serve as a bridge between the Courts,” my Father informed me coldly. “Perhaps no more of our warriors will need to lose their lives as Quillian did, if your marriage can make peace.”
“How can you wish to make peace with the killer of your son?” I could feel the tears pricking my eyes but my grief and longing for my older brother did not move my Father in the least.
“Enough of this mewling,” he snapped. “Liath Blackthorn has agreed to take your hand in marriage and he shall have it, no matter how you mope and moan. You will go to the Winter Court and I will never have to see you again.”
Then he dismissed me from his presence and I knew there was no more to be said—I would be married whether I liked it or not. But I still couldn’t cool the burning anger in my heart against my soon-to-be husband. Especially when I thought of my big brother and how much I missed him.
Quill was my best friend and my only ally in the Summer Court—before my husband-to-be stabbed him through the heart. He was six years older than me and had long, fair hair and eyes like sapphires. He had grace and poise and he was a fearless warrior on the battlefield. In short, he was everything a prince ought to be. But he was also a kind big brother.
It didn’t matter to him that I looked different than the other Fae maidens or that I had no magic. He treated me with kindness and respect and he wouldn’t let our cousins, Asfaloth and Calista, bully me if he was there to stop them.
The problem was, Quill couldn’t be by my side all of the time—he was often out with our father, learning how to rule, since he was the one and only legitimate heir. A woman could sit the Shining Throne of course, as long as she was a High Fae with the proper bloodlines—but not one like me, not one with no magic. And so Quillian was the one my father doted on, the one who was to rule after he stepped down.
As a consequence, I was often left to the tender mercies of my cousins—and they had no mercy—none at all. Often, Quill came upon me crying, because of the cruel things they had done to me.
I remember one incident in particular—I was around ten at the time. I had wandered into a shaded grove on the edges of the Fae lands, which were spelled to keep mortals and anyone not of the Summer Court out.
I had always preferred the shadows to the sunshine that pervaded most of the wild lands around the Seelie territory. My fair skin did not glow with golden warmth when it was kissed by the sun—instead I burned and peeled as no Fae maiden should. So I kept to the wooded glades when I was out seeking solitude.
I had gone to the grove for some privacy but then I had seen Asfaloth and Calista together doing…things I did not understand at the time.
I thought nothing of seeing them together at first. They often went off, just the two of them. Sometimes they caught squirrels or rabbits to torture and test their magic on. I often found the little furry bodies mangled and bloody when my cousins were done with them.