“Leave it there!” his father commanded, as Morgan tensed himself to leap. “Let it melt. Let her burn. She is the past. Maris Garrick is your future.”

Half-slid from the chair, stunned, he watched the locket glow, and glow, and then start to buckle.

Luzena.

“Morgan—” His father’s rough voice dragged his gaze back to the bed. “That was harsh. I know it. But I’ll not beg your pardon. In time you’ll come to see I was right.”

Was he angry? Hurt? Or simply… unsurprised? He couldn’t tell. All he knew was that he felt diminished, as though some strange and terrible incant had alchemied him into a child.

“I’ve been patient long enough, Morgan,” his father said, his blue-tinged lips trembling. “I can’t afford to wait any more. I have to know this business of your marriage is settled.”

The answer to that was obvious. So you can die happy, my lord, and I can live bereft. But of course he couldn’t say the bitter words out loud. Swallowing them, he looked again to the fire.

His locket was bubbling around its smooth, fragile edges. He’d never warded it. Had never imagined the need. In fourteen years it had never once been unclasped from his neck.

Luzena… Luzena…

Stiff-spined in the bedside chair, Morgan looked at his father. What should he do? Walk out? He was well within his rights. He was a man, not a child, and no man should submit without protest to such rude handling. But if he walked out, his father would suffer. With Lord Danfey’s end come so near, could he forgive himself for hastening it? What would Luzena want him to do?

Stay. Make peace. She would never bear a grudge.

He needed no locket to remember her. Luzena was engraved on his heart and his soul.

“Then let us be clear about the matter, my lord,” he said. Not warmly, for he still felt frozen. “You are content that I wed with Maris Garrick? You’ll not turn about in a week’s time and upbraid me for choosing a girl who, for all her ranking, you suddenly deem stands beneath us?”

“Am I content?” His father, exhausted, rolled his head on the pillows. “No, Morgan. Maris Garrick lacks Luzena Talth’s breeding and background. But she is the only mare to hand and she is not impossible, so I say you will ride her.”

Morgan bowed his head. “Yes, my lord.”

A lengthy silence, filled with crackling flames and harsh breathing.