Contents ( 48)
- Dedication
- Map
- Contents
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Three Months Later
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- About the Author
- Books by Kiera Cass
- Back Ad
- Copyright
- About the Publisher
Thirty-Three
THERE WERE GASPS AROUND THE room, but I stood there unmoved, as I knew this to be a magnificent lie. A second later, the holy man reappeared. In his hands, he held two things. The first, a rolled-up scroll with a golden seal. The second, a sword. But it wasn’t any old sword Jameson had in his vast collection. It had a golden blade and jewels encrusted in the hilt.
He meant to threaten me with something made by Silas’s hand.
“Do you know what this is?” Jameson asked with a smirk, holding up the scroll.
I had no answer.
After a short silence, he broke the golden seal and opened it, showing a very long document with several signatures on it.
“Hollis, I wanted you for my bride from very early in our courtship. I knew you would be mine. But you were so green, so rough, that I understood it would take time to make people come around and see you as I did.” He laughed. “Look at you now! Even in such a state, you look ready for a throne, regal and shining like the sun.”
“I am not the sun,” I muttered, but he ignored me.
“I had to have you. But seeing as the law made us wait, I bent the law to me. Your parents were kind enough to oblige.”
My heart stopped beating. No. No, they couldn’t have.
“I’m sure from there you might not be able to see the date on this,” Jameson said, “but if we look right . . . here.” He pointed to a line. “Why, what’s that? Oh, it’s the date of Crowning Day.”
“What is that thing, Hollis?” Etan asked quietly.
“A contract. My parents signed me into a betrothal. They’re formal, complicated, and the only one who can void them is the king,” I said, looking over to Etan, feeling absolutely defeated. “According to that paper, I’m married to him. I’ve been married to him since the night I ran away.”
“There you have it, Hollis,” Jameson said finally. “You are mine. And now you will be made to yield to the law. And you will take your place beside me . . . as I always said you would.” He turned to Delia Grace, who’d been sitting there quietly this whole time. When she stayed there gripping the arms of her chair in shock, he said, “You can go.”
After watching her be repeatedly degraded through the years, I felt the deepest shame that her most public humiliation unwittingly came at my hands. For better or worse, Delia Grace had been my sole companion for most of my life, and she had a measure of my love no one could steal.
Her tears fell silently as she rose from her seat, curtsied to Jameson, and walked to the side of the room. In an unexpected act of kindness, Nora was waiting off to the side with open arms, embracing her as she came down. Delia Grace stood there, facing the wall as Nora held her, trying to hide her face from the crowd.