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
“Done.”
“Good. Wear Isolten sleeves tomorrow.” With that she began to casually walk around the room.
We’d done it. We’d gotten the only ally we could possibly have to do the one thing that might save our cause. This part of our plan, at least, was accomplished.
I found Mother’s eyes and nodded; she and Uncle Reid both shared a look of relief. Scarlet, who had clearly been watching the entire thing, saw my triumphant expression and tipped her head at me. Aunt Jovana would be filled in later.
And Etan . . . Etan was still in the middle of a sea of ladies, each of them presumably dazzled by his words. Between giving them winks and kissing their hands, he looked up at me. I smiled and nodded ever so slightly, and he gave me one of those knowing shakes of his head.
Whatever had happened out in the courtyard, maybe it would just be left there. Inside the castle, we had a king to conquer.
Twenty-Two
I LAY IN BED FOR a long time, just running my fingers across my lips. They felt different. I felt different.
I tried to pinpoint the moment, because I felt certain there had to be one. When had I gone from wishing Etan would disappear off the face of the planet . . . to wishing he was in the same room with me, teasing me? I wanted that this very second. I wanted him to come and argue with me or challenge me or give me that shake of his head when I’d done something right. And kiss me. I so desperately wanted him to kiss me.
I couldn’t find a when. And I couldn’t find a how. But it was there, shattering through all my worry and guilt and hope: my heart was beating for Etan Northcott.
How deep this feeling went, I couldn’t say, but having feelings at all made me uncomfortable. We’d been speaking about my late husband before the kiss. It felt like a disregard for everything Silas meant to me to let my heart wake up to someone else, especially so soon. Granted, everything between us had happened quickly. We’d run away together only a handful of days after we had met and married two weeks after that. I’d spent more time as Silas’s widow than as his beloved. But I didn’t want to treat him like he didn’t happen.
Because he did. Silas happened, and he really did save me, and part of why I was here now was to make sure he didn’t die pointlessly.
I couldn’t abandon all of that for a poorly thought-out kiss that I’d done nothing to invite.
I rolled over on my side and cried. Cried because I missed Silas and felt like I was betraying him, cried because I ached to go to Etan. I cried because the number of things I’d been forced to feel in a matter of months was too much for any heart to hold.