“No, Scratch.” Brella wiped her eyes and reached forward to cup Scratch’s elbows. “It’s great. It’s so great. I want that, too.”

“You . . .” She looked up. Brella wasn’t laughing anymore. “You want that?”

“The king. He’s terrible in ways you can’t imagine.” Brella bit her lip. “I think Frances would be better.”

Scratch had never really considered the merits of King Ingomar. It didn’t matter what sort of king he was in the end. He was the king, so Scratch served him. Whether or not he was good for the people hadn’t been a pressing factor while Scratch busied herself rising through the King’s Guard. Ingomar would be king until he died and then Frances would be queen and on and on it went, and Scratch had nothing to do with any of it. Why should it matter to her? She cared that she and James lived comfortably. That she could be proud of herself. That she saw in herself something greater than the world saw in her. That she could make the world see in her the things they refused to.

King Ingomar had seen, and still he’d disregarded her. Then he’d thrown her in a dungeon.

“You have a plan,” Scratch said, savoring the feeling of knots coming untied. “A plan you kept from me.”

“Not so much a plan.” Brella pulled her knees up to her chest defensively. “An idea. A hope. Did you think I was risking my life just so my sister could get her lover back?”

Of course not. “I wasn’t sure what to think.”

“If I tell you about the king,” Brella asked carefully, quietly, “will you listen?”

Scratch didn’t hesitate. “Of course.”

“Okay then.” Brella smiled, and she was breakfast, warm and sweet. “I’ll tell you everything.”

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

The rest of the night was a swirl of loose memory and magic. Brella promised to explain King Ingomar’s faults after she and Scratch formed the blood bond, but she didn’t get the chance. The last thing Scratch remembered from the night was slicing her palm with the kitchen knife. A moment later, she was blinking herself awake on the floor of the lavender room, comfortably swaddled in a sea of monstrous pillows and blankets.