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When the sun shines at night, he who will bring an end to war on this land shall be victorious. He shall be an heir, twice over, and a rightful sovereign over the continent.
And then there was someone far harder to decipher. Icy cold most days, only to thaw at the oddest moments. With strong hands and opaque eyes, a wicked mouth and a silver tongue. Who inspired as much fear and uncertainty in her chest as he did yearning.
He flung the doors open, and then she was face-to-face with Toven Hearst. The eyes she’d realized years ago weren’t fully gray, but also speckled blue, stared directly into her. She should have cast another spell to soften her heartbeat. He must hear it. His hair fell across his forehead, fine and so pale that the gray was almost silver. The last time she’d seen this man, he’d been hunting her through the woods and killed the people that got in his way.
“You know that’s not allowed in school,” Toven replied. Then he turned his eyes on her. “Is it, Rosewood?”
Rory hadn’t understood that, but Briony, who’d hidden herself for years as something unremarkable, had a certain respect for someone who knew they deserved more but held themselves back for whatever reason.
“No, it’s over, dear heart. I killed him. And I burned his body.”
Which means he is alive.. No proof of a body = alive
“First dance already taken?” he said coyly. “My, my, you don’t waste any time, do you?”
“Absolutely,” Toven said. “I am accustomed to having the finest thing in the room, after all.”
“Don’t try to make a fool of me in front of everyone here,” he said. “You’ll do a fine job of it yourself.
“Not all Eversuns can pry into your thoughts.” His lips twitched. “No?” He lowered his head to come eye-to-eye with her. “You don’t know what I’m thinking now?” Her eyes were glued to his as their feet glided over the floor. He had specks of blue in the gray. She could feel his breath on her face. “I never know what you’re thinking,” she whispered.
“Toven,” he said. “I thought perhaps I’d take Miss Rosewood for the second dance.” His eyes glinted. “As sixth in line.” Briony stared at Liam in confusion, until Toven slipped his arms from her, sending daggers to Liam but stepping aside. He had to defer to him. Briony hated that she missed his arms and his sure step.
Faster than a bolt of lightning, Canning’s palm shot out and slapped her, knocking her head to the side.
Never getting redemption
Briony stared in horror as Parsons choked and the blood bubbled. Larissa bared her teeth at her. “Go, you idiot!”
I love you
“Thirty-five thousand,” Toven said, crossing his legs again. “Getting a bit steep for you, whelp?” Reighven stood and faced the fourth row. “Hesitating?” “Steep for me?” Toven laughed. “I’m surprised you can count this high.”
But then Toven Hearst’s hearty laugh bellowed up to her, and she slammed her book closed and went to her window, careful to stand to the side so she wouldn’t be seen.
Her eyes fluttered, and she remembered the pain. Her body quaked, and arms pulled her closer. Someone held her to their chest, warm, solid, a steady heartbeat, walking, swaying, rocking her back to sleep. Her skin hurt. She could hear the rain but couldn’t feel it. Warm fingers pushed her wet hair off her forehead, and arms squeezed her tighter. She fell back into the blackness, like blinking.
the woman said. It was the concern of a mother. But her mother was dead.
His mom
“My mother says your voice was taken,” he said, breaking the silence. “Which doesn’t explain why your hearing failed you when I said you’d be harmed if you crossed the boundary line.”
When she finally wiped her eyes and sniffed back her tears, she turned to give in to the dinner plate, but it was gone. In its place was a piece of paper, words appearing slowly as ink seemed to pull from below. She glanced over the first few lines as they were written. Riann Cohle—Cordelia Hardstark Del Burkin—Didion Winchester, Velicity Punt Aron Carvin—Phoebe Rosewood
Briony watched the tub fill, wondering at how he’d come so quickly when she screamed.
“Look at me.”
Irritation flickered in her as she remembered how Serena and Toven had been insistent that she eat. It was no wonder; they were dosing her.
She hadn’t dropped it. Toven tutted. “Do you have any idea how much this whiskey costs?” he snapped. “Go upstairs and clean up.” Briony turned to look at him. It was him. He’d spilled it on her, to give her a chance to leave.
His words seemed to steal the air from the room. Gains puffed on his cigar, and Toven’s lips lifted in a tight smile. Briony stared at the general, trying to figure out his intention in bringing up the real facts of the matter.
Briony slithered out of his thoughts and wondered what Tremelo’s true motiviation was here tonight. Who was he to report back to? And why was it important to him that the daughter of Mallow’s enemy was safe, though captive?
“You knew, even then, that Toven was going to buy me,” Briony said. Larissa stabbed a new brush into a powder and hummed in confirmation. Briony took a breath, heart pounding. “Do you know why?” Larissa turned to her, hair swaying delicately. Her eyes took in Briony’s, studying her, before narrowing like a predator’s. “I do,” said Larissa, with a twist to her lips.
“Especially when your fingers are cold,” Larissa said, pulling her hand away. “My fingers are always cold,” Briony quipped. Larissa snorted. “That’s right,” she said with a knowing smile. “Are you really still cold in Bomard? After all these years?” Briony nodded. Larissa leveled her gaze at her. “It’s summer, for stones’ sake, Rosewood.”
“Do get some rest, Larissa. It’s no good passing out during lessons.” At the threshold, she turned and smiled. “Oh, don’t go getting attached to me now, Rosewood. It will make it so much harder to despise you.”
Briony’s cheeks flushed bright red as the room came back to her. Liam’s drink had frozen on the way to his lips.
Her heart leapt at its cage. The handwriting was familiar, but the word that truly took her breath away was “Worry” with a capital W. That was what she’d called Rory as a child, when she couldn’t pronounce his name. There really were only four people alive who knew the nickname. Herself, Cordelia, Didion, and Sammy. And one of them had written this note to her.
no dragon, don’t Worry
What if it is rory
The rest of his anger made no sense.
Cause he is jealous duh
“This whole idea is just childish.” “What’s childish is that you can’t bear to touch me!” “I touch you enough, it’s absurd you’re asking for more—” “—and although it’s quite obvious that I physically repulse you—” A dry laugh burst from him.
They were servants. Non-magical. They had no business getting involved in any of this horror. And yet, this was the woman who’d grasped her hand under the table with glass digging into her knees. A woman who had risked everything to get that note to her. Just as she’d risked everything to protect her little brother.
Briony’s expression froze on Larissa’s face. They’d left her. They’d gone with General Meers and left her behind. Had Rory tried to argue at least? Did Cordelia even bring up her name?
“Sometimes I have to act without your approval to do what’s best for my family! Not just you, all four of us!”
She stared at the fluttering light in a jar on her nightstand, listening to the echo in her ears of him calling her family.
Briony braced herself for the wrenching pain she’d felt the last time her tubes had been severed. She looked past the arm of the nurse toward the ceiling and took a shuddering breath, focusing on anything but the image of children with her curls and gray eyes—
There was a question tattooed on the back of Mallow’s eyelids, living at the front of her mind without any barriers to fight it. Where is he?
Because there was one he Mallow was examining in her mind. Something’s not right with her.
Briony thought it was strange that she didn’t feel it when her brother died. And maybe that was because he hadn’t. The collar didn’t work on Briony because she had given her heart magic away to her brother. What if she still was giving it? Magic freely given couldn’t be taken.
I don’t know, Rory said. Maybe I’d be a sailor. I’ve always loved the harbors at Daward.
Briony chuckled to herself as she remembered how feared Mallow was because the dragon’s bond gave her the ability to read minds. It wasn’t a dragon; it was a poor study at mind magic, sloppy and painful.
Maybe that had nothing to do with her strategies and connections. Maybe it was because she was a Rosewood woman who hadn’t been sterilized.
“Is that what you want?” he said, arching a brow. His voice dropped an octave. “Is that what you want? Are you so starved for righteous indignation that you’d like for me to take away your magic and your books and your privacy?” “I want to know why I have those things,” she said. His face was so close to hers, she could feel his harsh breath.
“But I have to get to my sister. I know you had one once. And I hope you remember what that bond means.”
