One Dark Window (The Shepherd King, #1)

by Rachel Gillig

My father kept irises in the house for a simple reason. Iris had been my mother’s name.

Something in my chest tugged. Even after all these years—the death of my mother, my infection—he always gave me yarrow on my nameday.

Eleven years, we’ve been together. Eleven years, and I’ve never told a soul.

My uncle turned his gaze to his daughter. “It is, my girl,” he said, his smile no longer false, but just as unnerving. “I’m counting on it.”

Her dowry ?? He gonna marry her off ??

“If not for your own enjoyment, go for mine. I would pay good money to watch Nerium Spindle squirm.”

I like her

It was as if, for once, I was trespassing on him.

It is the original king ??

The Hawthorn tree carries few seeds. Its branches are weary, it’s lost all its leaves. Be wary the man who bargains and thieves. He’ll offer your soul to get what he needs.

Damn

My father caught the eye of someone in the crowd and hastily put his hand on my shoulder. “I’m pleased to see you, Elspeth.”

No does he want to marry her off too ? He also has a card . Man I hate how daughters are just bargaining chips

If the world were ever to change—if those infected were to be cared for, not hunted like animals—it would be by the hands and heart of someone like Ione.

At the end of the stairs, by rope or by blade, they take the sick children, to burn in a cage.

This isn’t a game, I said. If I tell him I absorb any Card I touch, he’ll want to know the rest. He’ll find out about YOU.

Ohhhhh. She’s rogue

He was a captive. And they were going to commit treason to save him.

Or use her ?

I may be a liar and a traitor,” he said, “but at least I can say there is nothing I would not do to save my brother.”

Ravyn Yew. Infected.

Both their sons

Weariness was king, and I his servant.

It was easier to hate him for being secretive and dishonest than admitting I hated myself for the same reasons.

Brutus Rowan, his Captain of the Guard, became the next King of Blunder.”

For the first time, I considered Ravyn Yew more than disliked pretending to uphold the King’s laws as Captain of the Destriers. He loathed it.

“Hauth brutalized him. So one day I just… brought him home. My parents became his parents, my siblings his siblings.

Too much of wine a poison doth make. Excess is grievous, be knave, maid, or crown. Too much of water, how easy we drown.

Remember that, when you finally have the courage to admit it. In the end, I took nothing you had not already given me.

Like the wood. Fae.

“I felt less disguised dressed as a highwayman than I do in family colors.”

“It is not they who bring the reckoning, Ravyn. It is you. It is us.”

There were no cries of triumph—no support for the High Prince and the Destriers. They did not claim this violence.

Whether today, tomorrow, or years ahead, we will discover every fever—every degeneration—every unsanctioned magic.”

Oh because they go mad even later. Her dad risked the in laws too...

All will be forgotten, save one truth, unshaken… What did we do when the children were taken?

More children hurried behind us, their frightened faces illuminated by the flames.

He died saving them ?

“Let my brother worry.”

Poor woman

Life had sheltered them, like pearls kept in a velvet pouch. And I—I was not made of pearls. I was made of salt.

You don’t see how hard it is for a woman to be powerful—to be fearless—in Blunder, because you never cared about being more than exactly what you are. But I do.”

‘Only a man would need a Card to keep track of his enemies.’”