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The compliance irritates me, eats away at the edges of my sanity, proof of the game that she’s playing with us.
9/17/24 Or, proof that she’s actually compliant and didn’t come as a threat…
I prepared myself for kindness and understanding, yet none of that was needed.
9/17/24 Oh yes it was buddy… you’re just to blind and ignorant to see that…
The barbs she’s thrown out, always in retaliation,
9/17/24 At least you’re acknowledging that you Al started it, every single time.
Without looking up from the letters in front of me, I say, “What's to stop you from murdering us all? The iron cuffs don't seem to be doing much to you.”
9/17/24 Well, obviously the Fates for one…
I’m tempted to hand her a sword to see just how much she learned in the Sol Army, to put all of those promises of death in her eyes to the test.
9/17/24 Do it! Do it!
I’ve never come face-to-face with the leader of the witches, the male who weaponized his entire race under the guise of freedom.
9/17/24 Obviously not the entire race if you know many fled to the Northern Lands to escape him. 🙄🙄
She nods at me slowly, the smile slipping away as she watches me as though watching a circling dragon. “I feel as though we should attempt to reach some form of compromise, or we’re going to do nothing more than this. Don't you want your throne?”
9/17/24 Yeah, Rooke. Cuz this tat for tat, blow for blow conversation isn’t going to get either of you anywhere…
I’ve been stuck feeling her absence for hours after we parted, and I don’t want that magic following me to bed. I pointedly never think of the witch in my bed
9/17/24 But didn’t he say he lay awake for hours tormented by this silver eyes?
and what a betrayal of my kingdom it will be when the fires of my anger for her twist into something different. If the Fates would allow, I’d find someone else to pour that rage into and maybe finally get some sleep, but the thought of touching another female also curdles my gut.
9/17/24 Um, dude that doesn’t sound like rage you’re speaking of… it sounds a lot like lust, …another person to channel it into, but touching another FEMALE? Really? 🤣🤣
The only speculation worse to me than that is the one I have about the witch’s life in the Northern Lands and with whom she shared it.
9/17/24 In the meanwhile, the musical knocker is still standing at the door.
The neckline of her dress sits firmly at the base of her throat, and her sleeves cover her arms to her wrists, but there are no lace panels or ribbons woven through the fabric like most high-fae females wear, only a single line of pearls stitched around the flattened collar.
9/17/24 Is she being beaten or abused? I remember something bad about her, but I can’t remember what. These coverings of her skin are suspicious..
“Absolutely not, Sari. She's not docile, don't let the chains fool you.”
9/17/24 Docile… Lordt…
“Such a sharp tongue, and after I’ve offered you some decency. Who’s the dense one now? You're getting clean, aren't you?”
9/17/24 Did Soren not order this? You’re just complying…
My mind blanks out as I try to forget about my feet, to wipe the pain of their current existence from my consciousness altogether, and I have trouble following the maids' conversation as they talk amongst themselves.
9/17/24 How about just saying the damn shoes are too small… if they still make you wear them then that’s different.
As though it’s their opinion of them and not the source of them that has me feeling this way. Typical arrogant and shallow high fae, caring only for how they look in their stupid dresses and Fates-fucking-cursed shoes.
9/17/24 So how about you say that and shut them down? How in the hell did I endure this before?
His lips move, but whatever he says is too soft for me to hear.
9/17/24 Probably commented on your looks and smell.
“Soren, she’s…I didn’t think witches could be beautiful like that! Well, the court can’t argue about your heirs—they’ll be blessed with stunning looks from the two of you.”
9/17/24 Well would you look at that! Big change from calling her “that” and the other disgusting words used to speak of and about her in is reception room office…
Why is the Savage Prince friendly with the regent’s daughter, why was she so kind to me, and how in the Fates good name have none of them noticed she’s so scared?
9/17/24 Yet you notice that she’s scared and say nothing to her cousin… or anyone for that matter, knowing you are likely going to be placed back down in the basement and unable to help her… so aren’t you just the same?
“Is the Savage Prince selling bread and stew to them? How much money do they have for such things?”
9/17/24 Rooke… if that ain’t the dumbest thing you’ve said this entire book… 🙄🙄
The choice of rulers for the Southern Lands is a regent who happily wines and dines as his people starve and a prince who gives away food for free but has a terrible temper and a scarred face, a drawback for the vacuous Unseelie Court who don’t value the story it tells of a future king who fought on the front lines of the war for his kingdom. It seems like a no brainer to me, but the Unseelie Court is incredibly stupid.
9/17/24 it’s a no brainer to you yet….
I don't feel even the tiniest bit of gratitude within myself. I feel nothing but spite and an awful tenderness in my toes, knowing that, as the negotiations for my marriage begin, the only opinion not being taken into account is my own.
9/17/24 And whose fault is that Rooke? Your own. You’re the one playing the “I don’t have to do anything or explain anything. I’ll just let Fate do its work” game when you’ve already said you realize that you ACTUALLY HAVE TO PARTICIPATE in order for that to happen. 🙄🙄 Frustrating.
And what does that mean?
9/7/24 Right, Old Self! I still don’t get it. Not for her own good and she deserves it for being a witch despite the fact that she wasn’t even apart of it, nor were the other witches that fled North… but for his reputation? Makes no sense to me.
Why not have them grab whatever food stores they have as well to add to the pot at Yregar? They had to have something.
9/17/24 That’s just what I was thinking myself, Old Self. There was so food in someone’s house! No matter how small. And also, this dummy has a healer, did Tyton not tell him this important fact? You would think he would.
There are no healers left in the Southern Lands—none but the witch in my dungeon with cold silver eyes and a fate to match mine.
9/17/24 Oh so you DO know she’s a healer…
And you’re an idiot.
9/17/24 Isn’t he though, Old Self! I mean, you just witnessed the miracle of grass growing in a near barren land and you think it’s a bad thing? He just needs to stop. He’s so damn dumb. Tyton needs to snap out of it and explain things to the dummies…
So he says all this, which means he knows Soren has to marry her, but he’s always speaking against it… walking contradictions…
9/17/24 I was about to that! Old self, great minds think alike…😏
“I hate the female. I wish nothing but a violent and painful death for her.”
9/17/24 And for what reason? What has a witch that has been in the Northern Lands fighting FOR a High Fae King ever done to you to deserve your hate and contempt. By rights, that alone should tell your ignorant self that she has nothing to do with this war in the Southern Lands because isn’t this war against the high fae? Why fight for one if you hate them?
question... I assumed that she was helpless, that she knew she was outnumbered and could not risk fighting back, and yet…she killed two of my soldiers.
9/17/24 You still seem to assume that though…
I want to know exactly what they did, how far they had to go to cause such a reaction in her, how far they pushed before she snapped.
So unlocking the door they shouldn’t have had a key to and entering without permission from their Commander AND with the intention to r* wasn’t enough? She needed something else to be done before she could defend herself?
Tyton has been the only one to truly coax information out of her and only when she was questioning him about the kingdom, an exchange taking place between them.
9/17/24 It’s not called “coaxing”, it’s called “having a conversation”…
I’d rather be forced into inane ramblings about pretty trinkets with Sari than utter a word to the witch with the ash of my people still clinging to my clothes, their deaths just one act of war out of hundreds of thousands by her kind, but there are other ways to lure her into revealing her true plans here.
9/17/24 He has so many damn excuses for not having a conversation with her. So annoying.
I’ll go insane if I don’t do something useful.”
9/17/24 And this is useful…?
I hold back a flinch at the pain in my feet, letting the ripple of discomfort roll down my spine as I straighten carefully to hide it.
9/17/24 And why didn’t she take them off when she got down there?
I never got used to wearing shoes. Hundreds of years in the Sol Army marching and fighting did not cure me of my hatred for them.
9/17/24 Must we really go on a tangent about her and footwear?
He’s such an idiot…
9/17/24 And thus, show your stupidity and ignorance in doing so. As soon as she arrived in the Southern Lands, you came for her. So, how in the hell would she know anything about this, locked away in your dungeon since then?
“I have no affiliation with the witch armies terrorizing the kingdom. I fled to the Northern Lands as barely more than a witchling and have never interacted with Kharl Balzog or any witch under his command. I have no loyalties to them or their barbaric aspirations, only to the land and the peaceful people here.”
9/17/24 NOW, you say that, not before, when you were alone with the four princes or either of them, giving them time to try to actually verify your story, but here, in front of everyone so that there are MANY voices of dissent to contend with and to try to persuade. Dumb move Rooke…
This makes zero since. He has to marry her to get his thrown so what the fuck does he think any of this will accomplish?
9/17/24 Well, she’s an idiot too so, maybe. Because her sitting there and not actually communicating anything important to anyone, know the ignorance and hate she would face coming back here is not going to get her anywhere…
I’ll sacrifice everything for my people and my land, but the ending will always be the same—your blood spilled and your life forfeit. Nothing will fill me with greater joy.” I stare up at him, my words matching his in tone and intensity. “I have no doubt of such a thing, Savage Prince.”
9/17/24 Well, that’s wasn’t a very good comeback line…
It doesn't take a genius to figure out this is a display for the high fae, a reminder of the reality of what the kingdom faces outside the walls of Yregar.
9/17/24 No, boo. It’s a display for you because despite what you say you realize, you fail to see that your behavior (along with the Prince and his crews) is not conducive in anyway to helping to realize your fates. If anything, it’s preventing it. Y’all both too damn stubborn.
We stayed while the entire structure was consumed by flames and the souls passed on to Elysium, but before the last pillars turned to ash, we saw smoke on the horizon as Havers Run was hit next.”
9/17/24 Why is Byzir giving this account when everyone knows Tauron led these men?
Why is he trying to make them hate her more? It makes no sense.
9/17/24 Exactly Old self! This is definitely defeating his purpose being that he needs her to comply with the marriage and bonding. Did he forget that part or has he found another way after 900 years suddenly? What is he expecting this to do?
Were it not for my work here in the castle, my family would starve. I'm very grateful to you, Your Highness.”
9/17/24 But… where can you actually spend the money from your job to get food? Wouldn’t they be starving anyway since the land is yielding very few of anything? Think Mrs. Bree forgot about that part cuz it makes no sense…
I kneel there, my knees screaming with pain,
9/17/24 So why not just sit down?
This Fates-cursed mate of mine might not deserve any of my help after all of the terrible treatment he’s dealt me but the people of this kingdom are blameless
9/17/24 So, that didn’t cross your mind when you witness the starving people at the port when you arrived. Did seeing the barren lands as you walked towards Ravenswyrd not alert you to why the people were starving and suffering? Did not seeing the people in the village when you arrived not tell you anything and thus you kept up this cold as ice heart for over a month now while caged in the basement? SMDH. Stupid.
It's not my fate to step in now, not before my union to the Savage Prince…but when has that ever stopped me?
9/17/24 You’re a witch! Of course it’s your fate!
She already said she hasn’t been there and is not affiliated with them, so why would she know? Idiot.
9/17/24 No, Old Self, you’re the idiot this time. She should have known something. She’d been hearing rumors about everything else the whole time, why not about this. She saw first hand when she arrived at the port, but still held to her ignorant beliefs. She saw the land and lack of people on the road or villages when they walked to the fae gate, and should have realized something more was wrong. She saw the low fae and part bloods when she entered the village. She even spoke to the earth and has been powering sharing with it for over a month… She chose not to see.
I’ve found myself bored of the sourdough and cheeses here. We can go to the food market, and I can find something else. I like the foods of the lower fae. It's interesting to see what they do with such few resources.”
9/17/24 This damn girl here… Was she not just at last night’s meeting?
“Soren, I’m bored,
9/17/24 Sari, go home! 🤷🏽♀️
Some of the newer soldiers duck their heads and turn from her as we approach, as though they're ashamed to be seen, or maybe they’ve met her and know of the capricious temper her smiles hide.
9/17/24 Or maybe they know her because they used to work for her father… or still do.
Malia gets Sari into the saddle and fusses with her until she's satisfied that the princess can't look any better where she's sitting, her skirts plumped out and draping over the flank of the pony.
9/17/24 He should be able to glimpse her eyes now since she has to look up, somewhat, to fix her clothes now.
