Page 35 of Crimson Kingdom

“Look,” he deadpanned. “She knows yours as well.”

I heard the smirk in his voice as clearly as if I had been looking at him. Pulling Ellie firmly back in my lap, I stabbed my dessert with my fork and wished it were Evander’s stupid, smug face.

Perhaps it was hypocritical of me to be irritated that he taught Ellie to call me a pet when I had essentially just taught her to call him an arseling, but the difference was that I was no one’s pet.

Whereas, Evander was certainly an arseling.

After dinner, my father pulled me aside, suggesting we take a walk in the gardens.

I jumped at the chance, even though there was likely a scolding coming my way. Anything to avoid the after-dinner brandy in the drawing room, wedged between Theo and Evander.

Still, awkward silence fell over us like a heavy blanket in the humid summer air.

We walked along the winding paths through the gardens, past the vines of wild roses and the sunflower field, all the way through the center where the memorial for my mother’s parents stood.

“I see our sparring session earlier did nothing to lessen your anger,” Da’s deep voice intoned.

“Well,” I offered. “After today--”

“Not just today, mo bhobain,” he interrupted me. “It isn’t like ye to be this way.”

I closed my eyes, pulling my hand away from the memorial stone.

“Fine,” I said quietly. “Yes, I’m angry. You’re angry, too. Everything about this situation is infuriating.”

Da’ only shook his head, moving down the row of hedges. It wasn’t long before I followed him, hoping we could get lost in the maze the way Avani and I had when we were younger, before she convinced a hedgehog to show us the way back.

Life had been so much simpler then. There were no Socairan lords. No weather-toes or floggings. Nothing that weighed too heavily on our minds or hearts.

“As I told ye before, give me the word, I’ll send them back to Socair,” he paused, looking thoughtfully at the castle looming above us. “And if ye give me two words, I will ensure that they return without their heads attached to their bodies.”

I snorted, making a show of deliberating the offer I wasn’t entirely sure was a joke. But he wasn’t done.

“Say no,” he said in a more serious tone. “I will deal with the consequences.”

“You don’t want me to consider Evander?” I asked curiously.

“I don’t want ye to consider either of them.” He shook his head. “If it hadn’t been for Rayan, we wouldn’t have known the tunnel caved in, or that you were alive.”

Rayan was the palace weapons maker, and he had an uncanny ability with stones. Judging by the fact that, like Fia, he hadn’t seemed to age more than five years in the lifetime I had known him, I assumed he was first generation fae.

I hadn’t thought to ask Da’ how they knew the tunnel hadn’t caved in on its own, hadn’t wanted to talk about those months at all.

“We would have spent all that time grieving ye, and we nearly had to grieve ye in truth because of everything that happened over there.” He huffed out a bitter breath. “No father in their right mind would want his daughter walking back into that.”

I sighed, the fatigue of the day, the week--hell, the months--running on very little sleep, catching up to me. “The council made it clear that there weren’t many options here, Da’. Even MacKinnon--”

“I will handle the council, and MacKinnon.” His voice dipped into something low and deadly. “There are always choices, and I willna stand by and watch ye be forced into this when there is something I can do to stop it.”

I took in the set of his shoulders, the way his fists clenched at his sides, and the sincerity in his eyes.

He meant every word. And on some level, I knew he wasn’t wrong. There were sure to be other ways to stop this war, to fix things with Socair.

But that would take more time than we had.

Besides, whether or not Iiro had maneuvered things, I had made plenty of choices that got us where we were right now. I couldn’t spend my life hiding behind everyone who stepped up to shield me from myself.

Closing the space between us in three quick steps, I wrapped my arms around his waist. He cocooned me in his embrace, holding me there for a long moment.