Page 16 of Onyx Cage: Volume II
It was several days before the castle finally came into view. For all that the landscape continued to be impressive, the castle itself was built more for defense than beauty. Strategically positioned at the top of a hill, it was a perfect square of towering gray boulders tucked behind an iron-and-stone gate.
Both still gleamed, not yet twenty years old.
That made sense, of course, considering my own father’s troops had destroyed the original Castle Chridhe. It was a story he loved to tell, the day he bested the H’Rian royal family. Rowan’s grandparents—the queen’s parents—had been strung along the walls of their own castle.
Had she witnessed that carnage herself?
Did her hatred run even deeper than her husband’s did?
Mounted crossbows peeked from the roof of the castle itself, and soldiers patrolled the walls, more than what I suspected was standard for peacetime. The wary looks exchanged by the soldiers as we neared the portcullis confirmed that theory.
Was this a response to Korhonan’s presence? To mine?
Or was there unrest brewing in the kingdom itself?
CHAPTER TEN
There was little time to see my rooms and dress before the welcome ball, but that was just as well, I didn’t feel like any more time could be wasted as it was. I dismissed the servant who showed me to my rooms, preferring to bathe and dress myself as I always did. Alone.
Yuriy would be acting as only a guard for this stay. I needed someone I trusted implicitly in the barracks when I had brought so few men, and I had no intention of exposing him to whatever vipers lie in wait in the Lochlannian court. This may be a ball in honor of my clan, but politics were the same the world over.
I used the familiar routine of getting dressed to ground myself, to consider all the reasons I couldn’t run Korhonan through with my sword tonight. I wasn’t here to start a war, tempting as it was.
By the time I finished shaving, my heartbeat had slowed to its usual rhythm. I buttoned up the lightweight black uniform I’d brought, straightening out the fabric as I emptied my mind.
Control would be essential tonight.
When I was as prepared as I could be for a court I had never set foot in, I opened the door to where Pavel and Yuriy stood guard, nodding at the latter to summon the servant to escort me.Then I strode with measured steps through the halls of a castle that was nothing at all like my own estate at Bear.
There was something almost homey about the vast space, with ivy that crept up the walls outside and draped across the vast windows, and the potted plants that hung throughout the interior. For all that the outside of the castle was built for defense, the part that faced the courtyard was all sunlight and open spaces, with vibrant tapestries spanning the entirety of the high stone walls.
There was still a strategy to the design, though, clean lines without alcoves to hide in. Rounded corners that were easy to search around.
It eased the itch between my shoulder blades, if not the tension at walking into a room full of my enemies.
Andher.
A pair of guards opened the gilded double doors that led to the ballroom, and I strode forward, the facade of calm, confidence fully in place, ready to get this happy reunion over with.
The music was predictably loud, like every part of this kingdom seemed to be. The servant escorting me went ahead to whisper to the herald, and the music slowed to a lull as the man beat his staff three times. I rounded the corner, finally able to take in the glittering ballroom. It was an explosion of color, brightly-colored gowns and coats so at odds with the more muted tones favored by my own people.
I felt her before I saw her, awareness prickling across my skin just before my eyes were helplessly drawn to a figure in the middle of the dance floor.
Though she should have been unrecognizable from the back with her curls swept up and tamed artfully around a sparkling tiara, I was intimately familiar with the way she moved, the way she danced.
The way she leaned closer to Korhonan like he was her last lifeline in a sea of mediocre decisions.
Fury rushed down on me in a wave of hailstones, threatening to shatter the calm I had armored myself with at seeing them together, as if they hadn’t missed a beat since their time apart. While I was following my father’s orders, getting even more blood on my hands and providing even more ammunition for Rowan to hurl accusations about being a child murderer at me, she was cozying up with the man who hadn’t bothered to fight for her when she was a captive of his enemy.
Then I heard the herald announce the delegation from Clan Bear, and I watched as she froze in Korhonan’s arms, almost like she was surprised, though she should have known we were arriving today.
Interesting.
I should’ve been taking the time to survey the room, to assess the points of entry and exits, to count the guards in the room and locate every member of the royal family.
But I couldn’t seem to tear my eyes from her slim form as she turned slowly when the herald announced my name.
Her face was exactly like I remembered it, yet entirely foreign. This woman was composed in a way that the princess I knew wasn’t, except for the full lips that were parted in pure shock. Korhonan tightened his arms around her, around my lemmikki, and my hand twitched toward the single sword I had worn tonight.