Page 5 of The Moon Blessed King
‘I have it in my room,’ Adalei replies. ‘Along with a few other jewels and finery. You could wear them on your return.’
‘Why do you have all that?’ Elician asks.
‘My father intimated such things might be necessary.’
‘It was necessary to keep his crown in your room?’ Fen blurts out. Adalei casts her a glance.
‘Would you have preferred I left it on the floor?’
Fen flushes, shamed. She hadn’t meant to sound so accusatory, but it felt wrong somehow that someone else had secreted away Elician’s crown.Fenshould have paid attention to it the night before, she should have found a proper hiding place. He washerbrother. But Adalei had already intervened, and why shouldn’t she have? As she said, she already had precious items in secret. What was one more?
Elician does not appear to care in the least. He tilts his head towards Cat for a moment or two before saying: ‘Melt it.’
‘Cousin?’ Adalei asks.
‘Melt the crown down. We’ll make a new one…a new set.’
‘A new…set?’ Zinnitzia asks this time.
‘Yes. For both Alest and I.’ He says it like they should all know what he means, and Fen is slightly gratified to know she isn’t the last one to know anything for once. It seems Elician’s decision to marry Cat is a surprise for everyone else as well; the whole table seems stunned by the implication. All save Adalei, whose sharp gaze is locked firmly on Elician and Elician alone.
‘You intend to wed?’ she asks, voice as steady as a stone.
‘Yes,’ Elician replies. ‘We are joining our houses. All of our houses. The House of the Unwanting is very muchwantedby me.’ He snarls the last few words, the fingers of his free hand flexing and tightening in a vicious fist. ‘And under our banner we will lead our nations, separate but together.’
‘And no one has to pretend or hide any longer,’ Cat adds on, quiet yet sincere, oblivious to the disbelief around him. Fen blinks at him, then realizes for the first time: there is no bell on his wrist. Reapers are meant to wear bells that ring whenever they move, alerting any nearby to their presence. Cat is still wearing black. He still wears gloves. But the hooded veil is gone from his shoulders, and there is no bell. Her heart pounds faster in her chest.
She opens her mouth to say something, but Elician is talking once more.
‘We made a vow before the gods last night to bind ourselves to this cause. It’s done.’
Fen tries to speak again, a question burning her tongue. Because that sounds very much like—
‘Did you have a witness?’ Adalei asks, faster than Fen can manage.
‘I will make you one now if you prefer,’ Elician retorts, reaching for Cat’s gloved hand where it rests on the table.
‘I don’t, actually,’ Adalei says. ‘But I do want to know when you intend for an official wedding ceremony to take place.’ Official. Because making vows in the night may as well be anunofficialdeclaration. Fen’s stomach aches with anxiety.
Elician, what have you done?
‘We’ll have the ceremony with the coronation,’ he says.
‘That’s too soon,’ Adalei responds. ‘Your parliament will want the coronation sorted within the month, but a royal wedding will—’
‘Be far too much of an expense and an extravagance to do separately. If the whole country is going to gather for the coronation, why bother with a secondary ceremony? It’s better to get both done with at the same time.’
‘How utterly romantic.’
‘It has nothing to do with romance,’ Elician snaps back. ‘This isn’taboutromance.’
‘Oh? Did you manage to impregnate him last night?’ Adalei asks sweetly. Lio sputters – useless in light of the two most importantpeople in his life taking turns jousting with each other. Cat, too, seems horrified by the turn the conversation has taken, pulling his hand from Elician’s grasp and hiding his face in it. Fen can’t blame him in the least. She couldn’t imagine being informed publicly that his betrothed not only has no romantic inclinations towards him in the slightest but also that the only reason for getting married would be something he isn’t even physically capable of doing in the first place. But Adalei presses onwards, ignoring the sharp discomfort settling across the room. ‘Because, unless we’re expecting a royal heir within the next nine months, there isno reasonto marry him that fast.’
‘Don’t be crude,’ Elician grinds out.
‘I’m being practical. You’re about to march back into the capital city, after being presumed dead for over a year, insisting that you are bound to the alleged heir of our people’s ancestral enemy. If you were in love with him, it would be one thing. I could sell that to your people. But this? Give me one good reason to take before your government that will convince them that this is the action of a man in full possession of his faculties. Because your marriage won’t even bring about the end of a war, it just guarantees the perpetuance of another.’
‘Adalei.’ Lio says her name like a curse, but she ignores him. She ignores everything that is not Elician himself. Fen has never seen her like this: argumentative, brusque. Adalei has always followed proper etiquette, protocol. She has always known her place. And she may be Elician’s heir, but Fen cannot bring herself to believe thatthisis Adalei’s place.
