Page 5 of The Bride of Lycaster
The crowd of girls gasped and muttered to each other, but I was speechless. One giant could eat a herd of sheep, dozens of cattle, and a few families in a year. Killing just one spared countless lives in the Northern provinces,but ten?
I let out a disbelieving breath and Brietta smiled against my hair. Julietta was just a girl in the class below me, but for a moment she became my favorite person with her brother’s taleof vengeance.
I hoped the giants had died as painfullyas possible.
Suddenly, an irate voice shouted over the crowd. “What are you yellingabout, Thornebow?”
The crowd of girls shuffled out of the way as Annalisa Hyton stomped through the door of the Junior dormitory. Annalisa was Derrick’s twin sister, but they looked nothing alike aside from a matching pair of dark blue eyes. Annalisa had a body like an hourglass and a mouth like a fist. Her usually perfect blonde curls stuck out wildly around her head from a night of tossingand turning.
“Our Selection Night is in two days!” Annalisa yelled at Julietta. “I swear if you keep me from mybeauty rest—!”
“This news is more important than your supposed beauty rest, Anna,”I snapped.
Annalisa shot me an icy look. “Only toyou.No one else is from the Northern provinces nor cares about thosedamn monsters.”
Brietta’s hand rubbed my shoulder, a silent “I care.”
Annalisa eyed the letter in Julietta’s hand and sneered. “And why the hell would someone deliver a message in the middle of the nighttoyou?”
Julietta looked down her nose at Annalisa as if she were a hairy spider. She flipped her ash-brown braid over her shoulder and steeled her voice. “According to the messenger, it was the Duke’s direct order to relay any post from the victorious battlefront as soon as possible. And since my brother is one of the top cadets at your uncle’s military academy and the best archer in the army, I getimmediate correspondence…”
Julietta smiled like a cat drinking cream as she glanced around the room, “…that I get to share with allof you!”
All the girls in their nightgowns looked at Annalisa with big eyes, silently pleading for the Duke’s daughter to leave us in peace to hear the rest ofthe letter.
The other two Seniors dutifully flanked Annalisa and groanedat Julietta.
“Do you have to yell about the battlenow?” Dinah Pebblebrooke whined as she tugged at the roots of herchestnut hair.
Camille Meadowshyre’s golden waves bounced as she stamped her foot. “Come on, Julietta, letus sleep!”
I rolled my eyes. Neither of those twits could handle the Duchess’s crown.
My voice was calm yet pointed. “The faster we hear the rest of the message, the faster you three can go back to bed.”
The crowd chattered quietly in agreement. No one else at Ashmore had a personal stake in the destruction of the giants, but we rarely saw any excitement while cloistered behind the academy’s tall stone walls. Reading the letter from the battle had been the most interesting event in the wholeschool year.
Julietta quieted the crowd, relishing both the attention and Annalisa’s frustration. She cleared her throat and imitated her brother’s proud voice again. “I led the archers in shooting the monsters in the eyes. Once the giants were blinded, the Beast came up behind them and sliced offtheir heads!”
I quietly let out a breath. No one could decapitate a giant. I had to know who had achieved the impossible. “Who isthe Beast?”
Julietta looked up at me with a twinkle in her eye. “You will never believe this, but there is a half-giant cadet the same age as my brother. Grigory told me that he is over nine feet tall and vicious—all the cadets call himthe Beast!”
“A nine-foot-tall half-giant?” I scoffed. “Thatis impossible.”
Camille shuddered. “No human would survive…matingwith agiant, right?”
Annalisa gave a cruel laugh and glanced in our direction. “Of course it is possible. How else would you explain Brietta? The Beast could beher half-brother!”
Annalisa, Camille, and Dinah all laughed and the mattress shifted as Brietta shrank in on herself. Some of the younger girls laughed too, but they all quieted under my sharp glare. Brietta was well over six feet tall, making her the largest girl at Ashmore, but she wasnota half-giant.
Before I could bite back at Annalisa, Brietta squeezed my arm. As much as I wanted to lay into the other three Seniors, the last thing I should do was break my nails or mar my hands with cuts right before we metthe suitors.
“Anyway,” Julietta said with a glare in Annalisa’s direction, “Grigory writes ‘We are coming back to Hyton immediately. His Excellency will host a victory celebration for his army in the center of the city the day after Selection Night. I look forward to seeing you once I am amarried man!”
“What?” Annalisa half-gasped. “Amarried man?”
Dinah’s eyes widened with panic as she whispered to Camille. “His Excellency is allowing military cadets into Selection Nightthis year?”
