Page 2 of Of Bargains & Betrayal

It was both the hardest and easiest decision he ever made: to place his daughter in the care of nursemaids, to pry her from the woman whose womb had given her life. But that hazel-eyed, rosy-cheeked babe was his flesh and blood, too. His legacy, even if his court objected, and he would be damned if an ounce of harm ever came to her while he drew breath.

The seer’s place at Caenleigh Fortress endured a painful death after that.

She stopped visiting the gardens and lookouts she once studied and basked in.

Grew absent from the council meetings that demanded her presence, as dictated by her post as High Seer, if she could be called such a revered thing anymore. Even during the visits the king mandated she had with their daughter, she grew apathetic. More interested in staring off into the aether than playing with the child who was ferocious for her attention.

So, the king made the second hardest decision of his life.

He wrote to the enclave of seers, cloistered deep within the high fae lands of Elysiel, and destroyed centuries of tradition. None of their gifted disciples would ever serve an Odessan king again, including the one his mangled heart still loved.

In that all, he gave the seer an option.

A final olive branch.

She could stay with him at Caenleigh Fortress. Have the opportunity to prove herself as the worthy mother he knew she could be. Dedicate herself to him and their child, born of a love that had once been inarguable, as long as she agreed to leave her consuming pursuit of damning and fruitless visions in the past.

The seer declined.

So, the king asked her again.

Then he pleaded.

Finally, he begged.

But she turned him down as easily as it was to breathe.

And, five years into their daughter’s life, the seer left Odessa.

She never returned. Never wrote.

And she never knew the force of nature her daughter would become.

PART I

1

ALL OF THESE INFURIATING MEN

ENORA

Why were the words ‘get up, get dressed, and see yourself out’ impossible to parse for the men in my life?

A lack of critical blood flow, maybe, or just flippant arrogance mixed with the bruised egos and childhood trauma that had them always disregarding my explicit instructions. Regardless of what the answer really was, it was not the day for me to unpack any of that.

After all, my days of unrestricted fun had officially met their most finite end.

My days of sticking to my staunch, commitment-free principles.

Nights that ran into mornings, filled with anyone I pleased.

They were officially over.

I was positive I’d told Theo to leave after the midnight bell tolled, but the muscular limbs draped over my body and the muted rumble of a snore ghosting my ear said otherwise. Now, I usually wouldn’t mind being pinned facedown into the plushness of my bed, but I had shit to do.

I gave a half-hearted shift beneath him, but to no avail.

Theo was built as damned heavy as the thousand-year-old oak trees lining the outer bailey and as clingy as their wisps of sticky pollen in the gusty spring air. He also exuded the same heat as a damned hearth, even though the one warming my room had long since snuffed out. The cool air that greeted my fingers as I wiggled them out of my rumpled coverlet made me recoil.