“You’re using me,” I said. “You want to go after the dragon, and you know I’m your ticket.”
Zach tilted his head, the smile still there. “Tell me, princess, how is that any different than you wanting me for your benefit?”
I wasn’t happy with the way he phrased it, but it was true. I did want him. He had unprecedented skill.
A mutually beneficial relationship.
So why was I so wary? Why did I not trust that charming smile?
I had no other option. If they were to take my mission away from me—especially after the verbal lashing my mother had given me—because I had yet to find a partner, I’d never forgive myself. And even if I did have someone else to take, none could compare to the prince who stood before me.
And, though it made me feel weak and vulnerable, I remembered him standing in front of me, facing my mother. A human shield to the poison of her words seeping into my skin and nestling into my heart and mind.
“Very well. If the Council agrees, let us be partners.”
Without another word, Zach took my arm again—continuing his gesture of support. Already, he was treating me like a partner should.
We walked the rest of the way to my room in silence, and as soon as I was behind the safety of my door, I slid to the ground and pulled my knees to my chest, letting the sobs come.
I wept for Kellian and Telek. I wept for all my partners. And I wept for myself.
My mother hated me with every fiber of her being.
With her voice echoing in my ears, I stayed on the floor and sobbed until Bromley came to get me for the Council meeting.
…
Even after my mother’s hurtful speech, the Council agreed to my partnership with Zach. Thankfully, I was still the purest princess in the Legion with the only Kiss powerful enough to take down the Sable Dragon. And after seeing Zach defeat Amias and hearing of his skills at the wall, they were more than satisfied he was a good match. In fact, they never once mentioned his heretic blood.
Master Gelloren took Zach’s hand and mine then pressed them together, wrapping them in a garland of ivy. During the partnership ritual, the mages had a variety of holy plants to choose from, but since I was a pure descendant, they used the flora for which I was named. They believed it invoked a deeper bond between our magic and Kisses.
“With this sacred flora, I bind Princess Ivy of the Great House of Myriana and Prince Zachariah of the House of Jindor together as Royal Partners serving in the Holy Sisters’ names. With this contract, the partners accept each other’s burdens and share each other’s magic, growing stronger and more powerful with every shared Kiss.” Master Gelloren tightened the ivy around our hands, and Zach’s fingers twitched against mine.
My mother sat at the Council table, watching the small ceremony with narrowed eyes and pursed lips.
“Illye holiend miyan oshantu.” At the partners’ spell words, the ivy burst into purple flames, singeing our hands and wrists.
Amid the purple flames, it felt like an invisible quill was etching each other’s marks onto our skin. It burned and stung, but still, we didn’t let go. If anything, we held on tighter as the clean spell lines were drawn.
A crown of holly and garlands of ivy curled magically around the back of Zach’s hand and down his wrist. It ended at the base of his palm, like all the other Marks of Myriana. Zach’s mark was a bracelet of branches ending on the back of my hand in elegant stag antlers.
Zach ripped his hand from mine as soon as the flames disappeared, his face flushed.
I wished he hadn’t, though. Princes who had partners before knew that once the partnership ritual had been completed, the princess would be weakened by taking on the Sense of the prince, like a wraith was standing on her shoulders. The words “the partners accept each other’s burdens” was quite literal when it came to princesses.
Perhaps if I hadn’t suffered from blood loss earlier in the evening, I would’ve been able to stay standing. But the burden of Zach’s Sense hit me full force, and I crumpled to the floor.
“Hey—” Zach dropped to one knee and grabbed my shoulders. “Ivy, are you okay?”
Embarrassed, I tried to pull away, but he held tight. “I’m fine—this is normal.”
Zach’s brow furrowed. “Normal? Why don’t I feel it, too?”
I looked past Zach’s worried face to Gelloren. The Master Mage just raised his eyebrows. “Never had a partner, indeed,” he muttered.
“I took your Sense,” I explained. “So you don’t have to worry about it while fighting.”
Zach squeezed my shoulders. “What?” he hissed through gritted teeth.
I was surprised at his intensity and placed my hand on his bent knee. “It’s okay. That’s what princesses do for their princes.”
Zach glanced at my hand that bore his mark and quickly stood. “That’s not what I signed up for,” he said, glaring at the Council, then at Weldan, perhaps angry at his friend for not fully explaining the terms of the partnership bond.
The Commander looked out the window, avoiding Zach’s angry gaze.
Zach walked to a candelabrum by the door and aimed a swift kick at it. Metal clashed to the ground, the candles rolling across the floor now void of flames. “No one told me giving her my mark meant she’d be stealing my Sense!” he shouted, then flung the door open and left.
Silence followed his exit. The Council members looked to Weldan, as if expecting an explanation. Weldan kept his gaze trained out the window.
I got to my feet, now steady, and nodded to Gelloren, an indication that we could proceed. Though I was more than a little surprised at Zach’s outburst, I could also understand it—he’d just lost a natural part of himself without consent. But there was little I could do about it now that there was no way of giving his Sense back—until our partnership bond was severed through either ritual or death.
The finality of that thought struck me in a way I hadn’t anticipated. We were partners now. Zach was my sixth prince. While I was both excited at the prospect of having a powerful warrior as a partner, I was also completely terrified. What if I lost him, too? I didn’t think I’d be able to handle that. And more, what if I returned to Myria a failure? With no prince, and the dragon hatched, coming to destroy us all.
It wouldn’t matter then if I didn’t return with Zach. We’d all be gone soon, anyway. Flecks in a sea of ashes.
Gelloren turned to my mother and shook out his sleeves, letting them fall over his hands. “Queen Dahlia, what news do you bring us?”
My mother looked away from me. “The eastern kingdom of Raed requires an investigation in their forests. They had a sighting of the Wicked Queen.”
When had the Council of Freida given Queen Dahlia approval to seek out the Wicked Queen? It must have been more than a few months ago, since she had been to Raed, as well.
Then again, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Dahlia’s thoughts had always been consumed with the legend about the Mother of the Forces. She was obsessed with her for reasons my sisters and I never tried to understand. They were the only real conversations. “Someday, child, I will find the soulless old crone. I will find her and tear her apart. I will see where her power comes from, and we will finally end this wretched war.”
Mother would often look down at me through curtains of her dark hair if I failed at a spell or combat move, and whisper words dripping with disdain. “Useless child. Pray the dwarves don’t steal you away. Though it might save me the trouble of worrying about whether you’ll live or die.” Sometimes they were just musings she would voice out loud. “I wonder if the Holy Queen ever felt responsible for giving birth to a daughter so weak she allowed herself to be turned into a walking demon.” But often they would make her sound somewhat unhinged.
It was hard to differentiate my childhood memories of her from my nightmares.