“I’m so mad at him, Aer.” Vixie pulled back, her pretty lips pursed. “I refuse to call him papa anymore.”
This wounded Aerity more than anything else so far. She didn’t want this kind of divide in the family. Aerity rubbed Vixie’s arm. She understood her sister’s refusal to call him papa. Tonight, she’d felt like a king’s subject, not a king’s daughter.
“Hush now, Vix. I’m sure he’s doing what he thinks is best. . . .” The words felt vile on her tongue, though she remembered their discussion of honor and sacrifice. Those things had seemed simple in theory, when it hadn’t been her own future on the line.
“You cannot seriously be all right with this!” Vixie pulled her arm away.
Aerity was torn between what her heart felt and what her mind knew. Someday, she would be queen. All her life she’d been taught to put the kingdom first. This was the first time she’d have to see that duty in action. Never did she imagine it would be like this.
“I will have to make difficult decisions when I am queen—”
“You will never make decisions that hurt your children!”
Aerity’s breaths were shaky. She hoped to the seas she’d never be faced with something like this when she had to rule. Could she ever sacrifice one of her children’s happiness for the kingdom? If not, would that make her a weak ruler?
She swallowed hard.
“Thank you for what you said in there, Vixie. You don’t know what it means to me.”
“I know you’re trying to be strong, and all of that queenly nonsense, but I am angry enough for both of us. I refuse to speak to him.”
Aerity choked back a laugh and took her passionate sister in her arms again. “Please don’t hold on to your anger too long.”
Vixie sniffed and looked up. “You really will do it, won’t you? You’ll marry a complete stranger.”
Aerity’s stomach turned like a rough gale. She shut her eyes. “I don’t want to,” she admitted. “But, aye. I will. I want this beast dead. I have to hope for the best, Vix.”
When Aerity opened her eyes she found Vixie studying her.
“You will make a good queen someday,” the girl said softly.
This was the thing that finally brought Aerity’s emotions to the surface, causing her to fight for breath. She didn’t feel like a future queen, and definitely not a future wife. She felt like a girl who had just lost something important. “Will you stay with me tonight?”
“Aye. Anything for you.”
Chapter
7
Most males in Lochlanach focused on fishing, crabbing, and harvesting shellfish. Brothers Paxton and Tiern Seabolt were two of the few who focused on land animals. Hunting. The lands of Lochlanach were best for growing crops, not raising livestock, so meat such as poultry, pork, and beef were in low supply at any given time. Only the wealthiest merchants could afford to raise animals for personal consumption.
In winter months when meat was scarce, the village turned to the Seabolt brothers. They kept a lean-to in the nearby forest with freshly salted venison and sold it as cheaply as they could, barely making a profit, not wanting anyone to go hungry.
Even though they themselves were nearly always hungry.
It didn’t used to be that way. Before their father’s knees went out two years ago, he’d been a successful deep sea fisherman. They’d lived comfortably on an acre with a stream, eating fish as thick and meaty as beefsteaks. Now they were crammed within one of the row houses of the village, lucky to salvage bits of leftover venison jerky.
Seventeen-year-old Tiern took their family’s fall in stride, as good-natured as ever. But Paxton, two years his senior, had turned even angrier and more withdrawn than usual. Tiern suspected there was more to Paxton’s issues, secrets that Tiern had been sheltered from and reasons his older brother seemed to carry the weight of the world. But Pax was a private person, even among the ones he loved.
The fall morning was crisp as Tiern and Paxton made their way through the wooded brush with stealth, bows at the ready. For tall boys wading through fallen leaves, they scarcely made a sound. Paxton could go hours without talking. Hours of listening to sounds of the forest, staring through leaves and branches for signs of movement.
Tiern could do it as well, but he didn’t relish it the way Paxton seemed to. Inside, Tiern was bored and restless. He wished a bloody deer would show itself already so they could skin it, drain it, hang it, and have their feet up in front of the fire before the curfew. He hated the cold evenings. Why couldn’t it be summer year-round?
They found a ridge of decaying logs and nestled themselves side by side, one brother facing each direction. And they waited.