A raceboat flashed by in front of me, careening out from one of the coves without looking, two teenagers cheering and jumping around at the steering wheel. “Sorry!” They yelled over to me, as the jet engine’s wake nearly capsized my boat. I quickly made adjustments to avoid spilling over with the dinghy, and the raceboat sprinted onward.
“Fools!” I yelled after them. They were some of the ignorant assholes that ignored right-of-way rules, slashed scars across the backs of my beloved dolgons and firefins, and in general made chaos on my waters. I was tempted to telekinetically rush a surf over the side of their boat and swamp their summer linen suits… then restrained myself, remembering the swimmer in the water behind me.
A swimmer who, had he been closer, might have been the one to be scarred by their roaring jet engines.
“Axis!” I called, tying down the sail, flat into the wind so that we were stilled in the waters, and looking back behind me. I couldn’t see him anywhere. Where had he gone? Had he given up and gone back? We were out of sight of the dock and spaceport by this time, gone around the curve into one of the coves. Had he drowned?
There was a harsh thudding in the pit of my stomach as I scanned the waters for him… I may not want to be forced into a marriage with him, but I knew he was a good man… I didn’t want him to be lost to a world that needed him…
I bent over the boat, looking deep into the turquoise waters I loved, hoping I would see him rising from their crystal-clear depths. Please, let him be okay…
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Chapter One
Briar
I sit still as Laurel leans over me to paint a red stain on my lips. The paint is cool, and her touch is soft. It’s something she’s done many times before, but today is different. Today I can see her hand trembling. My own stomach roils with nerves, but I try to push them down unsuccessfully. At my feet, Sera manicures my nails and massages the arch gently. She’s trying to calm me, I think. It won’t work.
"Gods, can you imagine?" Rose, my oldest sister, sighs, dramatically. She fiddles with my hair as if to help the servants do it up. "I bet he smells like rotting corpses."
I bite the inside of my lip, careful not to ruin the stain Laurel so carefully painted. She’s drawing kohl around my eyes now, giving me a dramatic look. She’s silent while Rose convinces my second oldest sister, Delphine, of King Kane’s horrific stench. I can see the worry in Laurel’s eyes. I reach out and pat her knee, quickly so my sisters don’t see. They’ve never approved of my friendships with the servants.
“Do you think he really has claws and horns?” Delphine asks. Her naïve voice is sweet but strange; it’s always come from the back of her throat.
I watch in the mirror as Rose rolls her eyes. “Of course he does, you ninny. He’s got horns all along his back and a tail too.”
“A tail?” Delphine gasps, looking horrified. Her eyes flash towards me worriedly, but Rose wraps her arm in a vice-like grip.
"Don't worry about Briar, he wanted her, remember?" Rose cuts her eyes towards me. "Maybe he's a shapeshifter and will wear a skin to please her."
I keep my face a still mask, an expression I’ve mastered. Rose is trying to comfort me in her own way, but she’s always been too self-centered to practice it. Now, her attempt is half-hearted and clumsy. “I’m sure it will be fine,” I murmur.
Sera rises from her knees and inspects my hair. She tuts, giving me a familiar, scolding look. I almost smile, relieved that we can at least pretend it’s a normal day and not the Day of Collection. “What shall we do with these tangles of coal?” She asks lightly.
Rose sniffs at Sera’s teasing words. “Mind how you speak,” she says through pursed lips.
“How do you think he would like it?” My heart drums rapidly in my chest and I touch my hair tentatively.
Sera’s shoulders stiffen at my question. “A man would be pleased to run his fingers through your hair. But perhaps we should make him work for it.”
“Alright,” I say, a small grin on my lips.
My tutors have taught me the mechanics of pleasuring a man, or at least mentioned it, but the details of it escape me. For most girls, it’s the eldest sister who takes the leap of marriage and beds a man first, but today it’s me. We’ve known since my birth that it would be me, and so my sisters have moved on from the slight. No one postpones an engagement to King Kane to simply marry the other sisters off. No one would dare. Despite his reputation and my fear, there’s a yearning in me to please him, to make him happy that he chose me twenty years ago.
Sera makes quick work of my hair while Laurel finishes my makeup. Delphine sighs happily at the sight of me, clapping her hands together. “You look as pretty as a princess,” she says.
I grin at her. We’ve told each other that since we were children, it always made us giggle that the commoners compared beauty to a princess. I open my mouth to reply when Rose ushers Sera away from my hair and puts on the finishing touches. She
