Chapter 67 The Princess Returns

Chapter 67 The Princess Returns
"Vesper." My voice was sharp. "Lady Freya is not a whore. She's a woman who loved the same man I love. She's carrying his child through no fault of her own. The circumstances are painful, but I won't reduce her to such demeaning names."

Vesper's wings drooped. "You are too kind, my Princess. Too forgiving."

"I'm not forgiving. I'm just... trying to be fair."

"Fairness is overrated." She pressed a cup of tea into my hands. "Drink. It will help you sleep well."

"I don't want to sleep. I want to think."

"Then think while you drink. But drink."

I drank. The tea was warm and fragrant, infused with night-blooming jasmine and something that might have been honey. It settled into my chest like a balm.

"What will you do?" Vesper asked.

"I don't know yet. I need time."

"Then take it. You are home now. The shadows will protect you."

\-—————————-

Eris came to see me an hour later.

I was still in bed, the tea growing cold on the tray, when the door opened and my eldest brother stepped inside. He was dressed for the day, a long coat of shadow-silk, his raven hair tied back from his face. His violet eyes, so like my own, swept over me with an expression of quiet assessment.

"My sister, you look as terrible as ever," he said.

"So I've been told."

"Vesper said you arrived through the portal last night. She said you were crying." He crossed the room and sat on the edge of my bed. "I would have come sooner, but I thought you might need rest."

"I didn't even sleep."

"I can tell." He studied me for a long moment. "What happened?"

Eris had always been the steady one. The calm one. While Maz cracked jokes and I let my emotions run wild, Eris was the anchor that held our family together. He listened without judgment. He advised without pushing. He was, in many ways, the best of us.

So I told him everything. The same story I had told Vesper, but in more detail. The northern battles. The jousting tournament. Philippe's death. The dinner where everything had shattered.

When I finished, Eris was quiet for a long time.

"So the High King has a child on the way," he said finally. "With another woman."

"Yes."

"And he wants to keep her in the palace. For the duration of the pregnancy."

"Yes."

"And his sister, the one who has been scheming against you since you arrived, orchestrated the entire reveal."

"Yes."

Eris nodded slowly. Then he said, very calmly: "Would you like me to have him killed?"

I stared at him. "What?"

"It would be difficult. He's a High King, and the political ramifications would be significant. But it's not impossible. The Morrigan bloodline has assassins. Very discreet ones."

"Eris!"

"I'm not joking, Nyx." His expression was utterly serious. "You are my sister. My blood. If this man has dishonored you, if he has made you miserable, I will end him. The Oath be damned. The realms be damned. You are more important than any stupid treaty."

My throat tightened. "You can't kill the High King of Aurelia."

"I can. I just said I can."

"Eris."

"I'm the Crown Prince of Hel. I have resources." He paused. "But I'm also your brother. And I want to know what you want."

I reached out and took his hand. His fingers were calloused from sword practice, steady and warm. "I don't want Cardan dead. I don't want war between our realms. I don't even want to end my marriage. Not yet."

"Then what do you want?"

"Time. Space. A chance to figure out what comes next."

Eris studied me. Then he nodded. "Then you'll have it. Stay as long as you need. The palace is yours. Hel is yours. And if you change your mind about the assassination..." 

"Eris."

"... the offer stands."

I laughed, a surprised, slightly hysterical sound. "You're terrifying."

"I'm a Morrigan. It's in our blood." He squeezed my hand. "Now get out of bed. Vesper will have my head if you miss breakfast, and Maz has been pacing outside your door for the past hour."

"Maz is here?"

"He's been outside hour door practically all night. He wanted to burst in and make inappropriate jokes until you smiled, but I told him to wait." Eris rose. "He's been driving everyone mad. Sybil finally threatened to hex him if he didn't stop pacing."

"Sybil is here too?"

"She's practically living in the palace now. Maz is besotted. It's disgusting." He offered me his hand. "Come on. Let's go face the family."

\-————————-

Breakfast was held in the smaller dining room, the one our family had always used for private meals. The table was laden with shadow-cakes and bone-bread, roasted fungus and crystallized night-berries, pitchers of dark wine and steaming pots of spiced tea.

Maz was already there, sprawled in his chair with the boneless grace of a cat. Beside him sat a woman I didn't recognize, tall and sharp-featured, with skin the color of moonlight and hair that fell in silver waves past her shoulders. Her eyes were pale, almost colorless, and they swept over me with cool assessment.

"Nyx!" Maz leaped to his feet and crossed the room in three strides, pulling me into a bone-crushing hug. "I was so worried about you after last night, but Eris wouldn't let me see you, something about 'letting you rest' and 'not being an insufferable nuisance'..." 

"And Eris was right. You are an insufferable nuisance."

"And yet you love me." He pulled back and grinned. "Come. Sit. Meet Sybil. Properly, this time."

He led me to the table. The silver-haired woman rose and inclined her head, not quite a bow, but close.

"Your Highness." Her voice was low and smooth, like honey poured over steel. "Maz has told me a great deal about you."

"And he's told me almost nothing about you," I said, taking my seat. "Except that you called his jokes pedestrian and threw a book at his head."

"The book was a scholarly text. His interpretation of the Third Dynasty succession laws was egregiously wrong."

"I was being creative," Maz protested.

"You were being incorrect. There's a difference."

I found myself smiling. It was a small smile, barely a twitch of my lips, but it was genuine. "I think I like you, Sybil."

"Everyone does. It's a burden." She poured herself a glass of wine. "But I understand you've had a difficult night. Maz has been fretting since you arrived."

"I have not been fretting."

"You've been pacing. You only pace when you're fretting."

"That's not...that's..." Maz sputtered. "Fine. I've been fretting. But only because I care."

Sybil looked at me. "He cares a great deal about you. It's one of his more endearing qualities."

"It's his only endearing quality," Eris said, entering the room. He had changed into formal attire, a coat of black and silver, the Morrigan dragon embroidered on his breast. "The rest of him is insufferable."

"I'm sitting right here."

"I'm aware."

I laughed again. It felt strange to laugh, after everything that had happened. But here, surrounded by my family, the weight on my chest felt a little lighter.

\-——————————-

Halfway through breakfast, Maz cleared his throat.

"So," he said, in the too-casual tone that meant he was about to say something important. "Eris. Have you told Nyx about the coronation?"

I looked up from my shadow-cake. "Coronation?"

Eris shot Maz a look. "I was going to tell her."

"Tell me what?"