Chapter 30 The offer
"I am not flirting."
"You were laughing. He was stealing food from your plate. That is flirting."
"In what world?"
"In every world where the woman in question is married to someone else."
I stood. The shadows in the corners of the room stirred. "You don't get to do this."
"Excuse me?"
"You don't get to ignore me for weeks. You don't get to leave me alone in a court that despises me. You don't get to keep your mistress for six years and then lecture me about flirting with a man who actually treats me like a person."
Cardan's eyes flashed. "Lady Freya is gone."
"Yes. After years. After I caught you kissing her in the corridor two days before our wedding." I stepped closer. "You have no right to be jealous, Cardan. No right at all."
"I am not jealous."
"Then what are you?"
He didn't answer. His chest was rising and falling too quickly. That muscle beneath his eye was twitching.
"You are jealous," I said, softer now. "You hate that someone else sees me. You hate that someone else doesn't fear me. You hate that I might actually have a friend in this golden prison you've trapped me in."
"I didn't trap you."
"The Oath trapped me. You are just the warden."
The words landed like a blow. I saw it hit him, the flinch, the flicker of something that might have been pain.
"Nyx..."
"Don't." I stepped back. "Don't pretend you care. You've made it very clear what I am to you. A formality. A duty. A wife in name only." I walked toward the door. "If I find friendship elsewhere, that is my business. Not yours."
I left before he could respond.
\-———————————
The council meeting that afternoon was tense. I shouldn't have been there, but when I walked in, nobody made a move to stop me, not even Elowyn.
Lord Percival stood before the long table, his face pale and sweating, a stack of ledgers trembling in his hands. A few High Lords were arrayed around him, Castellan, Ambrose, a few others whose names I was still learning. Elowyn sat at Cardan's right hand, her expression a mask of controlled fury.
I sat at Cardan's left. Our argument at breakfast hung between us like a drawn blade.
"The loans," Cardan said, his voice hard. "Explain them."
"Your Majesty, I, the loans were necessary. The late King's expenditures were... significant. The wars. The monuments. The...."
"The late King is dead," Cardan cut in. "I am asking about your decisions, Lord Percival. You borrowed from the human banks without council approval. You used crown lands as collateral. You hid the debt from my father, and then from me."
Percival's mouth opened and closed. "I was acting in the kingdom's best interests..."
"You were acting in your own best interests." Cardan threw a document onto the table. "This is an accounting from the human delegation. It shows regular payments from the treasury to a private account. Your account."
Silence.
Percival looked like he was going to be sick.
"The loans themselves are one thing," Cardan continued. "But the embezzlement? The lies? The cover-up?" He leaned forward. "You have betrayed this crown, Lord Percival. Give me one reason I shouldn't have you executed."
"Our father trusted him," Elowyn said sharply. "You can'..."
"I am not our father." Cardan didn't look at her. "Lord Percival. Your defense."
Percival crumpled. "I can repay it. The money, I can repay it. I have assets. Estates. If Your Majesty would grant me time..."
"You have one month. If the money is not returned to the treasury by then, you will be stripped of your title and your lands. And you will face the crown's justice." Cardan's voice was iron. "Do you understand?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. Thank you, Your Majesty."
Percival fled the chamber.
Elowyn's face was white. "That was unnecessarily harsh."
"It was necessary," Cardan said. "And it was just."
"The human banks..."
"Will have to be paid. We cannot afford a war with the human kingdoms. Our army is already stretched thin in the north."
"Then we default," Elowyn said. "What can the humans do? They're mortals. Their armies are weak. Their lives are short. They wouldn't dare..."
"They would dare," I said.
Every head turned toward me.
"The human kingdoms have been waiting for an excuse to challenge Aurelian dominance for centuries," I continued. "You underestimate them because they're mortal. But mortals breed faster than Fae. They innovate faster. They fight with a desperation that immortals can't match. If we default on these loans, they won't just declare war. They'll win."
"What are you even doing here?! You don't know that," Elowyn snapped.
"I know history. The humans have defeated Fae armies before. They can do it again."
"She's right," Lord Ambrose said quietly. "The northern borders are bleeding. We don't have the troops to fight a second war."
"So what do you suggest?" Cardan asked, looking at me.
I took a breath. "A marriage alliance."
The room went very still.
"A marriage alliance," Cardan repeated.
"Princess Elowyn is unmarried. The Crown Prince Phillipe of Valdris is unmarried. A union between them would strengthen our bonds with the human kingdoms, secure their cooperation on the loans, and remove any threat of war."
Elowyn's face went from white to crimson. "Absolutely not!"
"It's a logical solution."
"I will not marry a human."
"Human, Fae, what does it matter? He's the heir to the largest human kingdom on the continent. The alliance would benefit Aurelia for generations."
"I am a Princess of the Aurelian Court. I will not be sold off to some mortal like, like..."
"Like I was sold off to Aurelia?" I tilted my head. "Funny. You didn't seem to have a problem with political marriages when I was the one being sacrificed."
"That's different."
"How?"
"Because you're..." She stopped.
"I'm what? A monster? A shadow-creature? An outsider?" I smiled. "Go on, Elowyn. Finish your sentence."
"Enough." Cardan's voice cut through the chamber. "Both of you."
Elowyn and I fell silent, glaring at each other across the table.
"The suggestion has merit," Cardan said slowly. "But it is not a decision to be made lightly. We will table the discussion for now." He rose. "This meeting is adjourned."
Elowyn stormed off without another word.