Their Fireheart

Chapter Six

The large sum of money Arobynn had deposited in her accounts didn't hurt either.

Softly, I asked, "You've memorized the preparations for you and your girls?"

Florine hummed, poking at my shoulder in a charade of correcting my posture. "The ship is waiting in the harbor as we speak."

I nodded, relieved they would soon be out of harm's way. Our eyes met for a moment, a thousand unsaid things flashing between us, and then the first dancer reached the guards. Florine sighed dramatically, strutting towards the entrance. She propped her hands on her hips, power and grace in every line of her form, even as she stared down the black-uniformed guard studying his long list.

I kept to the back of the group, allowing more time to study the entrance. Rising up to my toes, I was nothing more than the impatient novice scrunching her nose in poorly repressed curiosity. I smirked when I saw the wyrdmarks carefully painted across the stone of the doorstep, no doubt keyed to Aelin Galathynius, to alert the king to my presence or trap me in place.

A careful tug on the amulet still adorning my neck, and they were reduced to nothing more than a beautiful decoration, an invisible ward hugging each line and crevice of my body.

The wyrdmarks remained untouched as I silently stepped through the threshold.

And into the glass castle.

A viper in their midst.

The dancers were hustled through narrow servant hallways towards the door that would open into the ballroom. Guards watched them with eagle-eyed intensity, but didn't speak as the dancers lined up with military precision. Florine strode up and down the line, barking out last minute instructions that I tuned out.

Taking the basket of black glass flowers from her steadiest dancer, she carefully moved down the line, handing an exquisite bloom to her dancers one at a time, the glass sparkling like the star-flecked night sky as they passed beneath the flickering candlelight. Florine instructed harshly, "If you break these before the finale, you are finished. They cost more than you're worth and there are no extras."

There were no flowers remaining when she reached me, looking down her nose as she said, "Watch them, and learn," she demanded coldly, loud enough for the guards to overhear.

I ducked my head, nodding towards the ground like I was trying to hide prickling tears. Tucking into Florine's side, I kept myself small, crumpled with disappointment as trumpets blared, the crowd cheering as the dancers were announced.

"I peeked into the great hall," Florine said, so quietly I was unsure if I would have heard her in my human skin. "To see how the general is faring. Your cousin is gaunt and pale, but alert. He's ready."

I froze. Even the blood rushing through my veins crystalized at her words.

"I always wondered why Arobynn took such pains to break you to his will, and who you must have been to refuse to even fracture," Florine murmured, staring at the door calmly, as if she wasn't completely altering my worldview. "When you shatter the chains of this world and forge the next, remember that art is as vital as food, and a kingdom is nothing without it. I have amassed enough knowledge in my miserable life to know a rare gem when I find one. So understand me clearly when I say that wherever you set your throne, no matter how long it takes, I will come to you, and I will bring music and dancing."

I swallowed hard, tears blurring my eyesight for a brief moment before I blinked them away. A fierce longing resonating in my chest for that future, a future that would never be.

But when Florine moved to the door, I held her eyes, gratitude and appreciation shining as she said, "Give our king the performance he deserves."

And then she opened the door, a wave of light and music crashing into the dim hallway. The dancers sprang forward, emerging one by one, waving those crystal flowers overhead.