When Nelle Wychthorn was forced to sign herself away in marriage, she should have read the contract's fine print. Because she signs not with ink, but with blood. And that changes everything.
Season 1 'Of Crows and Thorns'
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Fiery Nelle, the isolat...
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Anger hissed through my blood. Power raked along my bones and danced upon my palms. With a punch of might, I shoved hard enough to yank myself free from Graysen's grip.
He rocked back, caught off-balance, almost tumbling from the tree.
"Don't you think I understand?!" The silver layers of my dress blustered with the unnatural wind coiling about my body. "Don't you think I've lived with this my entire life? I understand. I fucking understand!"
He glared at me with flinty eyes.
I poked my chest with a forefinger. "It's all I live with, every single day. Keep hidden—keep us safe! One misstep and my sisters will die. My mother. My father. Every single cousin and aunt and uncle—all our servants. Every single person connected to Great House Wychthorn will swing by the noose, or perhaps you Crowthers will behead us. Just because I was born different, just because I'm other. And I don't even know what I am!"
My anger faltered, as those words I'd just uttered spiraled through me.
"I don't even know..." My voice broke with anguish, spoken more for me, than him.
Graysen stared down the length of his nose at me, the shadows of the forest rippling around his formidable figure. "Then get your fucking head together, Wychthorn. We're going back in there, and you'll have to deal with seeing your sister with Corné, and you'll have to sit your pretty little ass right next to mine the entire night!"
He lunged fast, grabbed hold of a fistful of my hair at the back of my head, and craned my head back. I bared my teeth at him, bracing my hands against his forearms to keep my balance.
Fury sparked in his black eyes as he bowed his head, close enough that his breath kissed my lips. His voice was soft but deadly. "I get why you tripped me up. Set me on fire. And only Zrenyth knows what you were going to do to me outside that marquee—maybe choke the life out of me, incinerate me, bury me beneath the earth. But you've got to stop trying to blast me to Nine Hells. You've been lucky so far no one's caught you out, but that luck will run out. So you keep your godsdamned temper under control. Do you understand?"
My nostrils flared.
"I need to hear you say it." His fingers tightened on my hair. My scalp flared with pain. "Do. You. Understand?!"
"Yes," I hissed through clenched teeth.
His grip around my hair relaxed, and a moment later he let go, jumping down from the fallen tree. His shoes made a heavy thud as he struck moss.
Sawing my jaw, I massaged my scalp with a hand, and gingerly rolled my neck and shoulders. Readjusting my dress, I swiped away the dirt and tiny hooks of grass that had embedded themselves in my skirt, just to give me something to do, a way to avoid his stony gaze.
I could do this. I had to, for my family's sake. I'd keep myself on a tight leash and keep my temper under control.
Drawing in a deep cool breath, infused with the smell of mildew and stale woodland air, I brushed my hand down my torso, the same way I'd seen Evvie do to compose herself.
