by Melle Amade
“You could be betrothed to any local Ravensgaard,” I said to Riordan.
“I want you.” His words were simple, his gaze fierce.
My stomach lurched, but I couldn’t tell if it was from excitement or fear.
“I’m not made for a castle,” I pointed out. “I’m meant for the front lines.”
“Why not have both?” Riordan smiled.
He was making my head spin.
“We could do each other a favor,” Master Murtagh said. “You can protect my son from being shipped to California and I will give you a battalion who will follow you to Dublin.”
I swiveled back towards Murtagh. Riordan didn’t love me; he was doing his father’s bidding.
“Make your decision, girl,” Murtagh said.
“Now?” I gasped, stalling.
“Yes.” Murtagh leaned back on his throne with a smile.
My breath came in shallow bursts as my mind raced to catch up with his game. If I rejected this marriage proposal it would create an unrepairable rift with Murtagh. Especially with everyone watching…then the penny dropped.
He had cornered me. By proposing to me on his son’s behalf in front of the entire clan, I was forced to say yes, or become an outcast.
I had to accept. An image of the blood splattered walls in Dublin sprang to mind. What good would it be to become an outcast? Power would give me the opportunity to avenge the deaths of my family.
“We do whatever it takes to beat the enemy.” Casey’s words clanged in my head.
Was I truly willing to do whatever it took to get a battalion into Dublin?
“Yes,” I said and nodded my head. “I accept the betrothal.” I didn’t even look at Riordan. I was making an agreement with his father. That was all. There would be plenty of time to deal with Riordan once we had expunged the Alliance. Betrothals could be broken. Couldn’t they?
“Perfect,” Master Murtagh roared and motioned Riordan forward.
Riordan’s black eyes danced with light as he took my hand and bowed low to kiss it. Such a strange old-fashioned gesture. A cheer rose from the crowd. This is what they were expecting, what they had come for. My gaze flew around the room. Riordan turned me towards the people as his father’s booming voice filled the hall. Siobhan stared at me, wide-eyed.
“Ladies and gentlemen. Ravensgaard. Our family welcomes a new member. The Murtagh clan brings Davin Murphy into our midst and encircles her in our protection. Let this be the official betrothal announcement for her impending marriage to my son.”
The crowd roared their approval as my heart raced in my chest. What had I done? This…this suddenly felt irrevocable.
But Master Murtagh raised his hands, quieting the crowd. They all gazed up at him so expectantly, I had to look around to see what I was missing. His mouth was pressed in a tight smile as he surveyed the crowd, when they were completely silent, he dropped the bomb. “The nuptials will take place tonight.”
“Tonight?” I whipped around to look at Riordan and glimpsed horror in Siobhan’s face.
Riordan placed an arm around my shoulder and leaned in to whisper in my ear. His breath was heavy with the scent of lamb and potatoes. “Go easy now, my love, the crowd is rejoicing! If you want to lead, you must read the crowd and know what they want. First, they must celebrate and welcome you into the clan, then we can raise the troops to go up and clean out the filth of Dublin.”
“But…” My voice trailed off as I glanced down at my jeans and t-shirt.
“We have a dress for you.” Master Murtagh motioning to Jane, who was standing in waiting. Just behind her in the shadows I could see the gray hair of Walsh, the butler watching carefully what was being done. His face was unreadable.
I frowned. How long had they been planning this? Getting married tonight was the last thing I had on my agenda. But the whole room was waiting
“Smile, my dear,” Riordan encouraged me. “They came here for a wedding.”
“You could have given me some warning in private,” I whispered out of the side of my mouth. “I thought we’d be planning an assault on the Alliance tonight.”
“Do not be worrying.” Murtagh’s voice was too loud and way too fucking cheerful. “The Hunters are not going anywhere. They have always plagued us, and they will continue to do so.”
“Until I destroy them,” I hissed at him.
We do whatever it takes to beat the enemy.
Siobhan stared at me wide-eyed and unblinking. Her dreams of Fintan would be destroyed now. Undoubtedly, he would be sent off to marry the California raven and serve at Van Arend’s High Seat.
We do whatever it takes to beat the enemy.
I turned away from her and held up my hand. The cheering of the crowd grew as I gave them my best smile.
If marrying into the Murtagh clan was what I needed to do, then I would do it. I would play the game and do what I must to command the forces necessary to take down the Alliance of Righteous Humanity.
Even if it meant marrying a man I didn’t know, didn’t love, and who seemingly didn’t love me. Even if it meant I had to marry him tonight.
9
When the sun rose the next morning, I was already awake, dressed and standing in the courtyard warming up. It was unbelievable to me I had so suddenly become Mrs. Murtagh. I’d never had the luxury of daydreaming about my wedding day, but any thoughts I’d had about it, any late-night whisperings with Soibhan…well, it had never once played out like it did last night.
Jane, who was officially assigned to be my hand maiden, had taken Siobhan and I into an antechamber where a beautiful black corset and rippling black satin hoop skirt were waiting. Ravensgaard married in black. It was a perfect fit. I eyed up Jane. How much effort had it taken to discern my measurements and tailor this so perfectly? But I didn’t ask. I didn’t make any conversation with her or Siobhan. There were no giggling moments or marriage bed tips or swooning lovely moments. The room was full of gloomy silence and the resounding thought in my head.
We do whatever it takes to beat the enemy.
And this is what it would take. Marrying the heir to the Ravensgaard high seat.
Jane had deftly tied a black ribbon over the marking on my wrist. Did it really mean I was a descendent of the royal family? Is this why Murtagh wanted me to marry his son so quickly? Because they believed I was from the royal line?
Do whatever it takes.
This mantra blocked out everything that had happened in the next few hours. The dull, dark ceremony where Riordan and I were puppets to his father. The feast that followed where I couldn’t eat a bite. Just sat there and watched the people dancing, particularly Fintan and Siobhan who stayed in each others’ arms laughing and smiling all night. That was what I had expected my wedding to be like. A couple in love.
But although Riordan stayed at my side all night and smiled gallantly at the well wishers describing how I had captured his heart from the moment he’d seen me, I wasn’t sold. He wasn’t in love with me. We were both just doing what his father wanted. Riordan so he could stay in his childhood castle, and me so I could avenge my family’s death. When it came time for us to retire to our marital bed, he had deftly led me back to the guest room I shared with Siobhan.
“There is time for that when you have adjusted, wife,” he had smiled calmly at me, kissed me gently on mouth and opened the door for me to go through alone.
I hadn’t slept a wink. What had I done? I was now a married woman whose children would one day inherit this castle. I so needed someone to talk to about that. But Siobhan hadn’t come back to our room. Most likely she had a passionate sleep over with Fintan. She was doing what I should be doing on my wedding night. Not sleeping alone watching the dark shadows creep across black walls.
I’d had sex before. Never with anyone in the cabal, there was only Keith, Siobhan’s brother who was my age, and…well that would be starting something. So, I couldn’t do that, although he’d offered regularly. Instead I’d chosen human strangers a
few times while out and about. But that was it. Enough to get a taste of how good it might be but not enough to actually experience the magic of it.
From now on it would only be Riordan. I was married.
It was just before dawn when I realized the marriage had completely distracted me from what was most important. I needed to train for an assault on the Alliance and build a team of warriors around me.
So, I’d gotten out of bed and come to the training grounds to watch the sunrise over the black Castle Brannach spires. The change in my status was apparent when the first Ravensgaard showed up for training. It was a wirey, small man who was class with the throwing blade. He walked up to me with a sparkle in his eye and the corners of his mouth turned up.
“Mistress Davin,” he said with a bow.
They all did this one by one, greeting me with deference. But once the training started, they didn’t cut me any slack. I was forced to dodge, duck and return their punches and jabs at a frightening pace. I didn’t mind. I was judging them as much as they were judging me. I needed to start selecting which ones I would take with me back to Dublin. Maybe a small hit squad would be best. A reconnaissance mission to start with. Make sure these Ravensgaard understood the turf they’d be fighting on. Dublin wasn’t exactly the rolling green fields of rural Ireland. It was all sharp, dark shadows full of metal and blades. It’d be a big culture shock for these country Ravensgaard, to be sure.
I was focused on exchanging blade thrusts with the wirey guy when I spied Siobhan in the corner of the square. I missed my move and he caught the back of my leg with his heel, dropping me to the ground and holding his blade to my throat.
“Can’t let your girlfriends distract ya,” he said with a smile. “That’s what they always told us when we were young.”
I returned his grin. It’d been a weird week, but at least I was starting to see some friendly faces at the castle. I pushed his blade away and gripped his outstretched hand, letting him hoist me to my feet.
Siobhan stood quietly on the edge of the training square. It looked like she was just watching us spar, but I’d known her my whole life. I recognized the straight-line of her shoulders and her wide-eyed anxiety. Her jaw moved slightly, like she was chewing gum even though she hated it. She was trying to ease tension. Her eyes raked the training grounds over my shoulder as I walked towards her. She wanted to make sure no one was following us, before she slipped her arm through mine and we stepped down an alley away from the training ground.
She leaned in covertly, her voice low and urgent in my ear. “I met someone.”
“Weren’t you with Fintan last night?” I asked, a little confused.
She shook her head. “That’s not what I’m talking about,” she said. “The butler guy.”
My brows drew together “Walsh? We met him the day we got here.”
“He approached me after the wedding. Said he knew the queen and wanted to talk to me.”
“That’s where you were last night?” I asked incredulously.
“For part of the night,” she nodded. “I didn’t sleep with Fintan. But I want you to meet Walsh.”
“You’re dragging me out of training to go to an old man’s house?” I asked.
Her voice shook slightly. “He lives in the eaves down by the garages. I think it’s more like a flat above where they store the vehicles.”
“Why?” I’d never seen her act so odd.
“Just… I want you to hear what he has to say.” She diverted her eyes from my gaze. It wasn’t like her at all.
“Okay,” I shrugged. I trusted her. If she wanted me to talk to some old guy, I was willing.
It wouldn’t have taken us long to get there, except Siobhan didn’t want us to be seen by anyone. So, we went down the back way past the garden, around the side of the stable until we arrived at the cobblestones marking the rear of the garages. They were like the horse stables, opulent and dark. In fact, my guess was they were a portion of the stables that had been renovated when vehicles took over for horses.
The doors of the garages were open, but we avoided them and instead went to a small doorway off the side. Behind it was a narrow staircase that led up into darkness.
“Are you sure we’re supposed to go up there?” I asked.
“Yes, these are the exact instructions he gave me,” Siobhan said. “It’s okay.”
There was nothing else to do than follow her. I pulled my scian closer to me, so it wouldn’t smack the edge of the wall as we went up the stairs.
At the top, there was a long thin hallway with multiple doors down either side. We went down two doors on the right and Siobhan knocked lightly on one. It was opened in seconds by the old butler. He had a beak of a nose and shrewd eyes that looked like they could hold a secret forever. If we weren’t at Castle Brannach this whole situation would seem completely dubious.
He stepped aside and bowed low as we entered. On the otherside was another narrow hallway, with a galley kitchen off to the left that looked like it would fit about half a person. There was a room to the right with a small, crisply made bed in it. Through the last door was a tiny room, with a couch and a small heater in the corner. This must be the living room, though it could barely fit the three of us. My guess was the old man never had visitors.
The only thing that made the whole place palatable was that it smelled of heaven. He was cooking something wild and wonderful. Whatever was bubbling on the stove smelled of lamb and potatoes and onions and rich spices. And instantly my stomach growled. I hadn’t eaten properly since the dinner with my family in Dublin.
“You brought her,” the Walsh growled as we sat down in the living room. There was one loveseat that looked like no one ever sat in it and a well-worn sitting chair directly across from it. There was no TV, no nothing, just the dark, windowless room.
“Let’s see it,” he said holding out his hand.
I glanced at Siobhan. “See what?” I’m still not sure what the hell we were doing here.
“The scar,” he said. “I want to see your scar.”
I stuck out my arm for inspection.
He traced his finger along the lines, nodding slowly. “Ye are she,” he said gravely. I pulled my arm back, trembling slightly. There was something in this man… something about him.
“Were you the one who dropped me with the cabal?” I blurted out the question I never thought I would find an answer to.
“No,” he said.
My heart sank. “Oh.”
“But,” he continued, leaning forward into the room. “I was at yer wedding last night as I promised your grandmum I would be. And I, I gave you that scar.”
My whole world froze. Every cell in my body stopped moving, trying to calculate his words and what they meant.
“You gave me the scar?” The world tightened around me. The air was hard to breathe.
“Well I gave a three-year-old girl a scar about twenty-one years ago,” he said. “So, unless there are other raven girls running around at your age with the scar of the royal crest, I would guess this is the one I gave.”
“Who asked you to? Who did this?” Questions flew from my mouth.
“I have long been the butler of Castle Brannach. I served the royal family and now I serve the Murtaghs.” He settled back into his chair, but I was on the edge of my seat waiting for every word he was about to say. “Like you I used to live on the outskirts battling the Hunters. But they eventually decided I was too old and shouldn’t fight, that I needed to retire. And you can’t argue once that’s been decided. This was before Murtagh was the master. It was when he was simply the Queen’s right-hand man.” He scoffed a bit when he said this. “Some right-hand man he turned out to be.”
“You knew the queen?” Siobhan asked.
“Of course,” he said. “She knew all her warriors well.”
“The queen’s dead.” Siobhan said.
“How do you know that?” He asked. “Did you see the body?”
Siobhan frowned and sho
ok her head. “She died long before we were born.”
“That’s what Murtagh’ll have you believe. But have you ever wondered how this castle stays hidden if the witch queen who made the magic is dead?” he asked.
“Who gave me to you?” I interrupted. I needed to know more about myself right now, not the queen.
“Look, a couple of Ravensgaard came to me. Young pups. I’ve never seen them since, so I don’t know what happened to them. They brought you and they told me to take you away and drop you somewhere. They said I should abandon you and lose you in the sea of humanity, where you would be lost forever from the Ravensgaard.”
“Lost forever?” Siobhan’s voice trilled with anger.
“Or something like this. But I knew it would be no good. You can’t take a shifter and put them out there in the cold without the rites of the shifters. It kills them. It makes their lives miserable and short. And, well, I knew who you were. They were stupid. They had no idea who I served.”
“You served the Queen,” Siobhan said.
He gave a brief nod. “Always. So, I took you to the cabal I used to fight with. They had brought in a whole new group of people but regardless, they were Ravensgaard and I knew they would not refuse one of their own. And I knew a couple of the people there were still a little loyal to the royal family.”
“My parents were always loyal to the queen,” Siobhan said.
“Yeah, Casey,” Walsh nodded sadly. “I’m sorry for your loss, my dear.”
Siobhan nodded but said nothing.
“Why did you give me the scar?” I asked.
The man peered down at us, the crinkles around his eyes grew deeper as he smiled. “You needed to know who you were.”
“A Ravensgaard?” I asked. “In case the cabal rejected me?”
