Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
He never spoke about the grandmother she had never met, but Kerrigan knew enough to be wary of this line of conversation.
“Ever since my mother perished, the other houses have turned against us. Our army has disappeared, which is why you are in this position with March. The fields aren’t producing as they once were. Waisley is practically abandoned. The other houses have jokingly called us the House of Curses.”
Kerrigan had never heard that term before. “We can bring the house back to repute.”
“Not we,” he said solemnly. “You.”
“What does that mean?”
“That they’re not wrong. Our house is cursed. My mother lay a magical geas upon the line to prevent me from taking over after her. She claimed the House of Cruse would crumble unless someone from the Society ruled it.”
Kerrigan sank into the nearest chair at those words. “How could she do that to you?”
“We … didn’t exactly see eye to eye. Everything she claimed has come to pass. I am the ruin of my house,” he said stiffly. His gaze dropped to his hands, and for the first time, she realized they were shaking. He clenched them into fists and then met her eyes. “I have accepted my fate. I accepted that the House of Cruse would forever be fallow. I refused to marry. I promised to never love. To never have children. Then, I met Keres, and nine months later … you.” He choked on the word. “I was going to give you everything my mother never gave me, and I never was able to do that.”
“Dad?” she whispered.
“But now, you’re a Society member. You’re Bryonican. You’re the heiress for house. On your eighteenth name day, I will bestow the house to you.”
Kerrigan’s jaw dropped. “Excuse me?”
This didn’t make sense. It couldn’t be reality. She was going to be eighteen and the head of her entire house?
“With you as the head of House of Cruse, it will fulfill my mother’s requirements. The house will flourish again. The people will be safe. They’ll be … better without me.”
“What if I don’t want the weight of the entire house?”
“I will still be there to take care of day-to-day things, but it will be yours to run as you see fit. It might even be enough to get you out of your wedding.”
Kerrigan jumped back to her feet. “I have been Bryonican again for two weeks. I can’t … I can’t do this. I don’t want to do this. I didn’t even want to return to the tribe to begin with.”
Kivrin looked pained. “I know, Kerrigan. I do apologize. I wish there were another way.”
“I know we’ve recently reconciled,” she said with a shake of her head, “but I’m getting fed up with having to clean up your messes.”
She headed for the door. Her head was full of everything that her father had just said. A curse … another curse. And she couldn’t break this one. She could only step into the mantle that had been reserved for her father if he had only won his place in the Society. She didn’t want the responsibility. She had too much else to deal with right now.
“Kerrigan, please, let me explain,” he called behind her.
“Don’t bother.”
Then, she was out of the study and dashing away from the Row mansion, the responsibilities that kept piling up, and the weight of everything she had to survive this summer.
She ripped at the ribbons at her back, giving her ribs room to expand and fill her lungs. Stepping out on the empty garden pathways cleared her head.
“There you are,” a shadowy figure said behind her.
Kerrigan drew her magic close to her and whirled, prepared to take on whoever had followed her out of the party.
“I was looking all over for you.”
She sighed with relief when she saw Valia, a steward of the Society and her mole inside the Red Masks. “What are you doing here?”
“Last-minute news.” She tossed a heavy black cloak and a red mask at her. “Still want to stop the Red Masks?”
“Hell yes.”
5
THE ARTIFACT
Kerrigan tugged the black cloak over her frame, hiding her recognizable red curls under the hood. She traced the lines of the red mask in her hand. She had only seen one of these when someone was trying to destroy her life. Holding one in her hand felt wrong.
“Ready to go?” Valia asked.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
Valia nodded in understanding. “Let’s go.”
Kerrigan fell into step beside the spy and assassin. During the tournament, she had thought that she was going to be just like Valia. A steward of the Society—someone tapped to work for the Society but never quite one of them. It’d turned out that was Valia’s cover to get inside the mountain. She had been sent to kill Kerrigan and made another call. They were working together to take down the organization.