nne

pped into the shadowed corridor with the ye

study, two guards sporting third-tier Verdant Rings c

e decrees for the Great Council. He

quotas catch the torchlight. "Step aside," I said, my voice cutting through the hall like a winter draft. "Tell Cur

ing at the council seal, and they ins

ir, and behind an expansive redwood desk sat my father, Clan Lord Curtis Browning. Hi

enalty is for threatening a Clan Lord?" Curtis

rode directly to the desk and sla

its lands confiscated, its titles stripped, and its members exiled," I stated flatly. "Tell me, Father: a

lor, and he vaulted out of his chair, lunging to snatch the roll. I j

eal this forged f

prove whether it's forged," I replied with a mocking

Unmaking-having his Oath Ring shattered publicly before his entire bloodline was stripped of noble standing and hurled to the Ab

endless sacrifice. Yielding Warlord Holden to Jacalyn was for the greater good of our

ying your seat in the High Court. You despised her merchant blood because traditional lords deemed trade base and unworthy of noble rings, yet you happily used her wealth to purchase your rank-only

ss the face, his righteous facade shatterin

. "Tonight, I want three things. First: hand over the dowry d

en decades ago!" Cur

blood-oath stones of Tessa's family.

"She is merely a servant.

"Strike my name from the Browning blood-register bef

thout a clan's backing or the Silverdew allotments of the upper

ledger in front of you," I said coldly. "Refuse, and tomorrow morning the

e. Trembling with humiliated rage, he pulled a formal parchment embossed with the Great Council's watermark, dr

d across the parchment, lockin

lvet pouch containing Tessa's oath stones. Then, I drew the yell

wa

is cheek and scatte

do with me," I said, turning my back on him. "You had better pray Jacalyn and Hold

roared behind me,

s open and walked out

hands, her eyes widened in shock. Understanding that the bonds tying her house to gener

eeling the invisible chains on this body

n pierced the misty canopy of the High Court. Outside the

e upper court for the Warlord's grand feast. The other was a battered wooden cart

deck in her radiant spirit-silk robes. She looked down at me from a

pping into the creaking wooden cart wit

. Her hell was on