She didn’t leave my side again. Not until after I was bathed and my tangled wet hair combed. She sat on my bed as we argued about the dress she had set out for me and how I decided to wear my pair of dark trousers instead.
She was angry when I tucked my black button-down shirt that had belonged to my father into the trousers, but I didn’t care. She had made every choice for me, but I was going to wear what I wanted.
She offered to braid my hair and add a few flowers that she had picked from the field, and even though I wanted to argue, the anguish in her eyes made me sit down in front of her and bite my tongue until she was finished.
“You look beautiful.” She tucked in the last flower, and I looked away from her before I did something foolish like begging her once again not to do this.
It was only a second later when a loud chime of the town bell rang out throughout the town and dread filled me.
“They’re here,” my mother whispered the thing no one needed to say. We all knew what today was, and we all knew what they came for.
I stood and grabbed my father’s dagger from my dresser before tucking it down into my boot. My mother watched my every move, but she didn’t dare say a word against it.
She led me back through our house, and I tried to take in every little detail as I followed her. The walls were worn and stained with years of life, and there were fresh flowers set on the small table only big enough for the two of us. I wouldn’t particularly miss anything about it because it had never really felt like home to me, but it was the only real home I had ever had.
The place we lived before this, the home we had with my father, it was such a distant memory that I couldn’t recall a single detail of it. It was nothing more than a feeling now, but it was stronger than anything I felt here.
My mother opened the front door, and I swallowed a deep breath as I heard whispers and some cheers from our neighbors. They had all been awarded just as handsomely as my mother for living with and protecting the Starblessed.
As if any one of them could ever protect me.
They were all filled with fear, and that fear had every last one of them bowing their heads as the royal guard rode along our dirt road that led to me.
I held up my head in defiance as I stared straight ahead. I would not bow to some fake royals who thought they were gods in our world because they possessed a bit of magic.
They would take from me as they saw fit, but they would do so against my will. I was Adara Cahira of Starless, and even though I feared them more than most, I refused to bend the knee to them.
I would rather die.
The royal guards stopped directly in front of us, and my mother fell to her knees before them. I swallowed down my disgust as I stared ahead at the guard who rode in the lead.
He watched me carefully, and his gaze dropped to my knees before his jaw clenched. He didn’t reprimand me as he dismounted from his horse and moved around to stand in front of me.
“Adara Cahira.” His gruff voice sounded as if he had spent far too many years with a pipe in his mouth.
I nodded my head once but didn’t speak.My heart felt like it was lodged in my throat. I searched through the guards for Evren, but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
“I am here on behalf of the house of Achlys to claim you for your betrothal to the crowned prince of Citlali.”
I scoffed and looked down the line of the other royal guards. “They were too busy to come themselves?”
Shocked gasps rang out around me, but the guard’s stern face carved into the slightest smile. “That they were, Starblessed.”
I rolled my eyes at the name. I hated that name as much as the fate it damned me with.
“We are expected to arrive in Citlali by nightfall.” He motioned toward the carriage that rode between the swarm of guards, and the dark black wood made me shudder with dread.
“How long is the trip?” I tried not to allow him to sense my fear.
“Several hours.” He nodded toward my mother who still hadn’t climbed from her knees. “You should say your goodbyes.”
I looked down at her, and only after the guard took a step back did she rise. Emotion choked me as I stared at her, and I wasn’t prepared for how affected I was by this moment. I had been angry with her for as long as I could remember, but I still wasn’t ready to leave her.
I didn’t want to say goodbye.
“Be smart, Adara.” She reached out for me and gripped my hands in her own trembling ones. “Do what is expected of you.”
I loathed her words. Every single one of them felt like a dagger to the chest, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. That was all my mother ever wanted from me.