A Sparrow Stole My Place as Heir novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Strangers Don't Touch

"The High King gave you the key," I said.

"For a year," Perrin said. "He's been very kind."

I took one step toward him, and Wynne caught my sleeve.

"Not here," she whispered. "He wants you to hit him. Then it's you who broke a guest's hands, in front of Father."

My jaw set hard.

Perrin turned to Maelis with a gentle face.

"You're cold, and it's late," he said. "Let me walk you up."

"I'll walk myself," Maelis said.

She did not look at him when she said it.

For a moment, his smile slipped, and then he bowed a little and went up the stair, light as ever, his footsteps fading into the dark.

"I'll see he goes to bed," Wynne said, and she gave me the lantern and went after him.

I did not stop her.

She was nineteen, and she was the only one of my sisters who had been afraid of the right thing.

That left Maelis and me in the Vault corridor with the cold stone under our feet.

She had put her back against the wall.

"Say what you came to say," I said.

"I'm not sure I came for anything."

"You were at my mother's door at midnight."

"I told you. I was dreaming."

"Then you dreamed very exactly of the one place in this hall I'd go to look."

"Daelan," she said, and her voice was tight, "do you know what I did, after you ended it?"

I said nothing.

"I stood in that hall with every god in the Three Realms looking at me. You said two sentences. You didn't tell me first, or tell my mother, or send a note. I found out whether I was your betrothed at the same moment as four hundred strangers."

← Chapter 6 · All chapters · Chapter 8 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend