Chapter 13: Denied in Red Ink

Corwin did not speak for a long moment.

Then he crossed the study, unlocked the bottom drawer of his desk, and took out a single folded page.

"I need to say something," he said, "and I need you all to hear it."

He looked at the midwife, and at Odette, and last at me.

"Katja, you know the treaty names the Hallam heir. You heard it in the voicemail."

"I know," I said. "You let me find out from a phone."

"I did, and I was a coward."

He put the page on the desk and turned it toward me.

"This is a petition to the Council to void the treaty. I wrote it in March."

I picked it up.

It was on Blackthorn paper, dated in March, stamped RECEIVED by the Council clerk.

At the bottom the Council had written one line in red ink: Denied. The treaty stands. The heir will be presented at her Awakening.

"March," I said.

"In March I had never seen your face or your sister's face. I did not want a wife I had been handed."

He did not look away from me.

"I went to Pinewatch to see the heir because the Council ordered me to. I took one look at Odette across that hall and felt nothing."

"Thank you," Odette said in a small voice. "I think."

"You are kind and I wish you every happiness with someone else," Corwin said, and a very small laugh broke out of her.

He turned back to me.

"Then I walked up to the gallery glass and smelled you."

"Say it plainly," I said.

"I was already trying to refuse a marriage, and then I wanted you more than I have ever wanted anything."

His voice shook on the last word.

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