They Hanged My Parents as Traitors, Now the Prince Needs My Heart novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Thirty Paces

I stood at the washstand and stared at the black line on my arm.

It was thin and clean, and it did not hurt.

I rubbed it with the wet cloth, and it stayed.

Behind me, Cadoc stirred in the bed and said my name.

I turned around and held out my arm.

He sat up fast.

He took my wrist in both hands, very carefully, and turned it to the light.

"Does it hurt?" he said.

"No," I said.

"Has it moved since you woke?"

"I've been looking at it for about a minute."

"Tell me if it moves." He looked up, and his face was gray. "I did not do this."

"I know you didn't. I'm not an idiot."

"I'm not saying you are."

"You were thinking it," I said. "Say what you're thinking."

"I'm thinking that Aneurin's physician told me the Hollow could not pass to another person," Cadoc said slowly. "He told me many things."

"Then he lied, or he didn't know."

"Either way."

"Either way," I said, "nobody is cutting anything, or burning anything, or testing anything on me until I know what this is. That's not a term. That's a rule."

"Agreed," he said.

"Second term, Sioned stays mine. I'm not moving into your tower. I sleep in my loft, and I eat in my kitchen."

"Agreed."

"And the third still stands. Nobody touches me without my say," I said.

His eyes dropped to my bare shoulder, and rose again.

"You broke that one yourself," he said, "twice."

"I broke it. That's my right."

"It is," said Cadoc, and something eased at the corner of his mouth.

By ten o'clock the courtyard held half the keep.

Dafydd had not wanted an audience.

Sioned had brought one, in the form of a pot of tea and four kitchen girls.

They had been told to polish the brass, and they were polishing it very slowly.

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