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At that ht her eyes Karigan clutched her dress to her chest and sucked in a breath

“Karigan?” Estora said

Sole paused to see whom she addressed

Karigan exhaled, turned on her heel, and struck off in the opposite direction

“How rude,” one of the noblewomen loudly commented “What do you ith a commoner of that ilk anyway?”

Karigan never heard Estora’s reply They had been friends, but ever since the betrothal announcean had been unable to speak with her, or even to face her

She took a long, circuitous route through the servants’ quarter of the castle, bypassing cooks and laundresses and runners Here she felt co her own kind There was no chance she would run into Estora again, and there was especially no chance of encountering King Zachary

She’d not gone before King Zachary since…that night The starry night he had expressed his love for her atop the castle roof He had chosen to tell her his feelings even as the ink on the

Why had she fallen for her monarch, one as unobtainable for the likes of her? His ti had been abysmal, and even as she yearned to be held in his ar to her at all Maybe then she could have gotten through this wholeso s to himself

It was next to impossible not to feel pain with all the reminders of the betrothal around the castle; all the talk she overheard about wedding plans, of the children Zachary and Estora would produce Even Karigan’s fellow Riders were caught up in the excitement

It drowned out o that the lands had been threatened by a presence in Blackveil Forest which had been no less than the shadow of Mornhavon the Black, an old and deadly ene foolishness, that sory in the extreme?

She was grinding her teeth by the time she reached the lower sections of the castle It didn’t help that Alton, whom she considered a dear friend, had decided he hated her for some reason she couldn’t fathom She would never understand men They were incomprehensible, and she did not hold out much hope for Braymer Coyle