A Heart of Ice (Araneae Nation) (2 page)

“All right.” I let him
bask in his victory. “But I must insist my friend accompany us.”

His eyes narrowed on Isolde. “Of course.”

She winked at him. “What’s your name anyway?”

“Ennis.”

“Ennis,” she repeated. “I suppose it could be worse.”

“Yes,” he said dryly. “I could have been named Isolde.”

Her fingers curved into claws, and she lunged. I caught her around the waist, hauling her back as she kicked and screamed and cursed his mother, his father, his siblings, his pets, even his male bits. I spun a strand of silk from the spinneret in my fingertip and bound her hands behind her back. Then I clamped a hand over her mouth and backed out the way we had come. Ennis rubbed his finger along his nose.

“It’s not too late to change your mind,” I called.

“I want to see you again.” He snorted at Isolde. “Even if
that
is the cost of our association.”

Her muffled swear
s made my ears blush. “Meet me after dinner in the courtyard.”

“
Must I wait so long?” He prowled closer. “Midday meal is but a few hours away.”

“I have lessons until the afternoon.”
I eased us back one step for each of his. “Enjoy your day.”

“Oh, I will.” The flash of fang in his smile made my knees weak. “I will count the hours.”

I spun on my heel and dragged Isolde back to my room, ignoring her pleas to free her, certain I had never seen such sharp teeth on a male in my life.

Chapter Two

I jumped when Mother put her hand on my shoulder. I had been leaning out the window,
gazing at the bustling city. After living underground for nine months, open air was so…bizarre.

Mother swept the windblown hairs from my
forehead. “Missing the nest already?”

Given how I had just left it, I was less homesick than she knew.

I rested my head on her shoulder. “It’s silly, I know.”

“It’s understandable.” She kissed the top of my head. “Are you very
upset after our talk?”

“No.” I straightened and faced her. “I knew I had to marry one day. It is my duty to our clan. At my age, I knew it would be sooner rather than later. I can’t be angry when I knew this was coming.”

She patted my cheek. “You sound as resigned as I must have at your age.”

I had trouble picturing her resigned to any fate. “Did your mother pick your suitors?”

She nodded. “Oh, yes.”

Our clan was matriarchal, so it stood to reason it was a tradition passed through our family.

I worried my lip with my teeth. “Did you like any of them?”

Her grin was wry. “I am married to one of them.”

“You had to marry one of them.” I pointed out the obvious.

“I had to birth my heir.” She tapped my nose. “I didn’t have to stay married. I chose to.”

“Do you love Father very much?” I asked softly.

“He doesn’t make it easy.” She turned aside. “I love h
im despite his...” Her lips flattened, and I knew I had pushed too far. She would not speak of him again.

Instead
, I attempted a distraction. “Do I get a list of names? How does it work?”

“If I gave you a list, you would strike through every name before you even met the poor male.” She clicked her tongue. “No. It’s much kinder to all parties involved to let you meet face
-to-face and form your opinion after having spent time together. Chaperoned, of course.”

“
Of course.”

“Don’t sound so glum.”
Her expression softened. “You might be surprised.”

Surprise was meeting a Theridiidae guardsman in the forbidden west end. Surprise was realizing how eager I was for the day to pass so
I might see him again. Surprise was not my mother’s choice of suitors. They would all be warriors with savage reputations who could protect our clan from harm.

The Araneidae were artisans. We could not defend ourselves. We had to marry for protection.

We did not, however, have to like it.

“Utmost care has been taken to weed out the unsavory from among your suitors, but
you must be on your guard,” she warned. “Meet no males alone.”

A telling flush crept up my neck.
“When do the suitors arrive?”

I knew her style.
The less time I had to sketch an escape plan, the more likely I was to stick to her outline.

“Some already have.” She watched for my reaction. “Others will arrive in the coming days.”

“Ah.” It seemed the best answer I could offer.

“There is someone I would like you to meet.” She added, “Tonight if you’re up to it.”

Tonight I had plans, and they were looking better all the time.

I pasted on sincere
regret. “I promised to give a friend of Isolde’s a tour of the city.”

Mother paled. “A friend of Isolde’s?”

Her wince tempted me to laugh. “We will be on our best behavior.”

“You do well to contain Isolde.” She frowned. “Are you sure you can manage her friend too?”

Tempted as I was to embellish the truth by hinting I would have an armed escort, I kept quiet as a thrill raced through me. I had a secret.
Me
. I was always the secret keeper, the confidant. No more.

As the noose of responsibility tightened around my throat, I
was taking one last gasp of air.

“I
can manage.” I had no doubt, “Isolde will help. You know how persuasive she can be.”

“That’s what worries me.” She exhaled. “That girl is a bad influence on you.”

This was another old argument of ours. “She is my best friend.”

“I hope she remains so.”
Mother stared through my window. “It’s time she grew up too.”

A lump formed in my throat. “What do you mean?”

“When her parents were released from our custody and they reclaimed Isolde, I gave them gold enough to keep her well until her twentieth birthday. By that age, she ought to be married or well on her way to it. Some of her wealth can go toward her dowry to secure a good match.” She paused. “It was a stipulation that Isolde be allowed to visit you three months of the year. When she marries…”

“She will be twenty next month.” I swallowed hard. “You can’t take her from me.”

“I can’t buy her. She is a person, not a pet. I have no sons to marry her, and you have no cousins of age who aren’t already promised. She will have to marry and make her own way in the world. I’ve done all I can for her.” She reached for me. “I hoped if you both married around the same time—”

“You can pick my husband, but you can’t choose my friends. You will not keep us apart.”

“Reine.”

“No.” I held up my hand. “I will do no lessons. I have choked down enough duty for one day.”

Mother lowered her head. “You will see in time this is the way it must be.”

“You are the maven
.” I set my jaw. “What is the point of upholding a tradition that crushes us?”

“Tradition is the framework supporting our clan, our nest and our lives.” She hesitated over my threshold. “Once these trials are over, you will be more able to put these things into perspective.”

“No.” I turned my back on her. “When this trial is over, there will be another and another.”

“It is the fate of those who rule to suffer for the good of their people.”

“Then let me be the first to welcome the Araneidae into their new age of prosperity.”

I bumped into Isolde outside the kitchen. With my schedule cleared, I thought we might
visit the tailor and get her fitted for some new dresses. Any distraction from my own problems was welcome, and Isolde was nothing if not distracting.

She
bit into the apple in her hand while frowning at me. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” I fought stubborn tears. “I fought with Mother. That’s all.”

One of the cooks who must have overheard brought me a glass of chilled sweet wine.

“Bet you skipped breakfast again, miss. You’re so pale.” She returned with a tray of cheeses and meats and thrust it into Isolde’s hands. “Take her outside. Get her some sun and see that she eats.”

Isolde snagged a sliced lepus medallion and popped it into her mouth. “Will do.”

The cook thumped the end of her nose. “Keep your grubby mitts off that.”

“Oww.” Isolde rubbed the sore spot. “She won’t miss one bite.”

I stepped between them and nudged Isolde away from the cook. “Thank you.”

The cook smiled warmly at me. “You’re welcome, miss.”

We left the kitchen behind in search of the sunshine the cook had prescribed.

“What did you fight about this time?” Isolde nibbled a piece of cheddar.

“Suitors. Marriage. Monarchy.”
You
. Though I kept that to myself.

Isolde never spoke of her family or her life. We were both aware of the stark differences in our upbringings and our futures. We chose to live in the now, together, as equals.

“There’s something else.” She squinted at me. “What aren’t you saying?”

I bit my tongue.

She nudged me. “What could be worse than marrying you off?”

Never seeing my best friend again.

She put down the slice of meat in her fingers. “You’re scaring me.”

To avoid the truth, I screwed up my face. “The suitors are here, in Erania.”

“Do tell.” Her appetite returned. “Are they somewhere we can spy on them?”

“We don’t know their names.” I chewed on my thumbnail. “Mother wants me to dine with each male individually so that we can get to know one another. She meant for those trials to start tonight.”

Isolde choked. “You’re going out with Ennis tonight.”

“We aren’t going out.” I slapped her on the back. “I’m giving him a tour.”

Coughing, she laughed through her watering eyes. “I’ve never heard it called that before.”

“Oh, ha ha.” I stuck up my nose. “Please stop before you ruin the notion of sex for me entirely.”

“The notion.” She snorted. “More like
the motion
. I’m sure Ennis would show you his moves.”

Heat scalded my neck. “Ennis won’t be teaching me anything.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” She offered the half-eaten tray. “He’s taught you to lie. That’s something.”

“He didn’t teach me to lie.” I narrowed my eyes at her, daring her to dispute the fault as hers.

“I embellish the truth.” She sulked. “The fact remains you didn’t tell your mother about him.”

“What would I have said?” Nothing would have dissuaded her. “I don’t even know why I agreed to show him around. He was manipulating me, and we all kn
ew it. I ought to cancel before tonight.”

“You know why you agreed.” She
fluttered her eyelashes. “You like him.”

“I saw him for five minutes and spoke to him even less.” I sniffed. “He called us silly girls.”

“Males are like that when you steal their toys.” She laughed. “He changed his tune, didn’t he?”

“Once he realized I was the maven’s daughter.” I picked at the food left on the tray.

She was quiet for a moment. Since her mouth was empty, she must have been thinking.

“Huh.” She snagged a sliver of cheese with her bite marks already in it. “You’re right.”

“If I wanted a male who was interested in my title, I would attend Mother’s dinner tonight.”

“He was interested in you.” She turned serious. “You were lucky I was there to protect you.”

“You were the reason I was there in the first place.” I stole the last bit of cheese from her.

“Thank me later.” She snatched the snack from my fingers. “Oh! Name your firstborn after me.”

“Um, no.” I gave up and returned the tray to her. “The second world can’t handle two Isoldes.”

“I see your point.” She mused, “I wouldn’t want to saddle a child with such lofty expectations.”

“Or a governess with such a rascal,” I muttered.

“Hmph.” She walked ahead of me. “Governesses adore me.”

I felt reasonably certain when I said, “You didn’t have a one.”

She scowled over her shoulder. “
If
I’d had a governess, she would have adored me.”

“Adored the day you got married and she retired.” The ache in my heart redoubled.

Dull as my prospects were, Isolde’s were grimmer. I had no right to complain when she kept her fears private. She must know her birthday meant a huge shift in her fortune, yet the topic was closed.

Her spirits fell. “If only I were a man
, then we could marry each other.”

“There I must disagree.” I went to her and wrapped my arm around her shoulder. “Knowing all I do now about your sexual preferences, I’m afraid I could never satisfy you.” I kissed her soundly on the
lips. “It would break my heart to see you with another, so it’s best that I admire you from afar.”

“Ah. So you do have a perversion.” Her eyes glinted with mischief. “You like to watch.”

“Yes,” I played along. “You’ve discovered my sinful little secret. Nothing excites me more.”

“I will have to remember that.”
The masculine voice rolled over my shoulder.

My soul shriveled on the spot. I kept my back to Ennis so I could pretend he wasn’t there or that he hadn’t heard my admission. If he had, surely he didn’t understand the context of our conversation.

Warm breath hit the base of my neck. Warmer lips brushed my ear and left me trembling.

“Your cheeks are red,” he whispered. “Is that because you told the truth or because you didn’t?”

I swatted him aside while mortification screwed my eyes shut. “It’s rude to eavesdrop.”

He captured my hand and held it against his cheek. “I never claimed to be otherwise.”

“Since you’re here, I can tell you to your face.” I glanced back at him. “I will not—”

He angled his head just so, brushed his lips over mine and filled my mouth with his tongue.

A stunned moment later, I slapped the smug grin off his face.

Isolde’s wide eyes must have mirrored my own. I wiped my mouth on my sleeve and set out for the privacy of the tailor’s shop before
committing another sin by strangling him in view of everyone.