Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

LILLY

Garrick. Fucking. Stoneheart.

No way am I marrying that psychopath.

The drive from Savannah to Asheville is only supposed to take about five hours, but right now… it feels like it’s already been a hundred. I suppose I should be thankful. The closer we get to Asheville and the annual summit for the Eastern Court, the closer we get to the home of our High Lord… the home of… him .

Father had left excitedly last night with the fantastic news that he would be finalizing my engagement to the High Lord. And under different circumstances, it would have been fantastic news. Marrying the High Lord! But a fucking Stoneheart? I shiver. All of my arguments had fallen on deaf ears, and father will be too busy politicking with the other Dukes and Marquesses and Earls for me to even have a chance to plead my case again.

I roll up the glass partition of the chauffeured car to give us some privacy, and bury my face in my palms. “A Stoneheart, Inara,” I groan. “A brutal, dragon-shifting… Gods, does father hate me all of a sudden?”

I can feel Inara’s apprehension from the seat beside me. “He…” she pauses and bites her lip. It’s the same face Inara’s made since we were kids when she’s anxious. She quickly paints on a comfortable smile. Too late bestie, I saw your tell . “He doesn’t hate you, Lilly. I mean, Garrick is the High Lord, and you’re the daughter of one of his most powerful dukes. It makes sense.”

“You know that’s not what I meant.” I side-eye her from between my fingers and sit back up. “That family is brutal, and Garrick…” The thought of being tied to such a monster has my train of thought derailing. I tilt my head back and stare at the ceiling. “How savage do you have to be to stand out in that family?”

“He’s a High Lord. Savage is kind of their default setting.” She isn’t wrong. Some of the stories father told about them are enough to send your soul into hiding. Nobody fucks with the High Lords . They are the strongest of the Fae, and when their idea of ‘justice’ needs handing out, they make sure their subjects know. Not that the rest of the nobility is much better… Beneath that veneer of civility, with all its politics and peacocking, there is something bestial and wild. Something Fae .

Brutality isn’t necessarily the rule, but when it comes, it’s vicious, violent, and quick. Quick, that is, unless someone needs to be made into an example. When you’re punishing immortals, you have to get… creative. And the Stonehearts are artists. I fix Inara with a frustrated stare. “He murdered his own father for the High Seat of the court.”

Inara shies away from my stare and gazes out the window. “Allegedly.”

Gods, Inara… “Yes, allegedly.” I drag out the word. “He allegedly murdered his father in a coup. He’s allegedly cruel, and cold, and unforgiving, and…” A chill up my spine cuts me short. Inara must have felt it too—she shifts uncomfortably next to me. She knows the stories as well as I do. “What the hell is father thinking?”

She only shrugs, and silence rises like the land around us. My eyes follow the soft slopes of the mountains to their mist-shrouded peaks. The whole landscape is blanketed in emerald. So much beauty around us… And yet the stretch of road is penned in by hewn rock and a stiff drop.

The weight of Inara’s head lazes on my shoulder. “Your dad’s a lot of things, but… he loved your mom despite everything, and he loves you too . He wouldn’t throw you into danger. Besides, my dad would kick his ass,” she says with a nudge, and for the first time all trip I laugh. If there was anyone who could push around the Duke of Georgia and the Lowlands, it’s Mathias. Inara’s dad is a bit of everything—majordomo, advisor, personal guard—and probably the only person father would count as a loyal friend.

That bubble of lightheartedness pops quickly though. Abuse doesn’t have to be physical … I sigh and let my head rest down on Inara’s. “I need to get out of this.”

“He has turned down a lot of marriage offers though, hasn’t he?” Inara suddenly asks. I pull away and brush back the pink curls that have fallen into my face, hope rising in my chest. “So maybe he’ll turn you down too.”

“Father’s not some minor noble. Turning him down would be a big deal…” My shoulders sag with the sudden realization.

Inara’s lips go flat as she leans back. “You never know.”

I roll my eyes away from her chastising look and back out the window, the earthen colors of rock still sliding by. “What if he finds out about…?” I let my words trail off. I’d be stuck to Garrick the whole week. What the hell is father thinking?

“He won’t.”

I snort at her reply. “If I marry Garrick, he’s going to find out at some point. Garrick, the guy who killed his father…” The horror stories of the new High Lord race through my mind, stealing the words out of my mouth. What fucking game is father playing? And why the fuck am I one of the pieces?

Inara’s face goes a few shades paler. “By then… there are some agreements not even a High Lord can break.” She doesn’t sound like she believes it herself.

“And if he finds out before?”

“Your glamour is solid. There’s a reason your dad had the Coven put it on you and not a Fae. And… we do everything we can to make sure he doesn’t.” Inara squares her shoulders, the color returning to her face, and gives a quick nod.

Her surge of courage is infectious, and I’m finally smiling again. I nod back and sink into the seat with a sigh, taking in another gorgeous vista as the car curves around another mountain. “So, what’s the plan then?” I ask lazily. “He’s a dragon shifter. What if he like… smells it on me or something?”

Inara hmphs beside me. “Oh… do dragons have a good sense of smell?”

“ Wait . Do they?” I sit back up and look at Inara, searching her face for an answer. It looks like she’s searching mine for one too. “Shit.”

“Shit…” We deflate back into our seats, the exposed bedrock and oaks passing by in a blur.