The Kiss of Deception Read Online Free PDF Page A

share its magic. The trees reached for the magic too, then shivered in unison as if an army of ghosts had just swept across their upper boughs—an entire knowing world just beyond my reach.
    I thought of all my hidden moments as a child, sneaking away in the middle of the night to the calmest part of the citadelle—the roof—a place where the constant noise was hushed and I became one of those quiet specks connected to the universe. I felt close there, to something I couldn’t name.
    If I could only reach out and touch the stars, I would know everything. I would understand.
    Know what, my darling?
    This , I would say, pressing my hand against my chest. I had no words to describe the ache inside me.
    There’s nothing to know, sweet child. It’s only the chill of the night. My mother would gather me in her arms and lead me back to bed. Later, when my nighttime wanderings didn’t stop, she had a lock added to the rooftop door just out of my reach.
    Pauline finally finished, her last words a hushed reverent whisper. So shall it be for evermore.
    “Evermore,” I whispered to myself, wondering just how long that was.
    She curled up on the blanket next to me, and I pulled the wedding cloak up over both of us. The sudden silence made the woods take a bold step closer, and our circle of light grew smaller.
    Pauline quickly fell asleep, but the events of the day still churned inside me. It didn’t matter that I was exhausted. My tired muscles twitched, and my mind jumped from one thought to the next like a hapless cricket dodging a stampede of feet.
    My only consolation as I looked up at the blinking stars was that the prince of Dalbreck was probably still awake too, furiously jostling home on a rutted road, his old bones aching with pain in a cold, uncomfortable carriage—with no young bride to warm him.

 
    CHAPTER THREE
    THE PRINCE
    I cinched the buckle on my pack. I had enough to get me by for two weeks, and enough coin in my bag if it should take me longer. Surely there would be an inn or two along the way. She probably hadn’t gotten much farther than a day’s ride from the citadelle.
    “I can’t let you do this.”
    I smiled at Sven. “You think you have a choice?”
    I was no longer his young ward to keep out of trouble. I was a grown man, had two inches and thirty pounds on him, and enough pent-up frustration to be a formidable foe.
    “You’re still angry. It’s only been a few days. Give it a few more.”
    “I’m not angry. Amused maybe. Curious.”
    Sven snatched the reins of my horse from me, causing him to skitter. “You’re angry because she thought of it before you did.”
    Sometimes I hated Sven. For a battle-scarred curd, he was too perceptive. I grabbed the reins back. “Only amused. And curious,” I promised him.
    “You already said that.”
    “So I did.” I placed the saddle blanket on my horse’s back, sliding it down the withers and smoothing out the wrinkles.
    Sven didn’t see anything amusing about my venture and continued to present arguments as I adjusted the saddle. I hardly heard any of them. I was thinking only about how good it would feel to be away. My father was far more put out than I was, claiming it to be a deliberate affront. What kind of king can’t control his own daughter? And that was one of his more reasoned responses.
    He and his cabinet were already deploying entire brigades to key outlying garrisons to fortify them and to flaunt in Morrighan’s face what decisive strength really was. The uneasy alliance had toppled on its head, but worse than the cabinet’s chest-beating and conspiracy theories were the sorrowful looks from my mother. She was already broaching the subject of finding another bride in one of the Lesser Kingdoms, or even from among our own nobility, missing the entire point of the match in the first place.
    I put my foot in the stirrup and swung up into the saddle. My horse snorted and stamped, as eager as I was to be gone.
    “Wait!” Sven