Book 2: In a Haze

Candace

Seven months after Anwen left to become Alpha King of Sundrop, I struggle to focus on the embroidery in my lap as the carriage bounces along a rutted road.

“She was here for a week!” Ingrid laughs. “You can’t be that excited to see her again.”

I stick out my tongue at my younger sister. “How do you know I’m not excited to see Anwen and Estrella again?”

“Because you’ve been up in the rook, sending letters back and forth with Lady Eva every fucking week?” Finn replies.

Ingrid and I both flinch at his profanity. That feels sillier and sillier, the more time passes since Kieran took the throne. It was Mother’s rule—fine ladies do not swear, nor do they endure swearing. But it’s an old habit that’s dying harder than I hoped.

“We’re friends,” I mumble. “It’s not my fault you didn’t meet anyone when all the delegates were here.”

Finn scoffs, but there’s nothing he can say to that. He didn’t meet anyone. And Ingrid, as usual