Erica Moonwhisper's Arc

Chapter 3 of 7

A week after the cherry tree, Prince Valor sent a red panda across her border again. This time the note held no war and no marriage terms. It asked her to visit a waterfall on the edge of his land, to meet his sister. Erica's council warned her against crossing into his territory. She went anyway. She had a plan. A gentle prince made a poor shield for peace. Before she signed her name to any union, she needed to see if strength hid under his tame smile. So she carried a hidden test. The falls fell in soft steps down flat gray stones. Mist hung in the air and glowed faintly. Valor waited on a stone below, sprawled like a house cat in the sun. Beside him stood a woman who did not sprawl at all. "My sister," Valor said. "Zera." Zera was a black panther, sleek and still, her pink nose the only soft thing about her. Her eyes moved once around the clearing, marking each gap in the rocks, then settled on Erica. She had counted her exits before she said hello. "Princess," Zera said. Nothing more. Erica set her test in motion. She spoke of the war, then let her hand drift toward the dagger she had hidden in her sleeve. Not to strike. To see who moved. A tame man would flinch and freeze. She wanted to watch the prince's blood. But Valor did not move first. Zera did. She crossed the stones before Erica's fingers closed on the hilt. One black hand caught Erica's wrist and pinned it flat. The other held a thin blade at Erica's throat, drawn from nowhere. It happened in a breath. "Slowly," Zera said. Then the pixie came. A small winged thing darted from the mist, drawn by the flash of steel. It carried a tiny bow. It loosed an arrow before anyone swatted it away. The arrow struck Erica in the chest and burst into pink light. Erica's heart lurched. The dagger fell from her hand. She was not looking at the pixie, or at Valor, or at the falls. She was looking at Zera. At the sharp gold eyes still fixed on her. At the pink nose a hand's width from her own. Her breath caught. Warmth flooded her, sudden and wrong and impossible to fight. Zera released her wrist and stepped back. She saw Erica's face change. She read it exactly. "That was not for you," Zera said, and looked away. Erica stood shaking on the wet stone. She had her answer, but not the one she came for. The prince was soft. His sister was not. The teeth that could hold a kingdom together lived in Zera, not Valor. And Erica, who had come to weigh a marriage, could no longer look at the sister without her chest going tight. She had tested for strength. She had found it. Now she could not stop wanting it.