Princess Willowyn's Arc

Chapter 42 of 70

Willowyn left the courtyard with Kai after King Aurelius named her friend. Kit ran ahead through the halls, calling questions over his shoulder. Willowyn watched the boy and thought of home. Her mother carried a son now, a brother she had not yet met. Kit's noise filled the empty place that ache had left. She reached her chamber and stepped inside alone. She opened the trunk at the foot of the bed. Her own silver gown lay folded there, the one she had worn from her mother's keep. She traded the borrowed blue for it. The shimmering cloth felt right against her skin. She pulled the pins from her hair and let it fall loose down her back, dark red against the silver. She sat and breathed. For a moment she was herself again, not a guest in someone else's castle. A knock came. Kai stepped in and sat across from her. His dark cloak hung loose, his curls pushed back. "You changed," he said. "I wanted my own gown," Willowyn said. "I have worn other people's kindness for days." Kai smiled. "You wear it well either way." He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "My father meant what he said. His ear is yours. That is more than he gives most." "I know," she said. "I crossed an ocean hoping for one open door. Now a whole family stands behind me." She looked at him. "I came here to bind kingdoms. I did not think it would start in your home." "It starts where you are," Kai said. They talked as the light moved across the floor. He told her of Kit's months away, of the aunt's kingdom, of the pine roads he once rode as a boy. Willowyn told him of her mother's wedding and the child to come. The tight caution between them since her arrival melted into something easy. Another knock struck the door, harder. Willowyn stood. King Aurelius filled the doorway, still in his hunting purple. In his arms he held a small striped shape. "Son," the king said, "I bring you a gift." He crossed the room and held out the bundle. A tiger cub blinked up at them, no larger than a lapdog. "She is a young cub and needs someone to tend her. I found her in the hills today. Her mother was hunted down. I saved the cub and rode home with her." Kai took the cub carefully. It squirmed and pressed its small head to his chest. Willowyn reached out and touched the soft fur. The cub caught her finger in its paws. "She has lost her mother," Willowyn said quietly. She thought of the minx Kai had once given her, of every orphaned thing she had gathered on this road. "We will tend her together." Kai looked at her over the cub's head. In that moment the chamber held not two travelers, but the start of a household. Willowyn felt her dream take root in this small, breathing thing.