That problem lies with Kajarin, not with me, I said. Find a new bride for Wroth if she’s so terrible. 

Auré sneered, and I became vaguely aware of everyone watching our silent, if vociferous, conversation. Bane was half out of his seat, as though to get between us, but he was frozen, watching our hands with rapt concentration. We were moving too fast for anyone unversed in the priests’ tongue to understand with any clarity.

As though pureblood women of your kind grow on trees, she said, snapping her movements out. Your people made that demand specifically to hinder us, hoping to return power to the humans, and now you’ve saddled our heroes with lying whores and weeping invalids. Now we must tiptoe around your lot, satisfying your lusts for more, more gold, more jewels, more men—while the fiends who sacrificed their lives for us are drained of all they were.

I stood up abruptly, my heart hammering against my breastbone. You make many assumptions. I’d think someone of your age and experience would know better. Do I seem like a whore to you? Has Bane drained his treasury to drape me with jewels? I think not. Am I weeping now? Am I lying in a tower, lost in poppy dreams? Try using your own eyes, Lady Auré. 

She stood as well, the two of us facing off with a dinner table between us, the vampire’s deep purple eyes flashing as they moved from my sapphire earrings to the golden hairpins. Yes, I’m sure a girl of your age and experience will be dazzled now, but one day you will wake up and see a fiend when you want a handsome human man. You will realize you have the highest title in the land, and desire the jewels to go with it. Once the newness wears off, you’re all the same. 

I couldn’t help but silently laugh. I had expected to fend off advances on my blood, not my character.

As always… my expectations had been wrong.

Look at you, calling me a ‘hostile’, as though you know me at all. As of this moment, the only hostility I feel is for you. I didn’t ask for this, but Ravenscry is my home now. You walked in here and immediately decided I was a threat to Bane—if you believe so, then tell him outright. Stop straddling the hedge and say what you mean. 

Auré’s lips flattened as I spoke, her own hands fisted.

But you won’t, will you? I added. You know there’s a chance you’re wrong. Even more, I think it upsets you that he no longer clings to your every word. So now you’ll use Kajarin as an excuse to take it out on me. 

Her eyes were blazing, fangs pressing into her lower lip. We’ve known each other for longer than you’ve been alive. We fought together. I’ve seen three of my oldest, closest friends die a slow death of the mind to the terrible women your people chose—I won’t allow all four of them to live in misery. 

I raised my hands, ready to respond in kind even as I longed to strangle her—but Bane stood, towering behind me, taking one of my hands in his. “Cirri. I think I’ve understood enough.”

Auré’s furious features went limpid as soon as she looked at Bane, and I bit down on my tongue, fighting the urge to bare my teeth at her—a sure invitation for a fight, according to the cultural lessons.

“Auré…” Bane took a breath. “Wroth. You are indeed two of my oldest friends, but my hospitality only extends so far. This is your last warning. Treat my wife with respect, or the Rift will be barred to you.”

Wroth, who had stared at the wall through our silent argument, let out a rusty chuckle.

Auré put a hand to her chest, as though pierced with an arrow. “Bane… I didn’t intend…”

“Come to bed, Cirri,” my husband murmured to me. “I want to speak with you alone.”

I didn’t look behind me as we left; I heard whispers between Wyn and Auré, and decided to leave well enough alone.

It had been a while since I felt alone in Ravenscry. The feeling was cold and unwelcome, and I wondered if I had embarrassed Bane with my behavior.

He led me to the Tower of Winter, and the feeling of icy fear didn’t leave me even as I stepped into the familiar room I woke up in every day. I wrapped my arms around myself, waiting for the chastisement, for Bane to tell me I’d committed an egregious misstep, and in front of people he’d known for longer than I’d been alive.

I was no lady, no noble, and this one argument had done more than anything else to prove that. In the servants’ quarters where I’d grown up, arguments were settled quickly, with harsh words and harsh blows, not with politesse and verbal daggers.

Only Auré’s vampiric nature had kept me from a quick slap. I was more likely to break my hand on her face than to cause her any harm, and at any rate… it was best that I hadn’t. Surely it would’ve just proved to Bane that I was of the lower classes, and not a Lady, but a sham of one.

The door closed and locked, and I took a deep breath.

“What was that?” he asked, his voice quiet. “You were speaking too quickly.”

I avoided his gaze to pull out my journal, opening it past the crease where I’d tucked his poem to the next new page, and stared at the blank expanse for a moment. How did I even begin to explain a childish argument without sounding ridiculous?

But when I put down my pen to write, the blunt question that gnawed at me spilled out: Who is Auré to you?

Bane sat beside me, and read the question silently, his eyes moving to mine. “Is that what this is? Jealousy?”

To my surprise, he chuckled, shaking his head.

It’s not funny to me, Bane. Is she a past lover of yours?

“No, my lady. No.” He mastered his expression, barely managing to wipe his incredulous smile away. “Auré is, and has always been, a sister to me. To all of us.”

Well, to hell with it. I’d already shown my hand, ugly jealousy and all.

Wyn said Auré was the one she would choose as your lover, I wrote. If we didn’t find our way. 

That was what fully killed Bane’s amusement. The smile, which had been on the verge of returning, became a stormy scowl. “Ah, fuck. I see why you’d think… but no, never. She genuinely is like a sister to me. Even if you and I had never met, that thought would never cross my mind. And as for Wyn… as you’ve noticed, she likes to be involved, whether she’s wanted or not. I love her, but that is a shortcoming, I won’t lie. Yes, she tried to make plans in the event that you preferred to be away from me, but as I told her then: no. While my vows are made, there will never be another, whether you love or loathe me—and Auré would never have been a consideration regardless.”

I licked my lips, feeling a little better. Perhaps he was lying, and there was a past… but if there was, it would clearly remain in the past. I trusted Bane enough to speak straight about his intentions.

She is very aggressive in her defense of you and your brothers, I finally wrote.

“I noticed.” Bane’s expression turned a little sour. “And as I said, you were speaking too quickly for me to read clearly. What did she say to you?”

By the Light… as much as I disliked the vampire woman, nothing good could come of repeating our argument.

“Cirri.” My husband’s tone was dangerously calm.

It’s resolved between us now. What does it matter?

“It matters to me. I’m asking now—don’t make me demand.” The growl in his voice had deepened, the reverberations tangible in my bones.

I sighed. She was concerned that I might be a whore or a gold digger. I was concerned she was too stupid to tell otherwise. We settled our concerns. The end.

Bane swiped a clawed hand across his face, torn between amusement and anger. “I will speak with her.”

No, I wrote. Neither Auré nor your brothers will ever respect me if I let you win my arguments. I have to prove to them myself that I’m not using you, or trying to harm you.