A handmaiden tugged at her hair. Skylar bit her lip against the pain.

  "I think we'll have it up tonight," her mother said from across the room, where she was inspecting a row of shoes. "It will make you look older. Wiser."

  Skylar said nothing. She watched as her mother gave orders, and the handmaidens worked around her. She hated how she was being turned into someone she was not.

  She remembered the day the rules had arrived at the castle. A giant chest bound with deep green ribbon, the wolf sigil of House Everus pressed into wax. Inside, scroll after scroll detailing her new duties, with clear instructions on how Skylar would have to behave as their future Ladyship.

  "Her Ladyship must speak softly and choose her words wisely."

  "She must stand and walk with grace."

  "She must be educated in etiquette and eat and drink less than expected."

  Skylar had barely read through one scroll before giving up. She'd returned the scroll to the chest, closed it, and hadn't opened it since.

  Her mother was trying to prove that Skylar could shoulder all these rules, or at least look like she could. She claimed that with enough practice and preparation, Skylar could become the Ladyship that Xoras demanded.

  But Skylar knew the truth. She knew that if she followed every single rule, there would be no time left for her. There would be no time left to live. Everything would be impossible!

  There would be no time for even the small things, like a stroll through a garden, or eating a peach with juice running down her chin. She would not be able to explore every nook of a castle, discover hidden doors and secret rooms. She would not be able to leave the castle for festivals, or horse-riding or shop at the markets. She would be watched at every moment, to be judged and found wanting. Skylar could already feel her unwanted life breathing down her neck.

  And then there was the marriage itself. What Skylar dreaded the most, what she believed was far worse than hundreds of rules and a lack of freedom was marrying a man she did not love.

  Any meaning Skylar had placed in the possibility of love, or of an honourable marriage, had been destroyed. The right to choose who she'd marry was taken from her, and soon, she'd be bound to a man who was no more than a stranger. Her heart, her future, had been traded like coin, and she was the only one who would have to pay.

  "Skylar."

  Her mother's hand caught her chin and turned her face forward. Dark eyes met dark eyes.

  "You are not listening. You are awfully distracted this evening."

  Skylar's jaw tightened, but something in her mother's eyes took her by surprise. A flash of worry, perhaps, but it felt out of place on that perfect face. Surely, it was concern without warmth, a glimpse into her mother's belief that Skylar would ruin everything if left to her own devices.

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  Saira parted her lips to speak, but Skylar interrupted; she wanted to show her mother that she would not be silenced.

  "I see no point in any of this." The words left her more harshly than she'd intended. "All those hours spent reading about our House, about the legends that share our blood and country. Not once did I think I would share the same fate as those poor women who have been completely abandoned by history. Do you truly expect me to share their fate?" Skylar pulled her chin free. "This is not the life I want or deserve. I will not marry, him, Mother. I just won't."

  Silence filled the room. The handmaidens twitched nervously as they always did whenever mother and daughter confronted each other. Even Vera, who had answered her questions this morning with such calm, looked startled.

  Saira took a slow, deep breath. Skylar waited for her mother to speak; a small part of her hoped for a miracle.

  "You always allow yourself to get carried away and distracted by what you want." Saira's voice was controlled but there was a sharpness to it. "You might not believe me, but I do understand how you feel, Skylar."

  Skylar blinked. Her mother breathed out again, and this time, it was short and quick. She was trying to let go of her frustration, but it continued to cling onto her, threatening to break Saira's composure.

  "Before I married your father, I could never have imagined leaving Zayran. I lived in the sky. It was always cold, the winds were always strong, and the people, stronger." Her mother's eyes drifted, seeing something Skylar couldn't. "Those mountains were my home. I was Saira of House Hariya. But I had a duty, to my family, my people and to myself."

  Her mother's voice grew softer and fonder. Skylar found herself unable to look away. Every word stripped back the layers of time and duty that her mother had sewed into herself over the years, revealing a woman who still had her whole life ahead of her.

  "Now, I am Ladyship of Astros. I have a good life. My own responsibilities. I have a daughter who thinks I stand against her." With each word, the softness hardened, and her mother returned to how Skylar knew her best.

  "Your father has not made this decision lightly, and it hurts me to see that you are still not speaking to him. Your stubbornness is unbecoming, Skylar. It is unacceptable. It will not do!"

  Saira's voice was controlled again, as though she was showing Skylar how to behave, how to control her emotions, and how to keep her desires within. She was always poised and elegant, and Skylar, through the guilt and the hurt, wondered if her mother had ever been allowed to be anything else.

  "Skylar…"

  There was a momentary pause. Her lips parted, closed, and then parted again. Whatever Saira wanted to say next, needed to be thought over, made appropriate, which was something a good Lady always did.

  "You will always be a Velcourt. You will always be our…my…" her mother stopped. She finished her sentence with a deep sigh and a shake of her head. She waved to the handmaidens to keep working; it made Skylar feel cold.

  "We are wasting time talking! You should be getting ready for the ball this evening. Lord Caspian will be in attendance and he has requested to call on you before—

  "What?!"

  "Skylar, you really must stop interrupting me. I am your mother and—

  "Mother!"

  Skylar held Saira by her elbows. and her panicked voice rang through her chambers. Her voice came out high and thin, nothing like the defiant girl of moments ago.

  "Just now… You said that… surely not?!"

  Saira sighed. Gently, she freed herself, then took Skylar by the arms and guided her to her dressing table. Skylar went without any resistance. She had no strength to move away. She sat still when her mother picked up the brush and began to work through her red, fiery hair. Long, slow strokes from childhood.

  "Lord Caspian of House Everus, Lord of Xoras and the Northern Lands beyond, your betrothed, will be in attendance at tonight's ball," Saira said quietly. Skylar thought her mother sounded slightly excited, but perhaps she was simply hearing things. " It has been some time since you've seen one another, and so he has, very kindly, requested to call on you before the festivities begin."

  Saira smiled. Their dark eyes met in their reflections. "His letter spoke of how pleased he will be to meet you after all these years..."