The Dragonless Wife Is A Royal Heiress

a Robbi

first babe is wedged

mercilessly on the cre

, obstructed labor that had dragged on for fourteen agonizing hours in the freezing dark of

ntraction shattered my spine. "The messenger... did he reach the High Terrace? Kraig swore

hree hours ago, girl. Do you know what he told the courier? 'Lady Karissa has a delicate constitution and the royal feast must not be disturbed by the hysteric

ing through my womb. Kraig was there. He knew I w

tearing was absolute. A wet, strangled cry echoed off the damp limestone as the first infant slipped i

gust. "A boy and a girl. Not a single spark of draconic heat

dropped the tiny, shivering bundles into

sickly green light across the room-the ward for

nto my starved lungs, heavy steel-shod f

a blast of winter draft and a tall man w

ersonal aide and captain

silk-lined cloak tight around his thro

ntly as cold well water splashed over

cratic. "He is seated at the Duke's high table beside Lady Karis

red. "These are his childr

se these pathetic, manipulative dramatics at once. Sudden labor during the ope

oak and tossed a greasy l

hins with a dull thud. Common

cell. And do not dare show your face near the upper terrace. If you bring shame upon th

slammed shut, the latch falling into

bstone. It was not support; it wa

cot. The cold floor bit into my bare soles. Biting my lip un

ing shade of blue under the damp rags. Pressing her freezing cheek

spered. "Your

to the dark, into the cold, into a room where no one had been waiting for her. Let he

n the thin fabric of my shift. I turned my face into his war

-heart. You were turned wrong inside me, and still you fough

ver call you n

llables stopped shaking on my tongue-until they b

a.

rs of Black

pilling over my eyelashes, burning like acid as they rolled down my cheeks

ough, wrapping my own tattered wool s

red in sweat and grim

single scrap of rough parchment and a stub of

charcoal in

wrote out a formal declarati

evering of the Dragon Oath and the absolute dissolution of all bonds tying me and my c

the parch

melt the ceremonial red wax, no n

against the fiber of the paper, lea