WAIT FOR LOVE (Lovemark #4)

Prologue-2

But he wasn’t, and as I crawled under the thick blankets and snuggled in, the knight-in-training’s words taunted me.

It’s time for you to grow up now.

I twisted to face the other way, trying to wish his playful heckling away. But no matter how I tossed or turned, his words stuck, swimming through my head with haunting persistence.

So finally, I flopped onto my back with a disgruntled huff and just glared up at the ceiling of the tent, where the flickering reflection of the campfire swirled lazily like dancing stars through the thick material.

Sparks crackled as I listened to Indigo feed more wood to the flames. Not that he needed to; it was already unbearably hot here in this canvas prison. Perspiration beaded my brow. I wiped it away with the sleeve of my nightgown and decided enough was enough.

“Indy?” I called.

“What now, Little Bug?” his muffled words replied with an impatient grumble.

I bit my lip before just giving in and asking, “Do you really think I’m uppity?”

When he chuckled at the question, I glowered in his general direction, hoping the sting of my irritation reached him through the fabric wall separating us.

But this was not something to be laughed about; I was being serious.

“Oh, Unity,” he murmured after he’d calmed down from his amusement. “I think you were pampered and spoiled from birth inside the most powerful palace in the Outer Realms by a man who would lay down his life to give you anything you desired, so you just don’t know any better.”

I blinked, not sure what that meant. Then, because he hadn’t retracted the hurtful word, and I desperately didn’t want it to be attributed to me, I argued, “But Olivander called Lady Beckett uppity once after she had a maid beaten for serving her a goblet with a fly floating in her ale. And she’s cruel and vicious and vain, while I am not.”

So, ha, I couldn’t be uppity.

“No, you are not cruel or vicious or vain,” Indigo agreed quietly. “You have a good, kind heart, my lady. You do.”

I blinked, confused by his admission. Turning onto my side to face the direction his voice was coming from, I wound my hair around my finger as I said, “Then why did you call me uppity?”

For a moment, he didn’t answer. I opened my mouth to ask again, sure he hadn’t heard me the first time, but then he finally said, “Because sometimes you treat the people who are ranked lower than you as if they are lower than you, and it can be a bit...off-putting.”

Now he had me confused. Because lower meant lower. Didn’t it? What else was it supposed to mean?

“I don’t understand.”

“Well, you’re only twelve,” he said kindly. “I didn’t really expect you to.”

“And you’re only eighteen,” I shot back, my dander lifted. “How does that make you such a wise and ancient philosopher?”

“Because I’ve seen the world outside your castle walls and met people from all walks of life. And I know that the true worth of someone does not come from the fact that they just so happen to be mated to a powerful prince.”

My lips parted in shock over the gall that he would dare say something so bold to me. “But I—I can’t help that my mark paired me with Olivander.”

“No,” Indigo told me gently. “And neither can the maid who washes your hair each night help that her mark did not pair her with him. Does that make you a better person inside your heart than she is?”

“I…” I blinked, not sure what he meant. But I answered, “Well, no. Of course not.”

Earlier, he’d watched in amusement as my maid had brushed and braided my hair for sleep. At the time, I had wondered why he’d looked so entertained by my instructions to her, and I’d had many since she wasn’t the usual maid who always tended to my nightly duties and thus had no idea how to do it right.

My stomach tightened in dread as I realized I’d done something wrong, though.

“Do you know why I accepted this role as your escort?” Indigo asked suddenly, making me jump.

I shook my head. “No.”

And I wasn’t so sure I wanted to know, but he went on anyway. “When Olivander interviewed me for the position to escort you to your fancy new academy, even though I’m still just in training, he treated me with respect, as if I were his peer. That’s when I knew he was a man of true worth and that I would be honored to serve him in any capacity. It had nothing to do with the fact that he was a prince.”

When my throat went painfully dry and my nose began to burn, I feared tears were close behind. And I didn’t want to cry. He’d hear how ashamed I was because he was right; Olivander did treat every person to cross his path with the same courtesy, from royal right down to peasant. That was why he was adored by all.

But I didn’t do that, did I?

So I blinked repeatedly up at the ceiling of my tent to fight off the tears.

Was this the kind of lesson he had thought I needed to be apart from him to learn? If so, then I would learn it; I would learn all the lessons. No matter how unpleasant it was already making me feel, I would do anything to become Ollie’s equal. To be a mate who deserved him.

I’d even learn how to brush my own hair.

Realizing these next few years were not going to be as easy as I had originally anticipated, I gave a hard swallow and whispered, “I’m not like Ollie, am I?”

Indigo chuckled yet again, but it sounded more like a fond sound than something demeaning.

“Not yet,” he told me with all honesty. “But I have every confidence that you’ll become as fair and gracious as your other half someday. A worthy mate. And that’s why I think it’s a good idea for you to attend the academy, too, apart from him. It’ll be good for you to experience something different, away from the pampering hand of your true love. You’ll grow and mature in ways you never would have otherwise.”

For some reason, I hoped he was right. Because it didn’t sound like he liked me all that much as I was now. And I wanted him to. I quite admired Indigo.

When he wasn’t being a bore, that was.

And besides, I wanted to become a woman who actually deserved to be the mate of Olivander Bjorn, Prince of High Cliff, second son to King Ignatius, and top scholar in the entire kingdom.

With a wistful sigh, I said, “I hope you’re right.”

“I am,” Indigo assured. “All will be well, my lady. Never fear.”

Nodding, I closed my eyes. Except sleep still didn’t come. I wasn’t sure I was up to this challenge. What if I never learned the lesson I was supposed to learn? What if I was doomed to be uppity forever?

After a time, I gave up on trying to rest, and I called, “Indigo?” hoping he could bore me into unconsciousness with one of his stories about his knight-in-training duties. But he didn’t answer.

Great. Now I had nothing to keep me distracted from thinking about the coming day and being apart from my—wait a second.

If Indigo was asleep, then he was no longer guarding that book thing of his.

Oh, this was too good to resist. Smiling devilishly to myself, I pushed back my covers and crawled to the opening of the tent. After carefully easing the flap aside, I poked my head into the night and found Indigo wrapped up in his bedroll, eyes closed and breathing deeply.

Perfect! I hurried through the doorway and scampered silently on bare feet to his pack of personal possessions.

Keeping one eye on him, I tugged on the cinch string keeping his satchel closed, and then I plunged my hand inside the gaped opening, grinning the moment my fingers met smooth leather.

Yes!

I pulled the book out and backed toward the log that Indigo and I had been sitting on earlier. Then, while watching my sleeping escort’s face to make sure I didn’t awaken him, I lowered myself onto the tree trunk until the book was perched on my lap.

I mean, if he didn’t want me to look inside, he really needed to place a leather-string lock bound around it to keep people out.

Maybe he’d learn that eventually. But for now…

Holding my breath, I opened the thick leather casing, only to exhale in a huff and frown out my disappointment.

Because what was this? It was just a bunch of writings.

So a book must merely be another version of a scroll, then. Ugh. How utterly unexciting was that? Like I cared what Indio wrote about in his personal journal.

I started to close the outer shell.

Except a certain name caught my attention, stalling me.

I blinked at the genealogy tree on the first leaflet of parchment, confused because it didn’t detail Indigo’s house. I knew he came from the Moast line, while this tree was for House Graykey.

Lips parting, I glanced toward Indigo and shook my head.

Why was he keeping a record of the tree for that family? Graykeys were nothing but bad news. They were cursed with a deadly bloodlust that drove them into going on killing sprees called reapings. Olivander had warned me to always run if I found myself in the presence of a Graykey.

How peculiar that Indigo was researching them of all people.

Lifting the top piece of parchment to reveal another sheet, I saw names and dates for more Graykeys. But this genealogy contained details.

Very explicit details.

Marvello of House Graykey - Born in 183 to Laylee and Lawton. Youngest of three. Brother: Merlin. Sister: Morgaine. Lawton saw great power in the infant Marvello, so he killed his wife (who was also his first cousin), Laylee, plus his two siblings (Larah and Larder), and more people bearing magic in order to let Marvello consume their powers. Thus came the 5th reaping.

In 212, Marvello and Morgaine started the 6th reaping by murdering their father, Lawton (pulled apart by dogs) and slitting the throats of their brother’s three children so they could gain the house’s power. Then the siblings married each other and—

“My God,” I gasped, covering my mouth with my hands and gaping at the words written before me. But this was simply barbaric.

Risking a glance toward Indigo to make sure I hadn’t woken him with my horror, I went back to reading, unable to stop there.

I mean, seriously. Who could stop there?

Then the siblings married each other and, in time, bore three children together (Novak, Norton, and Nestor).

In 215, Marvello and Morgaine lay siege to the Lowden castle in Gill, where they hanged King Freydo of House Gill in his bell tower, then beheaded the rest of the royal family, placing their heads on pikes outside the castle gates. After that, they promptly took control over the Kingdom of Lowden.

In 220, Morgaine gave birth to her third child, Nestor, prompting her brother Merlin to sneak into the castle in an attempt to murder her, along with the king and their children, and gain his revenge for the murder of his own progeny years before. This sparked the 7th reaping. But Merlin’s plans were not met with success. King Marvello foiled his plot and slew Merlin instead.

In his bloodlust, Marvello next gutted his wife-sister, Morgaine, and used her entrails to choke her the rest of the way to death.

Gagging, I clutched my stomach and gaped at the words before me. But seriously, I had no idea such monstrous people even existed. This was worse than awful.