Page 13 of Fate's Wicked Oath

As Lee and Shae began swapping rumors about Mariana—“I heard the Lord sent her into the woods with no training or weapons,” “I heard he imprisoned her family, as further punishment,” “I heard the item she stole is still missing”—Faren shoved his hand in his pocket and dragged his thumb across the small carved fox figurine he kept on his person at all times. The wood was worn smooth. His sister Eva had whittled it out of birch and given it to him before he left home to join Fenrir’s Mighty. It was a common practice among touch magicians to carry an object of comfort—a stone, a scrap of fabric, a piece of leather—and over the years, the little fox had become his constant companion. A connection to home. He wasn’t proud of the habit, but it soothed him. Grounded him.

“What did she steal?” Warner asked, cutting through Lee and Shae’s rapid conversation.

“No one knows,” Lee replied. “But I’m sure there would be a handsome reward for finding it.”

Faren’s mind began to stir. Gaining Mariana’s trust was unlikely, but as Oderin had pointed out, perhaps she’d let something slip during their travels. If he uncovered what she’d stolen—if helocatedit—he’d be sure to seize the promotion he sought. “Why have I never heard of this incident?” Faren asked.

“Publicly admitting that an eleven-year-old farm girl stole something of value from Castle Might would’ve been too humiliating,” Shae said. “Only a few Mighty Knights were entrusted with the investigation.”

Warner bit off another hunk of bread. “A farm girl got into Castle Might, slipped past countless guards, and stole somethingfrom the Lord for…what? For fun? Sounds like a story a criminal would invent for clout.”

Faren frowned thoughtfully. Warner had a point.

But Shae shook her head. “My aunt was a Mighty Knight at the time and was on duty the day Mariana was caught and tried. Apparently, Mariana’s father had taken her along for a public visitation with the Lord. No one knows her motive, but it happened. They cornered her with questioning, managed to prove that she knew more than what she ought about the castle’s hidden passageways, and then they forced her to take the Oath.”

Faren pictured a young Mariana kneeling before the Lord, reciting the binding words of her Order. Squires handing her an adult-sized breastplate, a sword. Even for such a bold theft, the sentence seemed cruel.Barbaric. Faren shuddered to think of the things Mariana must’ve experienced after that. The danger and brutality. A vulnerable young girl among monsters.

When it came to Mariana,pitywas a new emotion for Faren. One he didn’t want to examine.

He thought of all the ways she’d irritated him and disrespected the realm he loved and served, and his irritation flared like a fire once more. “You say all this as if to warn me, but I’m not afraid of her,” Faren stated. “The most I’ve felt toward her is annoyance.”

“You sure you haven’t felt anythingelse?” Warner asked, bouncing his eyebrows.

Lee threw another chunk of bread at him.

Faren balked. “What do you mean by that?”

“Sheisyour type.” When Warner saw the confused glower on Faren’s face, he added, “Complicated.”

Warner must’ve been referring to the adept Faren had courted for a while, a brilliant expert in arcane language who was, admittedly, a poor communicator in relationships; or perhaps the Knight of the Order of the Invisible—a literal spy—that Faren had been seeing up until she broke things off last winter. Muchas Faren hated to admit it,complicatedwas not an inaccurate descriptor for the women he was attracted to. A more generous word would becompelling.

Still, Faren waved him off. “You’re too deep in your cups.”

Warner laughed like he’d been kidding, but the suggestion of any attraction toward Mariana troubled Faren. Strong, intelligent women had an allure, sure, but Faren required his paramours to have a moral compass.

Shae snapped her fingers, bringing the men’s attention back to the matter at hand. Her glare at Warner had him sinking lower in his chair. “Mypoint,” she said at length, turning to Faren, “is that you should watch your back.”

Faren spread his arms wide, giving his friends a confident grin. “Already part of my plan.”

After sharing a worried glance with Lee, Shae lowered her voice again. “Trauma shapes a person,” she said. “What sort of shape do you think Mariana’s experiences carved her into?”

A weapon, he thought grimly.

6

Memory

Mariana

There was a monster in the clearing.

It was a thing of nightmares; a thing that, at nineteen, I already knew by heart. Ten feet tall, with twisted antlers and long claws and a sunken stomach beneath ribs jutting through pale gray skin. Unnatural. Evil. Cursed.

We had been tracking the creature for nearly two weeks, killing the diseased animals it had left in its wake: a wolf with spider-like legs coming out of its inflated torso, a stag with red eyes and clawed feet, a raccoon with black venom dripping from elongated teeth. Weapons glowed with bright blue flame in the blackness of night; bonfires turned the evidence to ash.

Tonight was the culmination of this hunt, the final kill before a well-earned respite.

The other knights were taking their places on opposite ends of the clearing, surrounding the abomination so we could catch it by surprise. I glanced at Grinnick, crouched beside me in the underbrush. When he caught me staring, he smiled, and theexpression warmed me from the inside. He dragged finger down my arm, the firm contact blazing a path of fire.