Chapter 1

My family was the most famous line of witches at the royal court.

My sister, Lilith Seyler, was famous for her lofty principles. I was the only one who knew she was a complete fraud.

When the royal marriage decree arrived at House Seyler, she shut herself in her prayer room out in the woods and refused to come out. "Duke Edmund, your wealth and your power are dust to me. A proposal from a duke is no different than a proposal from a farmhand."

Then she laid out three conditions for Duke Edmund.

The Duke was to build a prayer room on his estate, since she needed quiet meditation and practice with the elements to keep her magic stable.

Before the wedding, the Duke was to wash in mountain spring water, burn dragon's-breath incense for three straight days, and abstain from meat and strong liquor so he could come to her purified.

And the Duke was to agree not to share her bed for three years, both to protect the source of her magic and to keep her perfectly focused and clear-headed for her studies.

Duke Edmund Ashbourne gave a furious laugh. "I think I have come to the wrong place. Is this House Seyler or a convent?

"If no one accepts this decree today, House Seyler is defying the King, and every last one of you will answer for it!"

My father, Alistair Seyler, dropped to his knees in terror and begged Edmund for mercy.

But no matter how my father and my stepmother, Cordelia Seyler, pleaded, my sister would not bend. She would take the decree only if the Duke agreed to her terms. "Duke Edmund, everything that happens in time and space is already decided. Two people with no destiny between them are meant to pass each other by. Why force me to say yes?"

The Duke turned to leave in a rage, ready to bring the King's punishment down on House Seyler.

I huddled in the corner, took a deep breath, rushed forward, and dropped to my knees. "I am Rowena Seyler, the second daughter of House Seyler. I will accept the decree in my sister's place!"

Chapter 1

The moment my sister named her three conditions, Edmund's face changed.

The elders around us went so still they hardly dared breathe.

Put kindly, Lilith was staying true to herself, refusing to let the crown grind the witch out of her.

Put plainly, she was defying royal authority and humiliating Edmund to his face.

Edmund scoffed, his question carrying the weight of a threat. "No destiny? Force?

"Whatever the crown bestows is a gift, whether it is fire or dew. So House Seyler means to defy the King!"

With the charge of rebellion hanging over him, my father knocked his forehead against the floor three times in a row. "Lilith grew up running wild in the forest, my lord. She speaks without thinking. She never meant to defy anyone. Please forgive her."

Edmund's voice went cold. "You say she did not mean it, and yet she will not take the decree at any price.

"I think House Seyler has had rebellion in mind for a long time. That is why your daughter dares to leave a royal decree standing outside her door.

"Lilith. I will ask you once. Do you take this decree, or not?"

Lilith pushed open the door of the prayer room and leaned against the vines.

Her fresh green dress set off a cool, still face with a witch's sly edge to it.

Her voice was perfectly steady, and her eyes said the crown meant nothing to her. "Duke Edmund, I have already explained what I ask.

"Agree to my three conditions and keep them, prove to God what I mean to you, and I will marry you.

"Otherwise I would rather spend my whole life in the prayer room studying magic. Even if I die in there, I will not go against God's will by accepting this decree."

Edmund laughed softly, and his voice came out cold as frost. "God's will?

"Before you worry about dying of old age in that prayer room, see whether House Seyler survives the night!"

Everyone kneeling on the floor trembled, terrified that a blade would slit their throats at any moment.

Cordelia begged Lilith through her tears, "Sweetheart, I know you have never cared for worldly things, I know all you want is your magic, but think of the rest of us!"

My father was soaked in a cold sweat, pinching his beard, unable to stop shaking. "Lilith, I am begging you. Just accept it for now."

Lilith held her chin high. She did not kneel, and she did not speak.

Edmund's eyes darkened, something lethal stirring in them.

Every heart in that hall was pounding.

Only Lilith clung to her lofty pose, to that cold disdain for the world.

I did not understand why she had to hold out, or why she would stake every life in the House on it.

All I knew was that I did not want to die.

For my mother, Mira Vale, who lay sick in the farthest attic of the estate waiting for me to bring her medicine, I could not die.

I ran forward and dropped to my knees in front of Edmund, shaking though I forced myself to look calm. "If Duke Edmund permits it, I will accept the decree in my sister's place."

The hall fell completely silent.

Edmund looked at me, and some of the anger went out of him. "Who are you?"

I kept my eyes down. Cordelia answered for me, "This is the younger daughter of the house, Rowena. She is a bastard."

She bit down hard on that last word, as though afraid Edmund might miss it.

Lilith finally stepped out from the doorway and looked at me with pity all over her face. "Why would you do this?

"Marriage is decided by God. Even if Duke Edmund and I are not meant for each other, I cannot let you be sacrificed and swallow this bitter fruit for me."

Edmund shot Lilith an irritated glance. "Sacrificed?

"I had no idea House Seyler thought of a royal marriage decree that way."

Chapter 2

My father flinched hard. "Lilith, hold your tongue!"

I turned to Lilith, my voice clear. "I don't believe in any of that, Lilith. You don't have to feel guilty."

Lilith's eyes flickered. She let out a long sigh. "Rowena, none of this has anything to do with you. Whatever comes of it, I will carry it myself.

"You have your own destiny. How could I push you out in front of me to save myself?"

I looked back at her. "If you really believe destiny decides everything, why are you stopping me?

"I have already decided to take the decree for you, which only proves it was meant to happen. So there is nothing for you to feel guilty about."

Lilith had not expected that answer, and she froze for a moment.

Instead, Edmund's gaze settled on me. "Your sister calls this decree a bitter fruit. You still want to take it?"

I turned to face him, my eyes steady. "A bitter fruit is still fruit.

"I learned young that out in the hills, fruit is what fills your stomach, and a full stomach is what keeps you alive.

"Bitter or sweet, it makes no difference, as long as it keeps me alive."

When I finished, the room went silent again.

Edmund studied me for a long moment, then let out a quiet laugh. "So House Seyler does know how to raise a daughter after all.

"This marriage will need further discussion."

Edmund took the marriage decree with him and rode back to the royal capital.

It was the first time in living memory that a royal marriage decree had left the capital and gone straight back again.

All of House Seyler waited with their hearts in their throats. Only when night fell with no further word from the capital did anyone breathe again.

Up in the attic I fed Mira the medicine I had just boiled, and she watched me with aching eyes. "Rowena, you should not have stepped forward today.

"If the Duke had lost his temper and called for punishment, how could someone as powerless as you have survived?"

I blew on the medicine, still too hot, and held it to her lips. "Mama, if the Duke had called for punishment, all of House Seyler together could not have borne it.

"I don't want my life sitting in Lilith's hands. I want to find my own way out."

Mira opened her mouth to say something, and then quick footsteps came up the attic boards.

Lilith stepped into the room and pinched her nose against the old, rotting smell of it. "No one comes up here, Rowena, but you should still keep it clean.

"A person of quiet, simple tastes keeps herself neat even in a hut in the woods."

I set the bowl down on the table and looked at her steadily. "Of course this place cannot compare to your rooms. We cannot afford dragon's-breath incense brought from the southern reaches, resin so rare that a single drop takes ten years to form."

Never mind incense for magic. Not even ordinary incense ever made it up to my mother's attic.

I had never talked back to Lilith so boldly, and her brows drew together before she could stop them. "Rowena, you never used to be like this.

"Do you really think that because you showed your face to Duke Edmund today and offered to take the decree for me, you will actually get what you want?

"God decides what a person is given. Some things are pressed on me whether I want them or not, and no one else can take them away.

"God decided you would be born to your mother and branded a bastard. Nothing will ever change that."

Her whole face said there was nothing to be done about it. "You are to be pitied, really. From birth, the rules of this world have kept you shut inside this house. You ought to cultivate yourself beside me instead, untouched by money and never grasping after rank."

I did not follow.

What she was really saying was that a royal marriage decree does not change easily, and that she had already prepared herself to become a duchess.

And yet that same day she had humiliated the Duke in front of everyone, sworn she would die before taking the decree, and gambled every life in House Seyler for the sake of her own reputation.

Her words and her actions contradicted each other, and still not one person saw through her. They all praised her for caring nothing about fame or fortune. "If you truly cared nothing for money, you would not insist on dragon's-breath incense that costs ten gold ingots for barely one-thirtieth of an ounce."

I looked at her, completely serious. "If your heart is really in your magic, why does it matter whether the smoke is dragon's-breath or anything else?"

Chapter 3

She said she cared nothing for gold and silver, yet nothing but the finest incense would do.

She said she never courted the great houses, yet she was at their banquets constantly.

Her compassion, her kindness, all of it was hollow. She could not let go of fame, wealth, or power.

Lilith was stunned, but a moment later she recovered her usual composure. "Rowena, your magic was unstable when you were small, and you only ever got so much of the ration you needed to practice. But you would rather faint in the middle of practice than let that lame fox go hungry, and you fed her every bit of it. And now look at you."

That was not how it happened at all. "You were being generous with someone else's food. I was just the poor wretch who went hungry for three days because a wild fox stole my rations."

The year I turned eight, the servants could not be bothered to carry my daily ration up, and simply dumped it at the foot of the attic stairs.

A wild fox out of the hills stole it and ate it all, and when I fought her for it so I would not starve, she clawed me badly.

Lilith walked past and gave us one cool glance. "The poor lame thing only wants a mouthful of food. Surely you don't need to fight her for scraps she needs to live?"

She delivered the line like a saint and swept away.

But the servants took it to heart. They praised Lady Lilith's kind soul and fed my ration to the fox for three days running.

Lilith had long forgotten it. In her mind it was too small a thing to be worth remembering.

She frowned at me. "Don't tell me you actually want to marry Duke Edmund."

I did not answer that directly. "I just don't want all of House Seyler buried alongside your lofty principles."

An angry voice cut in from the doorway. "A lowborn bastard like you dares dream of taking your sister's place as duchess!"

Cordelia swept in as though the room belonged to her, and spared Mira and me a single contemptuous look.

Mira tried to get out of bed to curtsy, and Cordelia waved her off in disgust. "Don't trouble yourself, you sickly thing. If you stop breathing on my account, people will say I mistreated you."

Mira went stiff. Her hand stopped on the blanket, and she gave Cordelia a strained, placating smile.

Cordelia glared at me and let out a cold snort. "Don't imagine that because you made a scene today you will be marrying the Duke in your sister's place.

"A bastard is all you will ever be. Even what your sister rejects is still beyond your reach."

I looked at her calmly. "That is a strange thing to say, Mother. Lilith does not want it, and no one else is allowed to want it either?"

Cordelia's eyes cut into me. "You dare talk back? It's not that no one else is allowed. You simply aren't worthy!"

With that she took Lilith by the hand and turned to go. "Come home with me, Lilith. The palace has sent you an emerald tiara. Duke Edmund must have cooled down. He has agreed to your terms and means to marry you."

Something pleased flickered at the back of Lilith's eyes, but she let Cordelia pull her along with a put-upon look on her face. "Mother, you know I have never cared about jewels. There is no need to rush..."

I let out a long breath.

It seemed exhausting, living the way she did.

She wanted things, rejected them from on high, and then waited for someone to press them into her hands so she could accept them reluctantly.

What the palace had sent, and how the Duke felt about any of it, did not concern me.

As long as House Seyler was safe and Mira was well, that was enough.

The next day another party arrived from the palace.

It was Vance Holloway, the King's most trusted steward.

He brought two chests of jewels and fine cloth as gifts, along with a royal etiquette tutor.

My father and Cordelia went out to receive him personally. I never laid eyes on him.

Vance took a seat in the front hall, did not so much as touch his tea, and spoke with his chin lifted. "His Grace went to the King himself to ask for these gifts for the young lady of House Seyler. Have them sent up to her shortly, my lord."

My father, delighted, agreed at once, then asked carefully, "About yesterday... has the King held it against us?"

Vance gave him a sidelong look. "His Grace spoke at length on House Seyler's behalf before the King. You should count yourself fortunate to have raised such a fine daughter, my lord.

"Otherwise, defying a royal marriage decree is a crime that takes down an entire house."

Chapter 4

My father wiped the sweat from his brow and said nothing more.

Cordelia smoothed it over with a smile. "The steward is quite right. Our girl is spoiled, I admit it, but His Grace is generous enough to give her another chance.

"Every soul in House Seyler is grateful."

Vance snorted and waved the royal etiquette tutor forward. "This is Beatrice Beckel of the Queen's household, another favor His Grace requested personally. She has come to teach the young lady of House Seyler the manners of the court."

Once Vance had gone, Cordelia excitedly ordered the servants to take the gifts and Beatrice to Lilith's rooms.

Pleased as my father was, he hesitated. "The steward never actually said the gifts were for Lilith. What if..."

Something in him kept insisting that the good daughter Vance had spoken of was not the girl who had defied a royal decree the day before.

Cordelia glared at him. "If they are not for Lilith, who else would they be for? Rowena?

"My lord, has the fright addled you? He is a duke. He is never going to make a bastard girl his wife."

My father thought it over, decided she was right, and nodded gravely. "You are right. Lilith is well known among the noble houses. The Duke would never look twice at a girl like Rowena.

"Do as you said. Send all of it to Lilith."

Two days later the decree came again.

This time Vance carried it himself, showing how seriously the crown took the matter.

It was also a warning to House Seyler: Edmund's protection had spared them after their first refusal.

If they humiliated the crown a second time, they could expect no mercy from the King.

Perhaps because I had rushed forward last time, my father simply kept me out of sight.

Lilith, for her part, did not hide in her prayer room this time. She stood at Cordelia's side with a long-suffering look on her face.

Vance was about to read the decree aloud when Lilith cut in, "Have you come today carrying the King's marriage decree?"

His hands paused on the unrolling scroll, and his brows went up. "Of course."

Lilith gave a helpless sigh. "Since it is a gift from the crown, House Seyler has no grounds to refuse it.

"It is only that I have no wish to be shut away in a nobleman's household, which is why I set three conditions for Duke Edmund that day. Has His Grace agreed to them?"

That stopped Vance cold.

He remembered Edmund telling the King that his future duchess was resolute, neither servile nor arrogant, and one of the few clever minds in House Seyler.

But he had never mentioned any three conditions.

Seeing him frown and hesitate, Lilith sighed again. "It seems His Grace is not sincere about marrying me after all.

"Never mind. The steward has come in person, so I can hardly refuse.

"I only ask that you send word to His Grace for me. Lilith has no appetite for scheming and jealousy in a great man's house.

"If His Grace will build one prayer room on his estate where I may work my magic and read the omens each day, then Lilith will accept this decree gladly and marry Duke Edmund."

The words had barely left her mouth when Edmund's voice came from the doorway. "Send word to whom? I am standing right here."

Every head turned, and there was Edmund walking in, unhurried, perfectly composed.

Vance visibly relaxed at the sight of him. "Your Grace, Lady Lilith says the two of you agreed on three conditions. Might I ask... what three conditions?"

Something delighted flashed through Lilith's eyes, though her face stayed serene. "Your Grace, all three conditions can be dropped. Just promise to build me a prayer room."

She looked wounded, as though she had made an enormous concession.

Even my father and Cordelia assumed Edmund would agree.

It was only a prayer room, after all. Edmund could have it built with a single order.

Edmund took a deliberate step back, putting distance between them, and scoffed. "Who are you? I only agree to conditions set by my future duchess."