us. You don’t want to see my mother murdered, or me. That is the end point of this path.”
Hotspur held her jaw clenched, tongue pressed to the roof of her mouth. Pressure ached behind her eyes and her stomach twisted. It was too late, and she too full of honey wine and dancing and a storm of feelings.
“I won’t stop trying to convince you, your husbands, and Queen Solas not to invade.” Hal said it with such simplicity that Hotspur believed her.
Banna Mora said, “You can charm Solas, but I know what is mine, and what I can take.” She held up her hand, palm inward, to display the Blood and the Sea.
Hal’s expression tightened, but she shook her head. “It is not so simple a game, the Aremore throne. It is not only about strength and taking.”
“You know so much about it?” Hotspur cried. “You are never there.”
She heard it: her personal pain, the betrayal she’d felt when she’d needed Hal beside her in the council room and instead Hal had been partying with prostitutes and drunkards.
Hotspur gasped, eyes widening, recalling that the shadow man who’d arrived here with Hal had been at the Quick Sunrise on Halfsies Day. She’d brought one of her whores—only, no: Hal did not fuck men. He was something else.
Hal said, carefully calm, “I am doing what I must, Hotspur. I wanted you to be part of my story, but you forced me to change course.”
“You only need a story because you think yourself is not good enough!” Hotspur pulled her legs up onto the chair and hugged her knees like a child. Better for putting more barriers between herself and Hal.
“Do you know what it means to be a king in Aremoria? It means waiting for your friends to cut off your head!”
“I would have protected you,” Hotspur whispered hotly. “If you’d been better.”
“You’re the one who left me, Hotspur.”
Banna Mora pushed herself to her feet with both hands firm on the arms of the chair. She stepped to Hotspur and took the empty clay cup. At the table she lifted the wine, pouring more for both Hal and Hotspur. “This is what I wanted over with, before we settle in for the winter.”
Hotspur did not accept the new wine. She glared at Mora, wanting to complain that Mora was supposed to be on her side, not pitting them against each other.
But Hal sipped her wine, studying Hotspur. “I’m sorry, Hotspur. I miss you, and I miss both of you, and I don’t want any of us in opposition. That is why I came. To bring us together into neighbors, into friends again. I want to revel in the winter with you, and this place with its wild magic, and in—in your marriages, because I do want you to be happy, and all of us prospering! That’s all I’ve ever wanted. Happiness. If I can’t have it, you should, at least.”
“It’s not so easy,” Hotspur muttered.
“You’re the one who makes your own star prophecy, Hotspur,” Mora said dryly. It was impossible to read her gaze. Mora glanced at Hal. “Tell us about the wizard.”
“Huh?” Hotspur said.
But Hal offered the ghost of a smile and said, “He crawled out of the witch tree at Tenne-Tiras.”
Hotspur leapt to her feet, pitched forward, but caught herself on the edge of the table. “Have you kissed him yet?” she gasped.
Hal wrinkled her pretty, adorable, kissable nose. “He’s old enough to be my father. My great-great-grandfather, actually,” she added with a laugh.
Hotspur needed very badly to go to sleep. She sank down onto her chair again.
“Why is he with you?” asked Mora.
“He’s been with me ever since the tree. It was the full moon—the one before the equinox. I was at Tenne-Tiras with Nova and Ianta, to see if I could get those earth saints to …” Hal grimaced. “To give me a new prophecy.”
Mora snorted with what seemed like genuine amusement. Hotspur did not think it was funny. “And did they?”
“No, but they sent the wizard to me. I am not the first lion prince he has known, either.”
Hotspur watched the gentle motion of Hal’s lips. Without better fortification, she was not going to survive this long winter. “I only want to make Aremoria strong,” she said abruptly.
Both Hal and Mora swiveled their heads to stare in surprise.
“I’m the Wolf of Aremoria, and no matter how you both want to change me, take away what I am, you can’t. You can’t make me choose between you, and