Free Blinding Beauty by Brittany Fichter Page B

sure how you managed it, but it seemed to me that
somehow, you helped her to feel the appropriate emotions that
should have shamed her after she said such dreadful things. Your
power surfaced because you knew they were lying.” He gathered her
in his arms once more, wishing he could smooth the lines of pain
from her face with just the touch of his hands in the same way he’d
banished her headache. “You knew the Fortress had chosen you, that
this is your rightful place.”
    “ Then why do I feel so wretched?”
Isa’s voice broke once more.
    “ I don’t know,” Ever whispered,
wishing desperately that he knew what to do. Scheming kings, he
could handle. Battles, he could fight. But this helpless feeling
that filled him, the inability to fix whatever had broken inside of
his wife was far beyond his ability or understanding.
    “ Can you sing to me?” Isa asked
pitifully. Ever gave a small sigh of relief and thanked the Maker.
That, he could do.
    And so, as he gently laid her head
back down on the pillow and pulled the covers over her once more,
Ever began to sing, and he didn’t stop until her breaths were deep
and even, and a serene smile lay on her lips.

CHAPTER NINE
    Sleeping
Stables

    “ This is
where you’ll be staying.” The stable master pointed at a bottom
bunk in the corner of the already overflowing stable. Launce
quickly thanked him and dropped his bag onto the rough, narrow
mattress. Sitting upon it, though, revealed that it was stuffed
with very stiff hay, and one look up at the bunk above had Launce
praying the thin wooden slats holding his bunk partner wouldn’t
break during the night. “Breakfast at first light in front of the
stables,” the stable master grunted. “Better come as soon as the
bell is sounded. This bunch doesn’t leave much for the
tardy.”
    Just as the stable master turned
to go, Launce caught his sleeve once more. “When are the trials to
begin?”
    “ Day after tomorrow.” He looked
back at Launce’s small bag of belongings. “Have you got some armor
of your own? The king won’t be—”
    “ King Everard will be sending
some,” Launce assured him, hoping his brother-in-law had brought
something that would fit his thinner frame.
    “ Good. And mind you, King Rafael
doesn’t want the patrons of the contestants snooping around here.
That goes for King Everard, too.” Launce nodded once more that he
understood, although Launce’s very presence in the stables was, in
fact, Everard’s form of spying.
    When the stable master moved on,
Launce simply sat, watching the others warily. A number of the
contestants were still back in the ballroom, late as it was, so it
was surprising that so many men were still awake in the stables.
Exhaustion had him ready to sleep, but the torches within the
stables were still alight, so instead of laying down, Launce
studied his new surroundings.
    The stable, though nearly as large
as the Fortress dining hall, was already filled with men, and it
smelled just so. From the looks of those milling around, Launce
appeared to be on the younger end of the spectrum, and for that, he
pitied Princess Olivia. Isa had told him that her marriage to
Everard was somewhat unusual, that many of the male royals were
quite a bit older than their wives. And though King Rafael claimed
anyone was allowed to compete, it didn’t appear as though any
commoners were aware of this. Nearly everyone in the stable wore
velvet or silk with gold rings and silver buttons. His own clothes,
while hardly poor, were nothing as fine. Ever would not only have
provided nicer dressings, had he requested some, but would have
been overjoyed to make him look proper. But, Launce had told
himself and his sister, it was pointless to pretend to be something
you were not. You would only disappoint others when they found out
the truth.
    Had Blanchette been disappointed?
Had she thought his new connections would change him?
    He could see through the open
stable doors that a large number