"Lady Nyrielle is waiting for you…"
The phrase instantly locked Jocelynn's heart in a prison of ice, and she felt her stomach plummet toward the snow-covered cobblestones beneath her feet. The moment she'd been anticipating had finally arrived, and she had no choice but to face it.
The courtyard quieted as Jocelynn made her way across a distance that felt both incredibly long and far too short. She kept her shoulders back, her spine straight, and held her head high, exactly as her mother had always taught her, but somehow this walk felt even more difficult than the long walk through the Lothian Great Hall on the night she'd nearly married Owain Lothian.
"Your Eternity," Jocelynn said when she reached a respectful distance away from Nyrielle as she dropped into a low curtsey. "I thank you for the gift of your time, and offer my blood in kind," she said, tilting her head ever so slightly to the side while keeping her eyes fixed firmly on the flagstones at Lady Nyrielle's feet.
