A Look Like a Shiny Coin — Isolde Thorne & the Fate-Mark She Can't Hide | Romantasy Collection

A Look Like a Shiny Coin

Isolde swallows the last of the bitter wine in her cup and smiles at her tablemates. "I fear I am bone weary this evening. I hope it will not offend you if I excuse myself to lay down in my chamber."

The guests on either side nod, gracious as ever, and she waits for the servant boy to pull her chair back from the table. She rises with practiced ease, the picture of composure — the mark on her wrist hidden beneath her sleeve, exactly where it has been all night.

But something catches her attention as she turns from the table.

A servant girl, watching her. Not the polite, downcast glance expected of the household staff — something sharper. Something that lingers a half-second too long, the way one looks at a coin left carelessly out in the open.

Isolde gives her a cutting glance in return, and the girl's eyes drop properly, as etiquette demands. But the damage is done. Isolde is left unsettled, turning the moment over as she walks.

Did that girl see something?

What could have possibly emboldened her to look so directly in the first place — unless she'd caught a glimpse of what Isolde has spent weeks concealing?

It's more urgent now than ever that she find someone — anyone — who can tell her what this mark truly means, and what she's meant to do about it, before her father finds out. The king is not known for mercy, even toward his own daughter. And more than one maiden has met the pyre for far less than a mark no one can explain.

Isolde keeps her eyes fixed forward, avoiding conversation, and walks quickly down the long flagstone hallway — up the stairs, toward the fragile safety of her bedchamber.

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Isolde's world is only just beginning to unravel. Follow her story — and find the printables inspired by it — in the Romantasy Collection.

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